Help!!! My water is Black and liner looks black & burned

[Gwendolyn]

Yes - I think you are right about the staining. Can you point me to where I can find out more about why copper sulfate is bad just so I can read more about it?

We took a sample to the store the yesterday and they said everything was good. When he called them today after coming home to the black/gray pool he asked the store what the copper reading was and they told him they didn't test the copper. I don't understand why they didn't test that! I know he put some type of algecide and shock in it last night before the drastic change. Before that it just had some dark spots on the liner, but was not completely black/gray.

What should we scrub the pool with? Will it clean the liner or will it always stay stained? Is there some place I can find out the best fix?

I really need some detailed advice, since our pool store was clueless. I promise he is going to listen now!! beleive me!!

[waterbear]

oxidized copper (the black and grey staining you see) is one of the hardest ones to get rid of. I am not sure it can be done safely in a vinyl pool without destroying the liner! (I assume you have a vinyl pool because you said you have plastic wedding cake steps) I would contact Jack's Magic www.jacksmagic.com
for advice on what to do. I wouls also STOP adding the copper sulfate, find a store that does test for copper (and if it's over 1 ppm DO NOT GO IN THE WATER!) or get a copper test kit (not strips) from Taylor or LaMotte and test it yourself.

In any case I wouldstart draining and refilling the pool to get the copper levels down.

You can try ascorbic acid to see if it will help but I don't think it will (hold a vitamin c tab on the stain and see if it goes away, if it does you might be able to use ascorbic acid to remove the staining but this usually does not work on oxidzed copper stains)

YOu might have to replace the liner and the steps.

Even in a plaster pool the process to remove this type of staining can take weeks to complete (or the pool is acid washed in really bad cases)