Help a newbie?

[GlenKlein]

ok... I'm a little frustrated. Maybe for no reason?

It's now been 24 hours since adding the Metal Magic and my water is still greenish (or yellow with the blue'ish liner).

A couple of things I've noticed that may clue someone in:

We have dogwood trees - with the cotton things flying everywhere lately. In the bottom of my skimmer basket are the cotton things - but they are orange.

It reminds me of the rust stains in our sink/toilet if I let the salt pellets run low in our water softener. We use the "rust removal" type pellets in our water softener and the stains go away - the "rust" stains are the identical color of the dogwood cottons in the bottom of my skimmer.

Is there a correlation here?

Am I being impatient and expecting results from the Metal Magic too soon?

Thanks...

[GlenKlein]

New numbers -


5/30/06 - Chlorine/Bromine test = ORANGE (off the chart - the chart ended at yellow - my color was almost like a peach orange)
6/3/06 - Chlorine = 1 (a few days ago it was off the chart - see above)

5/30/06 - Alkalinity = 330ppm total alklinity as calcium carbonate
pH = 7.5
6/3/06 - Alkalinity = 300ppm

5/30/06 - Hardness = my water didn't turn red as the test said it should.
6/3/06 - this time the water did turn red - so Evan, you were probably right. The high chlorine was messing with the hardness test.

5/30/06 - CYA = 30ppm - the solution never got cloudy enough to hide the black dot.
6/3/06 - still the same as above.

I think the metal magic may be working btw. It is a little clearer this morning - not quite so green (see post right above this one for orange stuff comments).

I followed the directions on the bottle of the metal magic. 16oz for 5000 gallons... I'm wondering if I can go ahead and dump the remaining 16oz. and hopefully clear it up even more?

Also my Chlorine level really went down in a matter of a few days - so maybe it is an algae thing afterall?

[CarlD]

New numbers -
...
Also my Chlorine level really went down in a matter of a few days - so maybe it is an algae thing afterall?

Sounds like it--or some other organic. Evan's advice is pretty good--but the trees are news. You need to run your chlorine up to 15ppm--with the distilled water method mixed 2parts distilled to 1 part pool the WalMart test will reach 15ppm. Use 4 1/2 to 5 quarts of Ultra bleach (6%) to raise it there. Or use 5 1/2 to 6 quarts of regular (5.25) bleach. Either is fine. Test the water 2x-3x/day and raise chlorine back to 15 when it drops (anything from 12 to 15 should be OK, but below that, add).

It may take a few days to get results.

[GlenKlein]

Thanks Carl,

I added more dichlor - Evan said I should wait until my CYA is 50ppm, and then switch to bleach? I will check the Chlorine a little later again.

Also note: I just pulled my filter, and as you might've guessed - it too was pumpkin orange. I just rinsed it out under hot water and it cleaned right up - no problem.

[CarlD]

You need to raise CYA a little, but anywhere between 30 and 50 is fine. I actually like 40ppm. At that point you stop using di-chlor and switch to bleach. You can, however, follow Evan's advice with confidence--I'd stop sooner than 50ppm but that's me.