November 28, 2025 • 21 mins
Copper promises a cleaner pool with less work, but the chemistry tells a different story. We walk through what copper really does well—suppressing algae at low levels—and where it falls short, especially on fast disinfection and heavy oxidation. If you have ever wondered why water looks clear but still isn’t truly safe, or why blond hair turns green after a weekend swim, this conversation connects the dots and gives you a plan you can trust.
We break down mineral and ionizer systems on the market, the narrow gap between effective copper dosing and staining, and why non-chlorine oxidizers struggle with complex sunscreen molecules. You’ll hear why the EPA still requires chlorine alongside ionizers, how low residuals collapse under bather load, and the simple, reliable workflow for killing algae with 25 ppm chlorine held for 24 hours. Then we go practical: how sequestrants work, why they degrade in sunlight and under shock, and how to remove metals instead of endlessly binding them.
For pools already battling stains, we outline a step-by-step in-water remediation: lift discoloration using ascorbic or citric acid, capture dissolved metals with skimmer media or a dedicated canister loop to speed removal, and only then resume strong chlorination. We also help you find the source—copper algaecides, acidic tablets in the skimmer, heater corrosion, high-velocity erosion, fill water, or even iron-bearing pebbles in new surfaces—and share the surprising fix for localized rust spots.
• copper’s effect on algae and bacteria
• limits of ionizers and the need for oxidation
• green hair caused by copper, not chlorine
• sequestrants’ benefits and degradation over time
• chlorine-first method for algae removal at 25 ppm
• in-water stain removal using acids and metal media
• faster metal capture with a canister and aux pump
• tracing metal sources from equipment and surfaces
• pebble finishes with iron and spot remediation
• learning path with guides, books, and courses
• links to podcasts and coaching resources
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Hi, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show.
In this episode, I'm going to doa best above Lowry, and we're
going to talk about copper inthe pool, using copper in the
pool, specifically copperalgicides, and is using copper
safe in a swimming pool.
We're going to cover all thingscopper in this episode.
Are you a pool service prolooking to take your business to
(01:25):
the next level?
Join the pool guy coachingprogram.
Get expert advice, businesstips, exclusive content, and get
direct support from me.
I'm a 35-year veteran in theindustry.
Whether you're starting out orscaling up, I've got the tools
to help you succeed.
Learn more atswimmingpoollearning.com.
Let's talk about uh copper inthe pool.
And there's a lot of productsout there.
(01:46):
They call them nowadays theycall them mineral technology or
mineral systems.
I don't know what they werecalled back in the olden days.
Uh, but you have things like thefrog, the nature to the pool RX,
and even the solar ionizers thatfloat in the pool and the sun
hits the top, and then um thatalso adds copper to the water.
Now, copper, of course, is agreat way to prevent algae.
(02:08):
And I've even heard customers oryou know referred to putting
like a copper anode in theirskimmer basket, it's like a
piece of copper.
So copper does kill algae,right?
SPEAKER_01 (02:19):
Yes, actually, copper at a at a low level kills
algae, and a little bit higherlevel it kills bacteria.
So you can kill bacteria andalgae with copper.
The problem is that there are anumber of problems with doing
that.
First of all, the level at whichit kills algae and bacteria is
(02:44):
right at the edge of the levelwhere it causes stains.
So if you use it, you have touse a sequestering agent or a
chelating agent in the water toprevent staining.
Also, understand this.
When people sell the ionizers,they claim that this kills
(03:06):
bacteria and algae, and yourpool will be algae and bacteria
free.
Well, you realize, of course,that when you add chlorine to
your pool, that about 15% of thechlorine goes for killing algae
and bacteria, and 85% of it goestowards oxidation of sunblock
(03:32):
and sweat and urine and and allthe stuff that's on our bodies
when we get into the pool.
If you use a copper ionizer inyour pool, it doesn't oxidize
anything.
So you need a separate oxidizerand you need a lot of it because
you're gonna have to get rid ofall of that stuff, all of that
(03:56):
sweat, urine, sunblock, allthose things.
