New pool new problems -- algae and iron!

[Watermom]

Water turning green when chlorine is added usually means there are metals in the water. Did you ever add that copper algaecide that you said you had earlier in the thread? (If not, don't!)

[rebber4]

Well dang. Thats what I've spent soooo much money trying to get rid of. I didnt add the copper stuff. I did add some poly stuff( from pool store) no copper Sunday night and some mustard algae stuff Saturday. The water turned back bluish a few minutes after It had turned.

[Watermom]

What was the mustard algae stuff?

[rebber4]

Im not sure because I threw the bottle away. It was store branded mustard algae treatment. I put in 3 lbs of calcium hypo last nght. waited 1 hr and put in 242oz of 8% bleach and added 11 pucks to chlorinator and skimmer. This morning my pool it very green. Test results 7 am today FC=1, tc=1.5, cc=.5, ph 7.2, alk=120, calc 220, cya <30. also i can tell that the liner is turning brown again, presumably the same staining that i have been fighting for 5 weeks, and it wont brush off. If it will help I can walk thru everystep, procedure, and chemical i have used along with what i was told st the pool store and post the test results from pool store throughout this grueling process.

[rebber4]

Every night this week i have put in 5 pounds of calc hypo 78% and 2 gallons of bleach 8% and have 0 chlorine in the morning. This morning at 8 am i put in 2 more gallons of bleach waited 30 minutes and tested and had fc of 1.5. at 10:30 am chlorine is 0 again. I have put in box after box of borax this week and ph will not rise above 7.2 and is usually back down to 7.0 every morning. The water is mostly clear just a little cloudy. Do i keep doing this until something changes or do i need to do something different?
.

[Watermom]

Are you still using the K2005 kit to test the chlorine? The chlorine test in that kit is a DPD test and it bleaches out at high levels. So, it can appear that you have no chlorine when in fact you have extremely high chlorine! That is why I suggested that you get the K1515 add on kit so you can use a FAS-DPD test instead which will measure high chlorine levels. Did you get it yet? If not, then you are better off for now using an OTO kit instead of your K2005, along with this chart:> http://pool9.net/oto-chart/

Also, pH tests are invalid when the chlorine is higher than 10ppm with a Taylor kit (and higher than 5 with other kits).

[BigDave]

...I threw the bottle away. It was store branded mustard algae treatment...

It's also possible that the mustard algae treatment is causing the chlorine demand. Watermom's right, an OTO test will give definitive result for high or no chlorine.

[PoolDoc]

Man, you've got a mess!

OK. You've got iron in the water. No idea how it got there, but it's there. Stain remover would have done NOTHING to algae; the fact that it make a positive -- if temporary -- difference pretty much is proof positive. But if it weren't, the clear to green transition on shocking is also a strong indicator of iron.

But, it sounds like you've got algae, too.

And, thanks to the pool store, you've got a giant witch's brew of unknown chemicals with unknown effects floating around in there.

=> Don't use any more stain remover for now. Stain remover TEMPORARILY re-dissolves the metal, but it doesn't permanently do anything, and it certainly doesn't remove the metals from your pool; it just MOVES them from the surfaces back into the water.

=> But stain removers ALSO consume chlorine, to the point that, if stain remover is present, chlorine is not. And, once you restore chlorine levels, all the stain remover is destroyed!

=> This creates a nasty see-saw for someone in your situation: killing algae tends to make the iron in the water come out as stains. But 'removing' the stains destroys the chlorine . . . and you lose any progress you've made against the algae!

I don't know what options you have, at this point. But here's what I'd recommend:

1. Maintain your pH to just barely below 7.0, to minimize staining.

2. If you have remaining algae, pull out your cover, and get your pool partially covered, to slow down algae growth.

3. Go to the pool store and find out EXACTLY what was in that mustard treatment. They are either ammonia based or bromine based. If they don't know, get them to open a bottle, and smell it. If it smells of ammonia, the question is answered. If not, you don't know since the ammonia products will NOT always have an odor. If necessary, buy another bottle, so we can test it and find out what's in it.

4. See if you can get some polyquat: http://pool9.net/polyquat/ Using it will help you control algae without making the stains worse. Do NOT use copper, which will just add MORE stains.

5. See if you can get any idea why you have iron in the pool. You need to find out if this was a one time problem, or recurrent one. Possible sources (in order of likelihood) are:
+ well water (especially if you have a water softener)
+ old iron city pipes (can intermittently release iron)
+ tanker truck pool fill.
+ low grade salt used with a salt water chlorine system.
+ low grade stabilizer (cyanuric acid)
+ ??

Good luck -- membership upgraded.