Huge amounts of copper in the pool

[PoolDoc]

If Sequa-Sol is still SHMB, you *could* end up with very high phosphate levels, which could make your pool very 'twitchy' with respect to algae, turning green very quickly the first time you neglect chlorine levels a little.

Can you post K2006 levels for CYA, Alk and Hardness?

What I'm thinking is, if you keep your calcium high and your pH low, while using the SequaSol, you could possibly extract the copper on the calcium, and extract the phosphates with the calcium.

[haule]

Thank you very much PoolDoc!

Here are my test results:
FC: 4.5ppm
PH: ~7
TA: 100ppm
CH: 800ppm
CYA: 100ppm
CC: 0

I was stupidly following my pool dealer advice and was raising CH for no reason. Now is very very high.
The testing at the second pool store indicated a high level of phosphate, just as you predicted. I do not remember the exact number.
The pool is now quite clear (a bit milky but definitely swimmable). No problem with algae yet.

I will appreciate any advice.

[haule]

It seems you have some very nice trick to fix my pool water!

Maybe copper is really binding to CalciumPhosphate and since my DE filter is really good, I can filter out CaP in 48 hours.

What I do not understand yet, is your sentence "....to extract the phosphates with the calcium". How should I fix phosphate level now that the Cu level is dropping. I have a long way to go, but maybe I can survive with 1ppm of Cu and low PH?

Thanks!

[PoolDoc]

When you add the sodium hexametaphosphate, the bits that cloud the water are calcium phosphate, which gets filter back out. So you add PO4 in the SHMP, cloud the pool with CaHPO4, using H+ and Ca++ from the pool, and leaving the Na+ behind, then in the filter you attach Cu+ to the CaHPO3, possibly as CuCl2, and backwash it away.

So some of the phosphates you add as SHMP may end up leaving as a calcium phosphate + copper dust.

I'd recommend taking care of the copper first. Once the copper is to an acceptable level, you'll probably need to do a lime-softening run to lower your calcium somewhat. That will likely remove some phosphate, too. If you can aluminum sulfate available, you can remove more, using that. Once you've gotten the copper gone, the calcium to a manageable level, and then reduced the excess alkalinity, you can check and see if the REMAINING phosphate is at a level of concern.

[haule]

Thank you Doc!

I checked today with two different pool shops the level of phosphates and the level of copper. I do not have my own tests for that.

Both shops measured something around 100-200ppm of phosphates, and 2.4ppm of copper. It seems that the last 4 lb of sequestrant (super Sequa-Sol) did not reduce Cu level, but it was just adding phosphates. It could be that heater is adding copper at the moment, because I did not bypass the heater yet. I will fix that over the weekend and report.

As you suggested, lime-softening can be done with Ca(OH)2, but what form should I buy? Which substance can one buy to soften the water? Thanks!

I was very intrigued by the hardness test today at the pool shop. Most of their measurements agree with my own, except hardness test, which they got 108ppm (as opposed to mine 800ppm), and they suggested to add more Hardness control!!! I will recheck the hardness once more tomorrow.

[PoolDoc]

Probably the shops measured 100 - 200 ppb, not ppm. If I'm correct, that's nothing to be concerned about at present.

You can do lime softening with soda ash (NaOH). This explains it: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?16992

If you get your pH above 7.2, and keep trichlor out of the skimmer, your heater will not continue to erode.