RE: In-Ground, DE Filter Pool With Clear Green Water

[barbjack]

My Husband went to get more liquid chlorine (he got 6 total) and while he was there picked up a 5-way kit because I just was not trusting the kit I had. Turns out my suspicions were right and we got rather differnent readings.
Looks like the chlorine reading was fairly accurate but the pH was not,

with the new 5-way kit (not the Taylor kit that's still in transit)
Free Chlorine-0.6
Combined Chlorine-0.6
pH-6.8
Total Alkylinity-120

We added one more gallon of 10% Chlorine and an hour later it was
1.0, both FC and CC.
the other two readings the same.

We added 1 more gallon chlorine (that's 3 gallons total today) and are closing the cover and will test again in the morning.
I have 1/3 a box of borax left, I guess I should get some more tomorrow.
So what now?
Thanks again.

[PoolDoc]

Keep chlorinating and report the K2006 readings when you get them.

[barbjack]

Water temperature is 85*F

We've been adding an average of 1 or 2 gallons of 10% liquid Chlorine almost everyday for the last week and have just kept it between 0.6 and 1.0 give or take. The cloudyness has cleared up and the green color has paled quite a bit but it's still rather green.

Also added 32 oz. of Polyquat in two doses, three days apart.

The yellow-green algae (I think it's algae, it puffs up like dust when we brush it, makes the water cloudy for about an hour before it's filtered out) that has been on the sides has lessened too, to about a few patches here and there the next day after adding chlorine and brushing. There is some spider web like staining on the sides in addition to the brown iron stains on the steps.

Where would I take the water to have it tested for metals, iron and copper?

Even though the green is less, it's still about the color of slightly diluted Mountain Dew or Gatorade. That's the best color match I can think of.

What next?

[PoolDoc]

As best we can tell, metals testing used on pool water is NOT reliable.

One problem is that is that various pool products contain chemicals that can 'shield' soluble iron or copper from being measure. A second problem is that the tests only detect solubles, and simply the process of collecting a water sample, and carrying it to the store can change soluble metals to insolubles. When I used to collect water samples on a potable system, the sample used for metal testing had to be 'pre-charged' with acid and also had to be filled to eliminate ALL air space in the sample bottle.

The metals bucket test is intended to 'break' any 'shielding', drop ALL the metals present to the bottom, and give a reliable qualitative indications of metals present, rather than the quantitative, but unreliable results from various test kits.

[barbjack]

Interesting, so for the lay person, metal testing is unreliable to the point of being useless? So do we just assume because my pool water had been on the acid side and I have mostly copper pipes, I probably have some copper?

To my knowledge, I haven't used any pool products that contain copper. I checked our chlorine pucks and they do not have copper.

I also looks like I left off the first part of my post with my test results. I tend to type in a document and then cut and past so I don't lose stuff if a posting goes wrong. So here it is again;

We recived the Taylor 2006A test kit today. Here's the results;

FC- 1.2 ppm
CC- 0.2

pH- 7.0

TA- 120 ppm
CH- 875 ppm

CYA- 90 ppm

[Watermom]

Just use the 10mL sample instead of the 25mL one as it will save on your reagents.

[barbjack]

Just added the last two gallons of 10% chlorine and 1/3 box of borax tonight after the sun was off the pool. FC was just about zero before the addition. We added 2 gallons last night too and only got it up to 1.2ppm. This a.m. it was pretty much gone.

The water is clear but still Gatorade green, although a little lighter shade. Still have the spider-web like staining on the sides. Could algae be collecting in fine cracks in the plaster? Could this be mustard algae? I've been reading about it, hope we don't have it. And of course, still have the brown iron stains on the stairs. Except for the two white spots where I placed two halves of a vitamin C tablet.

I'm getting pretty frustrated here. My husband seems to think 1-2 gallons of 10% chlorine a day should be enough and is skeptical that we need more. With a CYA level of 90ppm we should be running 5-10ppm chlorine levels at a minimum for manintenence and it looks like we need at least 20-75 for shock levels I think. I have no idea how many gallons that would be for either level. Do we just keep dumping in gallon after gallon until it regesters 20+ppm? And how many would that be? 5 gallons, 10, 20? I want to have the right amount on hand but what is that amount?
Is there a calulator somewhere or a formula that we could plug in our pool gallons + CYA level+ ppm needed? I'm not that good at math, but if I have a formula and a calculator I could probably figure it out. Or is it just add until it's enough, and hold it there for a few days? I guess I want to know how many gallons to have on hand. I don't want to keep running to the store every other day.
My drop dead date of September 1st is fast approching and I've lost a week just waiting for the test kit.

With our CYA levels at 90ppm we would need to keep our Chlorine levels at least to 5ppm for everyday maintenence let alone shock levels. Is there any other method to reduce CYA other than dilution of the pool water? If we dumped 20% of the water would that bring it down to 70%? That wouold be a more manageable level of chlorine to me.

Anyway I'm getting really frustrated and confused at this point. And I haven't even talked about the metal issues.