And a non-chlorine oxidizer isprobably not strong enough to
get to to destroy most sunblockbecause it's a complex molecule,
and the oxidizer just doesn'thave enough oxidizing power to
(04:17):
do it.
Chlorine does, uh, but evenchlorine may not kill some
sunblocks.
You know, they make them thatway so that they don't break
down, so you can put them onyour body and they'll they'll
last.
And they even make them now sothey're waterproof, but they
still get in the water.
Once they get in the water,chlorine has to spend a lot of
(04:38):
time trying to to oxidize it.
At any rate, uh I I think thatagain, the right chlorine level
is where we need to be.
But copper, the other thing thatcopper does not do, it kills
algae and it kills bacteria, butit doesn't kill it very quick.
And I've talked about this withyou before about what we call
(05:02):
bather-to-bather diseasetransmission.
And copper is not strong enough,not a good enough uh bactericide
to kill bacteria that comes fromyou, gets in the water, and gets
on me.
It's not fast enough to killthat bather-to-bather disease
(05:24):
transmission.
You have to have something inthe water.
EPA has said that you can use anionizer, but you have to use
chlorine with it.
You can use a low level ofchlorine, but you need to use
chlorine with it.
And then there is a problem withkeeping a low chlorine residual.
(05:45):
And I think I've talked about uhthis with you before, and that
is when you keep a low chlorineresidual, when you get a number
of bathers into the water, theywipe out your chlorine residual,
and now you got no chlorineresidual all over again.
Keeping a low level of chlorinewith copper in the water, as
(06:06):
soon as you get bathers in thewater, your chlorine's gone, and
now you don't have anyprotection in the water against
the disease uh bather-to-batherdisease transmission.
SPEAKER_00 (06:19):
And one side effect I think that you hear about a
lot, and it's not an urbanlegend because this has
happened, is if you have lighthair, blonde, and there's a high
level of copper in the water,and then there's a high level of
chlorine in the water, your hairwill actually turn green.
SPEAKER_01 (06:36):
It's true that copper in the water causes green
hair.
Chlorine in the water does notcause green hair.
No chlorine in the water causesgreen hair.
The the reason that that peoplethink that chlorine causes green
hair is they put tablets ofchlorine in their skimmer, and
(07:00):
then the acid from the tabletsdissolves part of their copper
heater, and it gets into thepool, and once the level gets
high enough beyond thesaturation point, we have copper
in the water.
You put people in it, and and itmakes their hair and fingernails
green, and to make your poolgreen if you leave it long
(07:21):
enough.
So people think that thechlorine tablets cause the
problem.
But think about it, chlorine isa bleach.
It's not a dye, it doesn't makethings green, it makes things
white.
That's why we put it in thewashing machine.
It makes things white.
It doesn't, chlorine doesn'tmake anything green.
Uh copper, yes.
(07:42):
And copper sulfate is the mostcommon cause.
And it actually bleed, itactually makes green on
everybody's hair.
But people with brown or darkhair, when you put green on it,
you can't see it.
When people have gray hair orblonde hair, or young people
(08:03):
that have new hair, um, is moresusceptible to copper staining
than uh people that have brownhair.
SPEAKER_00 (08:14):
And I know we talked about algecides in the past.
And what about those that thatswear by copper algecides?
I know they're highly effective,but we mentioned the fact that
there's a certain level thatwill cause staining in the pool.
And these copper algicides, theinstructions on them are really
specific.
If you read them, they costthere's many cautions on there
about using the proper amount.
(08:36):
And so copper algecides havethat danger of staining the pool
in some cases, right?
SPEAKER_01 (08:41):
That's correct.
Although most of the uh algaemanufacturers, the copper algae
manufacturers, have put asequestering agent in with the
copper.
So it's in the bottle when youpour it in your pool, and
there's enough sequesteringagent to prevent it from causing
a stain, at least while you'regetting rid of the algae.
(09:03):
But understand that asequestering agent is an organic
molecule, and you're puttingchlorine and oxidizers into the
pool, and there's also sunlightthere.
So between those three things,they're going to eventually
weaken and degrade that organicmolecule so it doesn't work
(09:24):
anymore.
And this is the reason that mostof the places uh that sell
sequestering agents tell you youneed to add them on a regular
basis because they are degradingand you need to replace them.
