Green Pool / Swamp complete with frogs...

[JenLM]

My husband are newbies to pool care. We put a new liner and water into our pool last September and ran the filter and treated the pool through the fall and winter. (We plan to buy a cover this year.) We'd had our water tested by the pool people and added the appropriate chemicals. They said that it was in pretty good shape overall. After adding everything, our pool water was still cloudy.

We went on vacation for about 10 days and when we came back our pool was green and stagnant. The filters baskets were full of algae and I removed about 2 dozen frogs. Ewwww..... I cleaned the baskets, brushed down the sides of the pool and added 7 bags of shock. We have a 30,000+ gallon pool that we have been chlorinating with tabs. I read on here that I need to start adding bleach, but how much do I need to add? What kind of pool testing kit/strips do you recommend.

We are very new to this, but are really tired of lining the pockets of the pool people.... Thanks for any help you can give me.

[PoolDoc]

Hi Jen;

1) Get a Taylor K2006 or 2006C from links below -- only order from Amazon seller "Amato Ind"; others may not be selling K2006.
2) See if your pool people can test your pool for you, now. Post results if you have them.
3) Do NOT used bagged shock -- these days it's usually a hobo stew of chemicals, most of which you don't need.
4) If you can't test a test otherwise, get a cheap OTO / phenol red kit (Walmart or whatever) and test with that.
5) Report results.
6) Meanwhile, add 5 gallons of bleach to your pool each evening, till you know more.

Ben

[JenLM]

Thank you.

OK, I will try and get it analyzed today or tomorrow. I've ordered the kit and CANNOT wait to get it so I will no longer be dependent on the pool people. =)

I will add that we have a vinyl liner and a sand filter and we changed the sand out about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

[JenLM]

OK, I had to use the testing strips, but my results are MUCH different from before I added the pool company's chemicals- 29 lb Balance Pack 100, 1 pt muriatic acid, 4 bags burnout. :( Since then I have also had to add 7 additional bags of shock and the Bioguard Algae maintenance.

Before- according to the pool people:
CYA 36
Total Chlorine 1.1
Free Chlorine 1.1
ph 7.2
Total Alkalinity 90
Adj Total Alkalinity 79

My results today with the test strips:
alkalinity appears to be in the 180 range
ph is around 7.6
free chlorine is 0
bromine 2

Our pool is still green, but it is more of a cloudy green than a slimy green now. We are going to start adding the 5 gallons of chlorine tonight. Do you dilute it with water first or just pour it in?

[Watermom]

You can just pour it slowly into the skimmer while the pump is running or slowly in front of a return jet.

[JenLM]

Thanks Watermom.

[JenLM]

OK, according to the test strips, my free chlorine level is between 1 and 2 now after adding 5 gallons of bleach last night. I will test again later this afternoon. That's good that it stayed up overnight, right???

[aylad]

5 gallons of bleach would have taken a 30K gallon pool up to a chlorine level of about 10 ppm. The fact that it's now 1 or 2 says that you still have a huge chlorine demand and need to get the chlorine level up and keep it up. With your CYA around 40 ppm, you need to get your chorine level up to 15 or higher, and maintain that until the pool clears up. If you don't ever get it that high, it's not going to clear. I don't know what Bioguard Algae Maintenance is, but you don't need it in your pool--you need chlorine!

Janet

[JenLM]

Ok, we loaded her up with chlorine again last night and 1 hour later I got a 10+ reading with the test strips and the ph was holding strong.

This morning chlorine was closer to 5 with ph down from 7.6 to 7.4. The pool doesn't look any clearer. I'm going to vacuum to waste and brush again today.

Should I add more chorine again this morning, continue checking throughout the day and then add more again tonight if the levels have still dropped?

Thanks for all of the help!

[Watermom]

Yep! More bleach.

[JenLM]

Ok, I've been watching and adding. Until I get my testing kit, I won't really know how much to add, but I'm learning a lot on here in the meantime. Thank you for all of the help. I'm so happy to have found this forum. If I hadn't found y'all, I would probably be in tears and partially bald from tearing my hair out by now. :P

[JenLM]

Whooo hoooo! My arrived!! :)

My readings tonight after being gone for 2 days.
ph 7.4
CC 7.6
Alk 160
CYA 60

We added 5.5 gallons of 6% bleach tonight. Is that the correct amount? We loaded it up with bleach before we went out of town so I'm glad it's no lower now than it is. We are finally seeing the bottom of the pool again! Tomorrow we'll vacuum and brush it a couple of times.

Thank you so much for all of your help!

[Watermom]

5.5 gallons will add 10ppm of chlorine to your pool. With a CYA of 60, you'll need to shock up to 20. Did you mean FC of 7.6 instead of CC of 7.6? I hope so! Tomorrow, sock it with bleach every few hours. Each time, add enough to get back to 20. In your pool, each gallon of 6% bleach will add about 1.8ppm of cl. (Remember, most bleach is sold in 3 quart jugs. A gallon is 4 quarts.) Run pump 24/7.

[JenLM]

Ok, I believe our jugs of chlorine have 1.4 gallons of bleach in them. I did get the numbers for chlorine mixed up. I'm a little ADD and skipped over a few of the steps.

This morning I had:
FC- 17
CC - .5

We added another 1.4 gallon of bleach and I will test it again soon and probably add more.

Thanks! We have to run our pump 24/7 because of how hard it is to prime. It is far away and at a higher elevation in relation to the pool.

[Watermom]

Ah. Those chlorine numbers look more like it! Is the pool looking better?

[JenLM]

Yes, the deep end is much improved. We've been vacuuming and it seems to be nearly blue. We will have to work a little longer on the deep end, but we're brushing the dead algae down to the drain and vacuuming the bottom. We'll vacuum again today and tomorrow.

What do you do about the cloudy water that remains? It was cloudy before it turned green as well. It was cloudy before the pool people had us raise the alkalinity too.

[Watermom]

Continue with shocking and filtering 24/7 to try and clear up the cloudiness. Also, since you have a sand filter, you might try our little trick about adding a little DE to help filter stuff out. Read more about it here:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?3742-Adding-DE-to-sand-filter

[JenLM]

Thanks! We've been adding a little DE for the last two days. It's getting better, but the deep end is still dirty and the whole thing is cloudy. Fingers crossed that it will be better by the weekend. Is it OK to swim in it if it is cloudy???

[aylad]

As long as your chlorine is adequate for your CYA level, then you can swim if it's cloudy--just make sure that you keep an eye on anybody underwater...the huge danger with cloudy water is not being able to see somebody underwater that's having trouble...

Janet

[JenLM]

I hadn't thought about that! Thanks!

We can now see all of the way to the bottom of the pool!! Whoo hooo! The shallow end is clear and the deep will probably be clear tomorrow. I'm hoping to get it cleaned out so we can relax in the pool all day Saturday! THANKS for all of the help!!!!!

[aylad]

Now that's what we like to hear.....happy swimming!! :cool:

Janet