Pool went purple. What now?

I had a drain and fill job. City water filled and pool was green immediately when filling. I poured in two bottles of Jack's Blue Stuff. Waited over the weekend and added 1/2 gallon acid and then 8 lbs of cal-hypo as the algae was getting bad quickly. Now it's as purple as can be! I assume this to be Manganese? What do I do next?

Pic included for your amusement.3423659355?profile=original

 

Purple.jpg

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  • Great image! 

    Like Al said,  CuLator Metal Eliminator will get the metal out of the water and that will help prevent stains.  Sequestrants will only keep the metal in solution, but you need to get metals out of the water so that this problem doesn't happen again.

    For a problem this large I would recommend the CuLator Ultra PowerPak 4.0 because you may have had major amounts of manganese in your pool water.  You can place the Ultra PowerPak into the pump basket because it has a protective GatorEgg.

    Sequestrant temporarily keep metal stain from happening, but the only way to get the metal out of the water is with CuLator.  If your pH goes too high, the metals will plate out onto the wall or oxidize like your image in the water.  The sequestrant keeps the metals from binding to the surface, but the metals are still in the water until they are eliminated.

    Often when pool water changes color like this it is due to metals that have oxidized in the water.  The best way to treat this issue is to use a sequestrant, which reduces the metal back into the water as ions (which can change the color of the water back) and then to use CuLator (at the same time) to get the metal out of the water.

    Another great product is Bio-Dex Protect All.

    Good luck!

  • Charge them extra for the best pool in the neighborhood. LOL

    • this pool problem happened over 2 years ago. It's gone through a total rebuild and looks spectacular these days...

  •  Super Squea Sol GLB l8per 10k clean filters every 6-8 hours

  • I've had this happen before.  In my case it was the combination of copper and manganese.
  • Yes Jana it is a tri-chlor pool. But this is brand new water with no stabilizer added yet. I did not test for copper as I'm fairly certain it was manganese
  • Bud - 

    Just out of curiosity, is this a tri-chlor pool?

    And, did you ever test for copper in the source water?

    Glad your problem was solved with the Jack's and no staining!

  • Well today the purple was gone thank goodness. No permanent staining as far as I can tell. There is still alot of dead algae in the water which I flocced down tonight and will clean up tomorrow. I'll get a better look at things then. The total chemical cocktail was 4 bottles of Jack's Blue Stuff. Thanks for the advice and I'll keep the Sea Klear in mind on the next job. I appreciate the help!

     

    (Not sure what happened to Luke's reply.) He must have deleted it.

  • That would have been a classic pool to use Sea Klear, (pool green after filling) to remove the metals. The steps you used would have been correct if you had used the proper dosage of Sea Klear instead of the Jack's. I'm not sure how well Sea Klear will work now that 4 bottles of sequestrant is already in. I know that Luke used it in his 'swamp pool' after the fact, although it took longer than normal due to dirty filters and maybe the 2 qts of Jack's that he used prior. I was wondering how that pool turned out, as he never did tell us It must have turned out oK as he is recommending it to you.

     

    The purple is probaly the manganese, and it may have already stained the pool, (0.03 ppm will cause a stain). If you use Sea Klear, with the new formulation, the dosage is 2 qt per 20,000 gal per part per million of metal. Don't follw label dosage of 1 oz per 10,000 gal, as this is for maintenance clarifying purposes only. Always assume 1 ppm of metal. (I would put in an extra qt over the calculated dosage). Just pour it in a 5 gal pail of pool water to 1/2 qt or so. Mixes instantly. Make sure weirs in the skimmers are working, and backwash the filters first. Then don't backwash until you get at least a 10 psi rise on the gauges. Run filter pump 24/7. Procedure normally takes about a day. Alkalinity needs to be above 80 ppm's, 120 is better. If the pool is not blue and clear in a day, then add more Sea Klear, or raise the alkalinity to be above 80 ppm. Step by step procedure is posted on Lukes 'Swamp Pool' discussion. Just add in the backwash step prior and use the new dosage parameters.

     

    If the pool is stained, then you will have to wait until the sequestrant is gone. Then lift stains with product of your choice, and follow immediately with the Sea Klear procedure again... or you could use a sequestrant followed by CuLator. CuLator may work as the metals in the stains won't be as high as those in the original fill water.

     

    I would also get some CuLater bags for make up water maintenance purposes, 1 bag in the skimmer per 20,000 gal per 0.8 ppm of metal. Sea Klear won't work for maintenance, as you will never have the needed dosage in the pool. CuLater is pricey, but shows a lot of peace of mind promice for long term control.

     

    Hope this works, and keep us posted. And Luke, why is it oK for me to share some of my secrets, and you can't/won't share yours on the cartridge filter cleaner? The PGN , as you well know, (based on how prolific you are on here about asking questions), is all about sharing ideas. Unless of course, you have some mindset about about patenting and marketing this cleaner some day, then maybe think about sharing it with some of us... that's just my opinion anyway... as "Guido" contracts are pricey these days...just trying to save Bud some money...LOL! 

     

  • I put in an additional 2 bottles of Jack's after I returned to see it purple this afternoon. This pool turned this color in two hours. It has a sand filter also. I'll check into the Sea Klear tomorrow if the pool is still purple.
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