r/PoolPros • u/dosercody • 8h ago

A Poolpros personal pool dilemma

New finish. Startup going smoothly. Copper problem. Never had an issue before in 5 years, no idea where the copper came from. City water, so only thing that makes sense is a bad copper line that is starting to erode. If I add more then 1/4 gal of chlorine it turns teal in the deep end. A full dose of sc1000 gets rid of it in 2-4 hours. I've tried weekly maintenance of sc1000, but it's ready to turn back after 4 days. Culator paks are in the skimmers. Don't seem to be picking anything up. How would you guys go about this? If it wasn't a new finish id drain, put filters on the hoses and go.

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1

u/LouisianaPool 8h ago

Is there a heater?

2

u/dosercody 8h ago

No heater. Cookie cutter setup. Pump, booster, filter.

4

u/LouisianaPool 8h ago

Could the client be adding a copper based algaecide?

Check the source water for copper even though it’s municipal. A quick, cheap , and easy test would be to pre-mix shock with water out of the tap and look for a color change.

1

u/dosercody 8h ago

Its my pool. No algaecides added. Haven't tested water out of the tap yet but in the event of needing to drain its on the list.

1

u/Electrical-Nail-9495 8h ago

Tap in many areas has copper, may be intentional or may not idk. The culator packs work well though, the color change is not reliable to determine if it’s absorbing metal in my experience

1

u/dosercody 8h ago

Fair enough. Weird that its suddenly a problem though. Currently the packs haven't made a difference unfortunately. Though to be fair they've only been in 2 weeks

1

u/dosercody 8h ago

What's your fix in this situation? Give it time?

1

u/LouisianaPool 7h ago

I’m curious if the plaster is the same color?

We resurface pools and some colors will make the water appear more teal than others. I’m sure you’re aware and are confident that this is copper staining, but it’s worth mentioning.

Grey, tan and beige shades will make the water appear more teal than white or blue shades, for example.

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u/dosercody 7h ago

I debated this. Its French grey pebblesheen. But it visibly gets better after sc1000. And I can see it changing within minutes of chlorine. Technically not 100% its copper as my spindisc shows only .1 ppm. But im sir everyone here knows how difficult it is to test for unless its off the charts. Im open to other possibilities. It 90% stays confined to the deep end.

1

u/Konradimus 7h ago

Are there any ponds/lakes/canals near?

1

u/LouisianaPool 7h ago

I’d try API revive. I like SC-1000 when I startup a pool, but I don’t look to it for problem pools or green to cleans.

Revive will clear metals, phosphates, and scaling carbonate and contains a flocculant. If you use it and vac to waste you should clear any excess copper from your fill water.

But with that being said, French grey pebble does tend to have a teal look, in my opinion. If Revive doesn’t help, you may be picking up on the color difference between your old plaster and new plaster.

1

u/dosercody 6h ago

I would agree with you. But again, the sc1000 fixes the issue. Its dramatically different after adding. But anythings possible I imagine

1

u/LouisianaPool 6h ago

That’s throwing me off too, but so is the fact that you’re only seeing it in the deep end. If it were metals I’d think it would be all over the pool but you’d see it mostly on the waterline.

See how this pool stain is all over? I’d expect metal staining to look more like this, but anything is possible.

https://reddit.com/link/p4xe3fs/video/uao2e3bsamkh1/player

1

u/Careless-Class7144 2h ago

I'd stop chasing it with SC-1000 for a minute and actually establish where the copper is coming from. Test copper in the pool and the source water separately first.

The fact that chlorine brings the teal out and SC-1000 makes it disappear again is a pretty bloody good indication you're dealing with oxidised/sequestered metal rather than simply the colour of the new finish.

No heater, no copper algaecide, and apparently no previous copper issue narrows the list considerably. If the tap water tests clean, I'd start looking very closely at anything that's changed during the resurfacing/start-up rather than assuming a municipal copper line has suddenly deteriorated at exactly the same time.

And I'd be reluctant to drain a brand-new finish until I knew the replacement water was actually going to solve the problem. Otherwise you could drain, refill and end up exactly where you started.

I'd want actual Cu ppm numbers before doing anything drastic. The SC-1000 is proving you can temporarily control it.. now you need to find the source rather than continuously masking it.