If you put an algecide in thewater, and if you
superchlorinate, you're going todegrade that that sequestering
(09:45):
agent.
So if you do that, you'recausing a problem.
Even though you think you'redoing a good thing, you put in a
copper algecide that's got asequestering agent, and then you
put in chlorine, and it destroysthe sequestering agent, and now
you've got a stain in the pool.
Um, you need to follow thedirections and do what it says.
(10:07):
But again, I am a big promoterof using chlorine first.
You've already got it on yourtruck.
Uh it's easy, it's cheap, it'scheaper than buying an algacide.
You put in 25 parts per millionof chlorine, leave it for 24
hours, as we've discussed, makesure that the 25 ppm is
(10:29):
maintained for 24 hours, andyou're going to kill most algae.
And then you go back to usingyour pool.
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
What about uh copper staining?
This is very common.
You mentioned we mentioned lowpH causes some copper um
staining from equipment, andthen of course, overusing a
copper algicide or ionizer, ifwe were to get to a certain
level and stain the plaster orthe pool surface, what's the
best way to remove the stainingof the copper on there, besides
(10:57):
draining it and acid washing thepool, which is a pretty harsh
level?
What about something that youcan do why there's still water
in the pool?
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
Well, one of the things that you can do,
understand too, that if you usea sequestering agent, all it
does is surround the metal ionswith the molecules so that the
metal ion can't attach toanything else.
So the metal is stilltechnically in the pool.
(11:25):
It just can't combine withanything and make a stain.
So we want to remove the metalfrom the pool.
And as you've said, if there's astain on the pool, we can acid
wash the pool.
But aside from that, we can useone of these products, and you
can use a brand name, but thereare these little bags and cages
(11:49):
that you can put into theskimmer that remove the metal
from the pool.
And again, we talk aboutsaturation points, and if you
take metal out of the water,there's more room in the water
for metal.
So you take some of the metalout, the stain that's on the
(12:13):
wall can redissolve into thewater.
You take some more metal out,and the stain that's on the wall
can redissolve into the pool.
So by removing metal from thewater, you can remove the stain
from the pool.
You can also use a metal removerproduct that removes the stain
(12:35):
but doesn't remove the metalfrom the pool.
You can use that in conjunctionwith the metal remover you put
in the skimmer.
So you can use a product thathas ascorbic acid or citric acid
in it, and it will take like asquare, an ascorbic acid metal
remover will remove the stainvery well from the pool.
(12:56):
But if you don't then get rid ofthat combined ascorbic acid and
(13:21):
metal, if you don't get rid ofthat when you superchlorinate
the ascorbic acid gets wiped outby the chlorine, you've still
got the metal in the pool.
So if you use, you can use as aone-two punch, you can put
ascorbic acid in the pool, put aa bag in the filter or a little
(13:42):
cage in the filter, and as itpulls it off of the wall, it'll
suck it into the into the bagthat's in the filter.
But the the bag that's in thefilter is gonna take perhaps a
week or longer for all of thewater to go through that that
(14:02):
little bag that's in theskimmer.
SPEAKER_00 (14:06):
And I guess we could mention that's a celator
product.
We we know the people therereally well, both of us.
And they actually have a kit.
You mentioned all the productsin their kit.
Uh something that they came outwith that's relatively new.
Well, it's been on the marketfor a while, but they're trying
to relaunch this kit, and it hasthe asorbic acid, it has a bag
of citric acid, it has thecelator Ultra 4.0, which is the
(14:29):
little baggie that pulls themetal out, and it has their
sequestering agent.
So that is all in one kit.
And you kind of need that,right, for the whole removal
without draining and acidwashing, as you mentioned.
So it's kind of smarter than toput it all in one kit, right?
SPEAKER_01 (14:46):
Yeah, they they also do have a separate uh canister
type filter that's that uh has acartridge that you put into it
that's impregnated with theirtechnology.
And what you can do to speedthings along is if you've got a
a separate pump that yousometimes use for for your
(15:09):
vacuum or for draining orsomething, you can set a pump
beside the pool, draw water infrom one side, run it through
the the filter that removes thethe metal and put them put the
hose back in the pool, let itrun for a while.
