Can't figure out why my water is green

[PoolDoc]

OK. The colors in your tank verify that you've got iron pipes feeding water your way. I looked up your registration address.

Here's what I'm guessing:

1. You've got some old iron or steel pipes between you and the water plant that serves you.

2. These pipes have nodular or tubercular corrosion like this:



3. Something happened to disturb or break some (or a lot) of the nodules. Common causes include a fire (fire hydrant use), seasonal 'flushing' operations, water main repair or replacement, etc.

4. Nodule collapse released a lot of biologically chelated iron into the downstream water, and in this case, that included your pool.

Now assuming that I'm right so far, there are 2 possibilities:

1. This was a 1x problem (a big fire, for example) OR
2. It's an ongoing problem (utility service)

Either way, you should be able to confirm whether I'm right in my guess or not, by doing the metal bucket test: http://pool9.net/bucket-metal/ . BUT collect your test sample from the POOL, not your fill water. The reason is, your fill water may, or may not, still have the problem. If you get a positive test on the pool, you'll need to followup with a test on the tap water, to see if the problem is continuing.

Use a full 5 or 6 gallon bucket that is COMPLETELY clean and white. There's probably not much iron in your water, even if I'm right, so a 'positive' result will show up as only a few traces of iron oxide (red rust) particles on the bucket bottom.

.