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7-UP Color Green Water - Bromine Pool

Posted by Steve Sowa on October 8, 2009 at 7:51pm
I get this problem occasionally and there is always a different answer. I have an 20,000 indoor hotel pool. The hotel has let the water and filter system go during these trying economic times. Now the water has turned a 7-UP color green. The water is a crystal clear green. No algae and all the water chemistry tests normal. I have also tested for nitrates and phosphates. The pool is on bromine and has a Sta-Rite System 3 Mod Media 450 sq ft cartridge. I have shocked the pool with both a chlorinated and non-chlorinated shock, I have ran the alkalinity a little on the low side and the high side. We have also replaced some of the water. Any ideas????

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Replies

  • Randy Richardson November 10, 2009 at 12:58pm
    adjust your pool alkalinity to 150 and adjust your calcium hardness to 150 - 175. The green should go away in 24 hrs.
  • Rob Lane November 10, 2009 at 8:33am
    I used Jack's Yellow Stuff on a chlorine pool.Later, when I shocked the pool with chlorine, It turned a yellow/light green color. This was the first time that I saw the reaction. The color would go away and then come back when I shocked the pool. This was my first experience with a reaction of this sort.
    As the other guys have said, if the color is a problem, drain and refill.
    Jacks Yellow Stuff is sodium bromide. Give them a call.
  • Richard A. Falk November 9, 2009 at 10:03am
    Though I've seen some reports of having the water turn clear green (i.e. not cloudy) when chlorine was added to pools with very high bromide levels (i.e. a high "bromine bank"), I can't find anything in the chemistry to explain this result.

    By any chance, did the problem become more visible after the pH was higher than usual? If the problem were metals, then an easy way to check for this is to lower the pH and see if the water gets more clear (less colored). Though a bucket test would make such an experiment easier, I doubt you would see the green even in a white bucket since the volume is too small. If you temporarily lowered your pool's pH to, say, 7.2, then it would still be usable and you can raise the pH back up soon anyway (in fact, you can do the entire experiment at night if you've got good lights and good circulation with the pump running continuously). You can use Muriatic Acid for lowering the pH. For raising the pH, caustic soda / lye would be the most pure or you could use 20 Mule Team Borax instead of pH Up (sodium carbaonate / soda ash) since the later will end up raising the TA which you may not want to do. If the green were to clear up when the pH was lowered, then add a metal sequestrant at that time and raise the pH back up very slowly. Dilution of the water will be the only way to permanently remove such metals.
  • Bob Meyer November 9, 2009 at 8:42am
    Steve,
    I have at times added Chlorine to Bromine pools, which has resulted in t a lime green color..Filtration for 48 hours usually results in a clear water again..Always use a non chlorine shock..on Bromine pools
  • Jayme Gruen November 7, 2009 at 8:04pm
    I know I'm a little late getting in on this... Steve, how about taking a few empty 25 lb. white buckets and filling two with green pool water and the other with tap water to use as a reference. Try acidifying one of the pool water sample with 1/2 lb. of dry acid and let me know what happens... if anything. Treat another green water sample with a teaspoon of Iron Out from Walmart etc. in the plumbing dept. Iron Out is a very strong chemical reducing agent that reverses a mineral oxide that can't be tested or filtered out of the water.
    Bromine green is usually quickly resolved by raising the alkalinity.
    Jayme
  • Bruce Hudson October 21, 2009 at 6:21am
    Steve,

    While I agree with Kim about the possible benefit of an extreme shock, there is one qualifier Kim may have overlooked. Being an indoor pool, that heavy shock may drive eveyone out of the building, not to mention the potential damage to fixtures, etc. Despite the need to try salvaging the water, drain and refill is likely your best option. Best of luck to you.
  • Steve Sowa October 20, 2009 at 6:58pm
    Chlorine generators are not approved in Illinois for commercial pools and spas

    Luke Norris said:
    why not put a chlorine generator on the pool and "shock" it with bromine and make it a bromine generator? Could save you lots of problems.
  • Kim Skinner October 20, 2009 at 3:42pm
    I think that excess organics (which is not algae) in the water may cause a green tint, but not absolutely sure of that. So I have placed a portable DE filter at poolside and filtered and removed the "green tint" water in 24 hours. I have also added the "fiber clear" product to the cartridge filter and cleared the water in 48 hours. I have also noticed that normal shock treatments (10 ppm) don't always work and need a higher dose to work, such as 7 lbs. of cal hypo. That usually turns the water cloudy, but gets rid of the green tint. After that, the filter can usually filter out the cloudiness easier and quicker. All of this, however, was with chlorine pools, not bromine.

    PS. Iron can also create a green tint and it may be that it didn't show up in your test because it is no longer in solution due to oxidation by the bromine. Test your source water for metals.
  • Steve Sowa October 16, 2009 at 4:08pm
    Because this is a hotel pool we always try to save it. In this case you may be correct

    Bruce Hudson said:
    When in doubt, dump it and start over. You can burn a lot of time and chemicals trying to fix it and still may not have success. Drain and refill is a sure thing.
  • Bruce Hudson October 16, 2009 at 4:06pm
    When in doubt, dump it and start over. You can burn a lot of time and chemicals trying to fix it and still may not have success. Drain and refill is a sure thing.
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