Which is a much more efficientway of doing it than just
putting a bag in the skimmer.
SPEAKER_00 (15:31):
You know, once you have the copper staying in the
pool, that's when you s youstart to have to also be
detective and find out whereit's coming from.
You just can't eliminate itwithout finding the source
because then it could come backin the pool.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
Right.
It can be from a number ofthings.
It can be from a copperalgicide, it can be from
incoming water, it can be fromusing uh trichlor tabs in the
skimmer, uh, it can be fromoverfeeding uh anything that's
acidic.
It can be from, believe it ornot, water velocity.
(16:05):
You can be running the water toofast through anything that has
metal in it, and it's erodingthe metal rather than corroding
it.
And so there's an erosion thathappens because of water
velocity.
Um, these things are areimportant to understand.
SPEAKER_00 (16:25):
Yeah, and I guess one more source that is
something that you don't hearabout a lot, but we've been
finding this to be a problem, isin a brand new pebble tech pool,
they they do a lot of work toget the metals out of the
pebbles before they processthem.
But there's been a lot of caseslately.
I don't know if it's becausethey're having too many orders
(16:45):
and because of all the buildinggoing on, but there are some of
the pebbles that have metal init, and then in the pool,
there'll be a spot forming onthe bottom, like a rust spot,
sometimes as big as a nickel,sometimes smaller, and that's
actually the surface of the poolcausing the problem.
SPEAKER_01 (17:02):
Yes.
And uh it's it's not toouncommon for certain areas of
the country where they they minethe the pebbles in the rocks to
have iron in them.
And so uh when the iron sees thelight of day and some chlorine,
um now all of a sudden we we geta brown-colored stain or a
(17:23):
yellow-colored stain uh on thesurface, and it's because there
was iron in the in the rock.
SPEAKER_00 (17:29):
Yeah, and the remedy is kind of unusual.
They actually will go down thereor dive down there with a little
pick and take that pebble out,which is kind of interesting.
So, yeah, so metal can get inthe pool in all different ways.
That that's just to say that ifyou have to really figure out
where it's coming from, um,otherwise it could be a
continuing problem.
But I thank you again for allthese recordings.
(17:50):
I think we covered a gambittoday of subjects, and like
always, the pool pro benefitsand the homeowner benefits also
from your knowledge and youknow.
SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
I try to bring everything down to a level that
the guy on the street canunderstand it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
And I think you do, effectively, you do that, and
with all your material, and Iespecially like your books
because not only are theillustrations really helpful,
but just the way that you'vewrote these guides and all the
the books that you've published.
Anyone with any with with noknowledge of chemistry, with
zero knowledge, or maybe theywere asleep during the chemistry
(18:27):
class in high school, they pickup your book, and just from the
drawings and the illustrationsand the diagrams, they could
figure out basic pool chemistry.
SPEAKER_01 (18:37):
Well, even for the pool guys, we've had some pool
companies that have uh multipleemployee uh service techs
working for them, and they callme and say, What do I do?
I got a brand new guy that knowsnothing about pools.
And in that case, I tell them toget instead of the pool
chemistry for service pros book,I tell them to get the easy pool
(19:01):
chemistry book, which is forhomeowners.
And I tell them, read this onefirst, and after you read it
maybe twice and understand it,then get the pool chemistry for
service prose book and you'llunderstand it.
And then if you take and then ifyou take the course, you'll be
all set.
SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
Yeah.
I should say the the book youreferred to is only about 20
pages, the pool chemistry forprose.
Is that the one?
Is that the other one?
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
It's a 28-page book, but it's you know, when you when
you think about the table ofcontents and you know the empty
pages and stuff like that, it'sit's only about 20 pages.
You can flip through it realeasy.
And we tell we have guys theyjust keep the book on their
truck.
It's easy to refer to because ithas so many drawings and stuff.
When you go to look somethingup, you know where what drawing
(19:52):
or what the what it's what iswhat's you're looking up, what
is near in the book.
So it makes it easy to lookthings up.
SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
So well, thanks again for your time today.
