Green hue in clear water...

[waterbear]

Some things jumping out at me here:
1. green tint to clear water
2. floating endpoint on CH test (stayng purple and never turning blue)

both of these can be indicative of metal in the water BUT are NOT conclusive.

Is your filberglass pool white or blue colored?
Did you get a new CYA view tube? It is an important test with a SWCG and with the aquarite you want the CYA at 80 pp
Vinegar is not what you should be cleaning the salt cell will. Aquarite cells should be cleaned with a 4:1 dilution of water to muriatic acid (1 cup of acid addied to 1 quart of water in a plastic bucket).

With a salt system you eventually want to get the TA down to about 70 ppm. It will slow the eventual pH rise. Higher TA will speed it up so do not put in the baking soda! You want to use an uncorrected TA reading and get the TA down to 70 ppm and a CYA at 80 ppm/ Keep the salt cell adjusted ot maintan a 4 ppm FC once you get all the bugs worked out.

[Sparkle]

Forgot...as per your email, I'm going to get borax. Can my husband add salt while I add borax?
Also, do I wait a certain length of time between half boxes and test pH before adding more...I assume this is the case, but how long do I wait for an accurate reading?

Guess my target is 7.4.

Thanks again!! :-)

[PoolDoc]

My apologies -- but I accidentally delete your 2nd post -- I was trying to merge it. Very sorry.

+ You can add borax and salt at the same time.
+ Wait at least 2 hours after adding borax, before testing pH.
+ 7.4 is OK for now.

Did you notice Waterbear's question, about metals in your pool water?
1. Have you added any metals -- algaecides, skimmer pills, ?
2. Do you have a heater? What kind?
3. Do you have an 'ionizer', Nature2, Frog, or anything similar?
4. Where did the water in your pool come from - well, city, tank truck?

[Sparkle]

Pool store had my husband put in algicide as soon as we took off the cover. I have no idea what kind. He just did what he was told and threw out the bottle and he doesn't remember. Probably the same kind they had us put in last year...no issues last year??

Pool is darker blue finish...not white.

I asked the pool store about testing for metals and they said they did and it's fine. However, the print-out showed cooper and iron as "not run"???

Yes on skimmer pill...same kind as last year with no issues. You do mean the thing that helps prevent water loss from evaporation, right?

No heater, no ionizer, water comes from city, some of original water also came from spring...long story, but pool companies idea to speed up install. We didn't have any trouble then, nor last year, which was our first full season. Any water added since then and the majority of ariginal water is city water.

I did get the new tube and my CYA reading was the same as pool store at 55 ppm. This was yesterday and I suppose it's possible that it's gone up a bit more...had expected it to increase to 70 with the amount I added (added second 4 lbs on Wednesday).

Had trouble finding 2 boxes of Borax, but finally found a second box. We will be working on the pool for the rest of the day now that we are back home!

Thanks again for all of your help! Should I wait the same 2 hours to test the salt again or should I be more patient with this stuff?

======================================

The ideal ppm for FC in the aqua rite book is 1.0-3.0. Is there a reason you suggest keeping it at 4.0?

I'm trying to learn and absorb everything each of you is teaching me and it helps when I understand the reasons behind your logic. I've been passing info on the my husband, but he doesn't really want to know how it works. He just wants it fixed...lol

[PoolDoc]

+ The fact that you didn't have problems, doesn't mean you don't have metals -- you can have metals, and not have problems. Problems results from metals AND other conditions, which will eventually occur, but not necessarily right away.

+ There are different kinds of skimmer pills; tell me EXACTLY what your is called.

+ Yeah, if you aren't in a city where there are already a lot of folks using the BBB method, Walmart's stocking computer doesn't know to ramp up supply in spring! That is one of the benefits of buying at Walmart -- their inventory management system is one of the wonders of the world, and if you buy borax there regularly, their stock will begin to reflect it. (If you can persuade friends with pools to do the same, even better!)

+ The Best Guess page explains quite a bit about why, and about the relationship between CYA and chlorine levels. If you want to know more, follow the other links in my signature, as well. I usually don't suggest that to people new to the forum -- they can find it sort of overwhelming; it's easier to get used to, gradually. If you REALLY want to dig into, take a look at the China Shop section!

[Sparkle]

It's a yellow ball called SolarPill.

Also, I have some of this "No Mor Muriatic Acid" powder that the pool store finally sold me. Supposedly, it's "great for salt water systems!". Anyway, I'm out of muriatic acid right now and wondered if I can dissolve it to try one more soak of our salt cell. The instructions say 2.5 lbs = 1 gal of muriatic acid. If this will work, I think I can use 1 lb as an equivalency to 0.4 gals of muriatic acid and add at least 1.6 gals of water to the bucket. Won't try unless you guys give me the go-ahead. Again, the pool store suggested I use this product, but that was at the same time they said to use vinegar. When I asked how much to use, I was told, "Oh, one or two capfuls will be fine in a 5 gal bucket." I can't find any logic in that math.

What are your thoughts?

