Iron in water source

[PoolDoc]

It's algae.

It *might* be algae PLUS iron. But it is algae.

1. Make sure your filter is working and your pump is on 24/7

2. Run a full set of K2006 tests (FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA) and post results.

3. Begin raising your chlorine level, 5% every 12 hours.

For example, if your CYA is 40 ppm and your FC is 2 ppm, you are currently at a 5% level. Take it up to 10% (4 ppm), then 12 hours later to 15% (6ppm), etc. Stop at 25% if you don't see a color change.

[stcohen]

Just tested
FC 4.0
CC 0.4
pH 7.4
TA 60
CH 170
CYA 30
Guess I need the specific order of things at this point. Shock? Use cal-hypo or Cl with CYA? Correct TA? Filter on 24/7 since opened

[stcohen]

will go with bleach until told otherwise

[BigDave]

I agree with PoolDoc. That's algae.
It seems like you can put a lot of chlorine in the water with those cal-hypo tabs. I'd use them and bleach to get the FC to 10-15 and keep it there until the green turns blue.

[PoolDoc]

What he said . . .

[CarlD]

As I've gone back and read this thread two things pop out at me:
1) Ben said bring pH down to 7.0 yet BD and FBU kept insisting it should be between 7.8 and 8.0 so it precipitates. Yet I thought the point of the cal-hypo was to get the dissolved metal to stick to the calcium and be captured in the filter. I'm confused by this.
2) It's no surprise that when you use large amounts of Polyquat your FC drops like a stone. A quart in a roughly 20k pool will drop FC from shock levels to very low levels, 1-2ppm in 48 hours. It's always something to be aware of.

BTW, that's the "ugly" green of algae, not the "pretty" green of metals.

Ben, Lisa recently found the old thread of a couple who invented a filter gadget that does the same thing as the auxiliary Intex pool....a filter system of lots of quilting batting that sucked the metal right up! I THINK it was using a five gallon bucket with a lid, a submersible pump and some hose.

[BigDave]

@CarlD: I'm pretty sure that dropping the pH is for starting the metal removal process and get and precipitated metals into solution. Next step is holding them in solution with HEDP. Then remove metals with CuLater or using cal-hypo in the skimmer to encourage metals to come out on the filter by creating a high chlorine / high pH zone before he filter.