I don't want to take too muchmore of it up, and I appreciate
these monthly podcasts.
I'm sure the listeners do aswell.
SPEAKER_01 (20:08):
I'm glad to do them.
My goal is to make pool ownershappy and for us to have a
bigger industry.
Yeah.
And and that's my goal.
I don't have anything to sellyou people except education.
If you want to buy a book, buy abook.
But uh I I just I I want ourpool industry to get bigger, and
(20:29):
I want the people that have apool to be happy with what they
got.
SPEAKER_00 (20:32):
If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find
those by going to my website,swimmingprolearning.com, on the
banner.
Click on the podcast icon.
There'll be a drop down menuwith over 1,800 podcasts there
for you.
And if you're interested in thecoaching program that I run, you
can also learn more atpoolguycoaching.com.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast.
Have a rest of your week and Godbless.
Hi, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show.
In this episode, I'm going to doa best above Lowry, and we're
going to talk about copper inthe pool, using copper in the
pool, specifically copperalgicides, and is using copper
safe in a swimming pool.
We're going to cover all thingscopper in this episode.
Are you a pool service prolooking to take your business to
(01:25):
the next level?
Join the pool guy coachingprogram.
Get expert advice, businesstips, exclusive content, and get
direct support from me.
I'm a 35-year veteran in theindustry.
Whether you're starting out orscaling up, I've got the tools
to help you succeed.
Learn more atswimmingpoollearning.com.
Let's talk about uh copper inthe pool.
And there's a lot of productsout there.
(01:46):
They call them nowadays theycall them mineral technology or
mineral systems.
I don't know what they werecalled back in the olden days.
Uh, but you have things like thefrog, the nature to the pool RX,
and even the solar ionizers thatfloat in the pool and the sun
hits the top, and then um thatalso adds copper to the water.
Now, copper, of course, is agreat way to prevent algae.
(02:08):
And I've even heard customers oryou know referred to putting
like a copper anode in theirskimmer basket, it's like a
piece of copper.
So copper does kill algae,right?
SPEAKER_01 (02:19):
Yes, actually, copper at a at a low level kills
algae, and a little bit higherlevel it kills bacteria.
So you can kill bacteria andalgae with copper.
The problem is that there are anumber of problems with doing
that.
First of all, the level at whichit kills algae and bacteria is
(02:44):
right at the edge of the levelwhere it causes stains.
So if you use it, you have touse a sequestering agent or a
chelating agent in the water toprevent staining.
Also, understand this.
When people sell the ionizers,they claim that this kills
(03:06):
bacteria and algae, and yourpool will be algae and bacteria
free.
Well, you realize, of course,that when you add chlorine to
your pool, that about 15% of thechlorine goes for killing algae
and bacteria, and 85% of it goestowards oxidation of sunblock
(03:32):
and sweat and urine and and allthe stuff that's on our bodies
when we get into the pool.
If you use a copper ionizer inyour pool, it doesn't oxidize
anything.
So you need a separate oxidizerand you need a lot of it because
you're gonna have to get rid ofall of that stuff, all of that
(03:56):
sweat, urine, sunblock, allthose things.
And a non-chlorine oxidizer isprobably not strong enough to
get to to destroy most sunblockbecause it's a complex molecule,
and the oxidizer just doesn'thave enough oxidizing power to
(04:17):
do it.
Chlorine does, uh, but evenchlorine may not kill some
sunblocks.
You know, they make them thatway so that they don't break
down, so you can put them onyour body and they'll they'll
last.
And they even make them now sothey're waterproof, but they
still get in the water.
Once they get in the water,chlorine has to spend a lot of
(04:38):
time trying to to oxidize it.
At any rate, uh I I think thatagain, the right chlorine level
is where we need to be.
But copper, the other thing thatcopper does not do, it kills
algae and it kills bacteria, butit doesn't kill it very quick.
And I've talked about this withyou before about what we call
(05:02):
bather-to-bather diseasetransmission.
And copper is not strong enough,not a good enough uh bactericide
to kill bacteria that comes fromyou, gets in the water, and gets
on me.
It's not fast enough to killthat bather-to-bather disease
(05:24):
transmission.