[Sparkle]

Got a metal test and requested numbers before test was prformed. The store said their test doesn't produce numbers, but that if it turns blue it's not good and pink is okay. Both copper and iron were pink and the guy said there are no metals in the water.

[PoolDoc]

Remove your salt cells and look at them; flush them with plain water if necessary. Check and see if there is ACTUALLY any scale on them. Don't clean them, if there's not. If there is, ignore your dealer, get the mfg manual and follow THEIR instructions.

Pool store testing for metals is not reliable; we pretty much ignore it.

[waterbear]

You have a dark blue pool and the water was a clear green hue. Iron tints the water yellow and against a blue background will make the water look green. What kind of salt have you put in the pool. Some 'pool salts' are actually food grade salt and contain an iron anti-caking compound and will add iron to your pool. Solar salt is your best bet and less expensive.

No Mor Muriatic Acid is simply the brand of sodium bisulfate or dry acid sold by United Chemical . It is nothing special and the same as any other dry acid. It is the WORST thing you can use in a salt system because it forms sulfuric acid when dissolved in water which produce sulfates and sulfates are not good for salt cells!
Do not use vinegar or dry acid to clean your cell (your pool store is giving you very bad advice!), you use a 4:1 mix of water to muriatic acid as explained in the AquaRite manual on page 8,which I will quote:
Mild Acid Washing: Use only in severe cases where flushing and scraping will not
remove the majority of deposits. To acid wash, turn off power to Aqua Rite. Remove
cell from piping. In a clean plastic container, mix a 4:1 solution of water to muriatic acid
(one gallon of water to one quart of muriatic acid). ALWAYS ADD ACID TO WATER -
NEVER ADD WATER TO ACID. Be sure to wear rubber gloves and appropriate eye
protection. The level of the solution in the container should just reach the top of the
cell so that the wire harness compartment is NOT submerged. It may be helpful to coil
the wiring before immersing the cell. The cell should soak for a few minutes and then
rinse with a high pressure garden hose. If any deposits are still visible, repeat soaking
and rinsing. Replace cell and inspect again periodically.

What are your thoughts?

That your pool store does NOT know what they are talking about!

[Sparkle]

Latest update...

Added 40 lbs of salt Saturday, because I determined that amount should push the system reading to the high end of acceptable, but get the salt "stick" tester into the acceptable range as well.

At the same time, I added 1/2 box of Borax. Tested a pH a few hours later and added second 1/2 of box. Also added a littel water as the level was getting a bit low.

A few hours later, I checked the system reading for salt. It said 3500. Ran the system on 60% until dark. With a basic chlorine test the level seemd to be rising, but still not acceptable. Basic chlorine test early Sun morning before the pump kicked back on was hardly detectible. I let the pump kick on and run for a couple hours, then checked the system reading again (3400 ppm--no idea why the difference). Basic chlorine test registered about 0.5. During all of this, pH was holding steady at 7.4.

I decided to remove the cell one more time and inspect....Still didn't see any visible signs of build up...Pressure washed it with garden hose into a 5 gal bucket...A few tiny bits of debrise washed into the bucket (looked like tiny aunts). It seemed as thought the additional salt had made a difference becasue the chlorine level was increasing slowly. Even though it wears on the cell, I needed to determine if all of this had made a difference (remember the pool store had me run at 100% aand we never even made it into the acceptable range for FC), so I set the system on super-chlorinate. We only did the one time the previous year (as per pool store instructions after a large swimmer load including a couple clean dogs), but will try to never do it again. Early this morning, with super chlorinate still running, our basic test is showing right at 2 ppm!!! I'm going to let it finish it's 24 hours and retest. At least the cell seems to finally be working.

The salt "stick" test went from 2640 to 3330 24 hours after adding the 40 lbs of Aqua Salt. pH this morning looks to be 7.5. This afternoon, I plan to try to reset the system readings to see if the numbers will line up a bit closer to the "stick." With the current jump in the reading over night, our system has our level as high as it will accept it.

Current test readings for recap and those I didn't mention...
pH 7.5
salt "Stick" 3330 System has jumped from 3500 to 3400 to 3600???
TA 80 turned clear, but 90 to get fully red
CYA 65

I'm going to get 2 more lbs of CYA today. 2.64 ilbs should put me exactly at 80, so 2 lbs will certainly be safe. I feel safe in this because by my original calculations, 7.04 lbs would have taken me to 60 and 10.56 lbs would have taken me to 80 (using my nearest estimate of gallons in my pool---22,000). I've added a total of 8 lbs and we are at 65 ppm, so I feel good about 2 lbs not pushing me over.

If any of this sound wrong or sets off alarm bells for you, please let me know! I'm trying to catch on as quickly as possible, but I could easily make a mistake!! The pool store will try to talk me out of the additional CYA. Im also going to return the baking soda!!

I'll have to let you know about the hue this evening. I'll have my husband get in with a mask to let me know if any of the cloudy look under water has dissipated. Last year, you could film under water and not appear to be under water because it was so clear. I'm sure with all of your help, I can get there again!!

Thanks for restoring hope and removing a great deal of frustration!! :-)