Green Tint to My Pool Water, My Hair Turned Green After Swimming and I Have Purple Dust Everywhere!

Your pool is green. But it is not algae. It looks almost like someone added food coloring to the water. A green tint almost. Or you finished swimming for a couple of hours and you get out and notice your hair is green. Like you were hit by gamma radiation. Or maybe you notice purple dust all over your pool cleaner and pool walls. Almost like the kids were playing with purple chalk in the pool. All of these are related in some way and it is an indication of metals in your pool water.

The most likely source of all of these is a copper level in your pool over the acceptable 0.4 ppm. How did the copper get into your pool? Here are some likely sources. The pool fill water may be the source. If you are on well water it is likely to have some level of copper in it. As the weather gets hot and you are adding fresh water to your pool you may also be adding low levels of copper. They can eventually build up to a 0.2 or 0.4 level causing a green tint in the water, green hair and purple dust (I will touch more on the purple dust later).

You may be using a copper algaecide in your pool and not even know it. Look at the active ingredients carefully and you may see copper listed. Overusing copper algaecide can add copper to the water. Also, enhancers like PoolRX, Flog mineral and Zodiac Nature 2 can add copper to the water if you add to the product incorrectly. Mainly if you add too large of the size of the product, the minerals can cause copper to enter the water.

If your pool’s pH drops below 6.8 for prolonged periods of time, the acidic water can cause metal parts in the heater, pump or filter to bleed metals into the pool water. If you have copper plumbing the low pH will release copper into the water from the plumbing. It is important that the pH in your pool never gets below 7.0 for an extended period of time. Dark black staining is usually from iron bleeding out of the pool equipment when the pH has been too low.

So if you notice a green tint to the pool water or your blond hair turns green (this reaction is known as Copper carbonate, it is copper in the water. If notice the purple dust it is copper but this is only seen in conjunction with very high CYA levels. If the Cyanuric Acid level gets above 100 ppm and the copper level gets above 0.4 ppm the purple dust will drop out and cover your pool cleaner hoses, the cleaner head, the pool walls, and the filter elements. To rid your pool of the purple dust a partial drain or a full drain is needed to lower the CYA level down. Once the CYA level drops down below 100 ppm the purple dust will start to disappear. This dust is known as Copper Cyanurate.

To remove the copper from the water and reverse the green tint and green hair you will need to do a metal treatment. This consists of adding a metal sequestering agent like Jack’s Magic product in conjunction with a Culator 4.0 added into your skimmer basket or pump basket. The sequestering agents will suspend the metal ions and the Culator 4.0 will eventually extract them from the pool water. It may take as long as 60 days but this treatment is effective.

If you have brown copper stains on your pool wall and floor you can treat the staining with the Ascorbic Acid Treatment. You can purchase a branded Ascorbic Acid product or just purchase straight Ascorbic Acid in powder form online. This treatment is highly effective in fiberglass and a vinyl pool. For a plaster or PebbleTec pool with metal staining a full drain and acid wash is the best way to remove the staining.

Bottom line, if copper is present in your pool water at a level above 4.0 ppm your pool will develop these symptoms and you will have to do a metal treatment to correct it or a full drain and acid wash.
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