You have to have something inthe water.
EPA has said that you can use anionizer, but you have to use
chlorine with it.
You can use a low level ofchlorine, but you need to use
chlorine with it.
And then there is a problem withkeeping a low chlorine residual.
(05:45):
And I think I've talked about uhthis with you before, and that
is when you keep a low chlorineresidual, when you get a number
of bathers into the water, theywipe out your chlorine residual,
and now you got no chlorineresidual all over again.
Keeping a low level of chlorinewith copper in the water, as
(06:06):
soon as you get bathers in thewater, your chlorine's gone, and
now you don't have anyprotection in the water against
the disease uh bather-to-batherdisease transmission.
SPEAKER_00 (06:19):
And one side effect I think that you hear about a
lot, and it's not an urbanlegend because this has
happened, is if you have lighthair, blonde, and there's a high
level of copper in the water,and then there's a high level of
chlorine in the water, your hairwill actually turn green.
SPEAKER_01 (06:36):
It's true that copper in the water causes green
hair.
Chlorine in the water does notcause green hair.
No chlorine in the water causesgreen hair.
The the reason that that peoplethink that chlorine causes green
hair is they put tablets ofchlorine in their skimmer, and
(07:00):
then the acid from the tabletsdissolves part of their copper
heater, and it gets into thepool, and once the level gets
high enough beyond thesaturation point, we have copper
in the water.
You put people in it, and and itmakes their hair and fingernails
green, and to make your poolgreen if you leave it long
(07:21):
enough.
So people think that thechlorine tablets cause the
problem.
But think about it, chlorine isa bleach.
It's not a dye, it doesn't makethings green, it makes things
white.
That's why we put it in thewashing machine.
It makes things white.
It doesn't, chlorine doesn'tmake anything green.
Uh copper, yes.
(07:42):
And copper sulfate is the mostcommon cause.
And it actually bleed, itactually makes green on
everybody's hair.
But people with brown or darkhair, when you put green on it,
you can't see it.
When people have gray hair orblonde hair, or young people
(08:03):
that have new hair, um, is moresusceptible to copper staining
than uh people that have brownhair.
SPEAKER_00 (08:14):
And I know we talked about algecides in the past.
And what about those that thatswear by copper algecides?
I know they're highly effective,but we mentioned the fact that
there's a certain level thatwill cause staining in the pool.
And these copper algicides, theinstructions on them are really
specific.
If you read them, they costthere's many cautions on there
about using the proper amount.
(08:36):
And so copper algecides havethat danger of staining the pool
in some cases, right?
SPEAKER_01 (08:41):
That's correct.
Although most of the uh algaemanufacturers, the copper algae
manufacturers, have put asequestering agent in with the
copper.
So it's in the bottle when youpour it in your pool, and
there's enough sequesteringagent to prevent it from causing
a stain, at least while you'regetting rid of the algae.
(09:03):
But understand that asequestering agent is an organic
molecule, and you're puttingchlorine and oxidizers into the
pool, and there's also sunlightthere.
So between those three things,they're going to eventually
weaken and degrade that organicmolecule so it doesn't work
(09:24):
anymore.
And this is the reason that mostof the places uh that sell
sequestering agents tell you youneed to add them on a regular
basis because they are degradingand you need to replace them.
If you put an algecide in thewater, and if you
superchlorinate, you're going todegrade that that sequestering
(09:45):
agent.
So if you do that, you'recausing a problem.
Even though you think you'redoing a good thing, you put in a
copper algecide that's got asequestering agent, and then you
put in chlorine, and it destroysthe sequestering agent, and now
you've got a stain in the pool.
Um, you need to follow thedirections and do what it says.
(10:07):
But again, I am a big promoterof using chlorine first.
You've already got it on yourtruck.
Uh it's easy, it's cheap, it'scheaper than buying an algacide.
You put in 25 parts per millionof chlorine, leave it for 24
hours, as we've discussed, makesure that the 25 ppm is
(10:29):
maintained for 24 hours, andyou're going to kill most algae.
And then you go back to usingyour pool.
SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
What about uh copper staining?
This is very common.
You mentioned we mentioned lowpH causes some copper um
staining from equipment, andthen of course, overusing a
copper algicide or ionizer, ifwe were to get to a certain
level and stain the plaster orthe pool surface, what's the
best way to remove the stainingof the copper on there, besides
(10:57):
draining it and acid washing thepool, which is a pretty harsh
level?
What about something that youcan do why there's still water
in the pool?
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
Well, one of the things that you can do,
understand too, that if you usea sequestering agent, all it
does is surround the metal ionswith the molecules so that the
metal ion can't attach toanything else.
So the metal is stilltechnically in the pool.
(11:25):
It just can't combine withanything and make a stain.
So we want to remove the metalfrom the pool.
And as you've said, if there's astain on the pool, we can acid
wash the pool.
But aside from that, we can useone of these products, and you
can use a brand name, but thereare these little bags and cages
(11:49):
that you can put into theskimmer that remove the metal
from the pool.
And again, we talk aboutsaturation points, and if you
take metal out of the water,there's more room in the water
for metal.
So you take some of the metalout, the stain that's on the
(12:13):
wall can redissolve into thewater.
You take some more metal out,and the stain that's on the wall
can redissolve into the pool.
So by removing metal from thewater, you can remove the stain
from the pool.
You can also use a metal removerproduct that removes the stain
(12:35):
but doesn't remove the metalfrom the pool.
You can use that in conjunctionwith the metal remover you put
in the skimmer.
So you can use a product thathas ascorbic acid or citric acid
in it, and it will take like asquare, an ascorbic acid metal
remover will remove the stainvery well from the pool.
(12:56):
But if you don't then get rid ofthat combined ascorbic acid and
(13:21):
metal, if you don't get rid ofthat when you superchlorinate
the ascorbic acid gets wiped outby the chlorine, you've still
got the metal in the pool.
So if you use, you can use as aone-two punch, you can put
ascorbic acid in the pool, put aa bag in the filter or a little
(13:42):
cage in the filter, and as itpulls it off of the wall, it'll
suck it into the into the bagthat's in the filter.
But the the bag that's in thefilter is gonna take perhaps a
week or longer for all of thewater to go through that that
(14:02):
little bag that's in theskimmer.
SPEAKER_00 (14:06):
And I guess we could mention that's a celator
product.
We we know the people therereally well, both of us.
And they actually have a kit.
You mentioned all the productsin their kit.
Uh something that they came outwith that's relatively new.
Well, it's been on the marketfor a while, but they're trying
to relaunch this kit, and it hasthe asorbic acid, it has a bag
of citric acid, it has thecelator Ultra 4.0, which is the
(14:29):
little baggie that pulls themetal out, and it has their
sequestering agent.
So that is all in one kit.
And you kind of need that,right, for the whole removal
without draining and acidwashing, as you mentioned.
So it's kind of smarter than toput it all in one kit, right?
SPEAKER_01 (14:46):
Yeah, they they also do have a separate uh canister
type filter that's that uh has acartridge that you put into it
that's impregnated with theirtechnology.
And what you can do to speedthings along is if you've got a
a separate pump that yousometimes use for for your
(15:09):
vacuum or for draining orsomething, you can set a pump
beside the pool, draw water infrom one side, run it through
the the filter that removes thethe metal and put them put the
hose back in the pool, let itrun for a while.
Which is a much more efficientway of doing it than just
putting a bag in the skimmer.
SPEAKER_00 (15:31):
You know, once you have the copper staying in the
pool, that's when you s youstart to have to also be
detective and find out whereit's coming from.
You just can't eliminate itwithout finding the source
because then it could come backin the pool.
SPEAKER_01 (15:44):
Right.
It can be from a number ofthings.
It can be from a copperalgicide, it can be from
incoming water, it can be fromusing uh trichlor tabs in the
skimmer, uh, it can be fromoverfeeding uh anything that's
acidic.
It can be from, believe it ornot, water velocity.
(16:05):
You can be running the water toofast through anything that has
metal in it, and it's erodingthe metal rather than corroding
it.
And so there's an erosion thathappens because of water
velocity.
Um, these things are areimportant to understand.
SPEAKER_00 (16:25):
Yeah, and I guess one more source that is
something that you don't hearabout a lot, but we've been
finding this to be a problem, isin a brand new pebble tech pool,
they they do a lot of work toget the metals out of the
pebbles before they processthem.
But there's been a lot of caseslately.
I don't know if it's becausethey're having too many orders
(16:45):
and because of all the buildinggoing on, but there are some of
the pebbles that have metal init, and then in the pool,
there'll be a spot forming onthe bottom, like a rust spot,
sometimes as big as a nickel,sometimes smaller, and that's
actually the surface of the poolcausing the problem.
SPEAKER_01 (17:02):
Yes.
And uh it's it's not toouncommon for certain areas of
the country where they they minethe the pebbles in the rocks to
have iron in them.
And so uh when the iron sees thelight of day and some chlorine,
um now all of a sudden we we geta brown-colored stain or a
(17:23):
yellow-colored stain uh on thesurface, and it's because there
was iron in the in the rock.
SPEAKER_00 (17:29):
Yeah, and the remedy is kind of unusual.
They actually will go down thereor dive down there with a little
pick and take that pebble out,which is kind of interesting.
So, yeah, so metal can get inthe pool in all different ways.
That that's just to say that ifyou have to really figure out
where it's coming from, um,otherwise it could be a
continuing problem.
But I thank you again for allthese recordings.
(17:50):
I think we covered a gambittoday of subjects, and like
always, the pool pro benefitsand the homeowner benefits also
from your knowledge and youknow.
SPEAKER_01 (18:02):
I try to bring everything down to a level that
the guy on the street canunderstand it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
And I think you do, effectively, you do that, and
with all your material, and Iespecially like your books
because not only are theillustrations really helpful,
but just the way that you'vewrote these guides and all the
the books that you've published.
Anyone with any with with noknowledge of chemistry, with
zero knowledge, or maybe theywere asleep during the chemistry
(18:27):
class in high school, they pickup your book, and just from the
drawings and the illustrationsand the diagrams, they could
figure out basic pool chemistry.
SPEAKER_01 (18:37):
Well, even for the pool guys, we've had some pool
companies that have uh multipleemployee uh service techs
working for them, and they callme and say, What do I do?
I got a brand new guy that knowsnothing about pools.
And in that case, I tell them toget instead of the pool
chemistry for service pros book,I tell them to get the easy pool
(19:01):
chemistry book, which is forhomeowners.
And I tell them, read this onefirst, and after you read it
maybe twice and understand it,then get the pool chemistry for
service prose book and you'llunderstand it.
And then if you take and then ifyou take the course, you'll be
all set.
SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
Yeah.
I should say the the book youreferred to is only about 20
pages, the pool chemistry forprose.
Is that the one?
Is that the other one?
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
It's a 28-page book, but it's you know, when you when
you think about the table ofcontents and you know the empty
pages and stuff like that, it'sit's only about 20 pages.
You can flip through it realeasy.
And we tell we have guys theyjust keep the book on their
truck.
It's easy to refer to because ithas so many drawings and stuff.
When you go to look somethingup, you know where what drawing
(19:52):
or what the what it's what iswhat's you're looking up, what
is near in the book.
So it makes it easy to lookthings up.
SPEAKER_00 (20:00):
So well, thanks again for your time today.
I don't want to take too muchmore of it up, and I appreciate
these monthly podcasts.
I'm sure the listeners do aswell.
SPEAKER_01 (20:08):
I'm glad to do them.
My goal is to make pool ownershappy and for us to have a
bigger industry.
Yeah.
And and that's my goal.
I don't have anything to sellyou people except education.
If you want to buy a book, buy abook.
But uh I I just I I want ourpool industry to get bigger, and
(20:29):
I want the people that have apool to be happy with what they
got.
SPEAKER_00 (20:32):
If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find
those by going to my website,swimmingprolearning.com, on the
banner.
Click on the podcast icon.
There'll be a drop down menuwith over 1,800 podcasts there
for you.
And if you're interested in thecoaching program that I run, you
can also learn more atpoolguycoaching.com.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast.
Have a rest of your week and Godbless.
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