Green, green, green and running out of patience.

[marciastz]

Pool is 25,000 gal. vinyl, 3/4 HP pump, sand filter. Our pool is 11 years old and we've never had such a bad experience. I bought my test kit from Ben several years ago, and I have fresh testing regeants. Test Results: CYA 80, FC 26, CC .5, I'm not sure about the PH, I haven't been checking it because I read on here that the PH test won't be accurate at high chlorine levels. We opened in early May because we had to remove the cover for repair. We started running the filter 24/7 at the time. The water didn't look bad at first but we had storm after storm and were fighting a lot of leaves and debri. My CYA at opening was 30 so I started out using dichlor thinking it would work faster and it wouldn't hurt too bad to raise my CYA somewhat. I continued to shock with the dichlor (stupid me) and our pool just kept getting greener! We finally discovered that our filter was not working properly. It was blowing sand out the jets. So after waiting 2 weeks on parts and for the pool repairman to fix it, and continuing to run filter 24/7, we have a horrible green pool. When I realized,after getting the filter repaired, that my CYA had risen to 80, I started using bleach. I started this process 4 days ago. I have been keeping FC at 20-25 and it only loses about 2ppm overnight. I check & add 3 times a day as needed to maintain levels. You cannot see the bottom of the pool. I am brushing everyday and we have been vacuuming to waste every morning. Although we can't vaccum very long because the water level quickly gets below the skimmer and we have to stop and fill it again. It just doesn't seem to be helping at all. Questions----Do we need to drain some of the water? I also don't understand why my CC is only .5 when I'm fighting an algae? My usual routine includes polyquat60 weekly. Should I continue to do that while I'm chlorinating so heavy? or would I just be throwing more $$$ down the drain? Isn't my filter just blowing the green water back into my pool? We have backwashed a couple of times but the pressure isn't rising enough to need to. Help me if you can!

[AnnaK]

Ideally, your CC should be 0. Since your overnight FC loss is greater than 1 ppm you are still killing live algae. Keep up with the FC at 20 ppm which is shock level for your amount of CYA. I had a very green pool one time after a long absence. It took 6 days of shocking before the water was a cloudy blue and then 10 days to get it filtered clean. I didn't vacuum. I just swished the brush over the pool bottom a few times each day to stir things up and let the skimmer sock catch the fallout. I did change skimmer socks a lot during that time.

About the Poly-60, my understanding is that the high chlorine levels will eat it up (break it down) so I wouldn't add any, but I could be wrong on that. Try the skimmer socks if you haven't already. They do catch a whole lot of fine debris.

[marciastz]

What is a skimmer sock? I have never heard of it.

[marciastz]

Ok, I googled it and found out what a skimmer sock is. I will order some of those and try that. Do you think it would be beneficial for me to shut the filter off overnight and see if the algae will settle to the bottom and then we can try to vacuum it to waste? Or should we continue to run our filter 24/7 until this is cleared up? Do you think I should add some borax also? I'm pretty sure my PH was low, 7.2 or so, before I started this super-cholorination process. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

[AnnaK]

Most pool stores carry skimmer socks. If you have a pool store nearby it would be more effective to get a package there and start using it right away. Keep the pump running and keep filtering the dead algae in an attempt to avoid cloudy water. First we kill the algae via high FC levels until your overnight chlorine loss is 1 pp or less. Then we deal with vacuuming the debris, if there is any.

You can test your pH by adding 1 c pool water to 2 cups distilled water. That dilutes the bleach but doesn't affect the pH. Add borax as necessary.

[marciastz]

Does it have to be distilled water to dillute with? I live in a very rural area (hence the problem getting any kind of pool repairman to come). I think I can buy distilled water in my nearest town, but that is 10miles. I'm 40 miles from a pool store. I put a piece of a cloth diaper in my skimmer basket and secured it around the edge with a rubber band for a temporary sock. Seems to be working. Water is flowing through it fine and it is catching debri.

[AnnaK]

That's a very clever temporary solution! People have also used ladies' knee high hose. I haven't tried it.

The reason I suggested distilled water is because it would be pH neutral pH=7). Tap water can have a pH anywhere between 6.5 and 8.5 depending on the source and whether it's going through a softener or filter. But you can boil a couple cups of water and let it cool to room temperature. That'll bring the pH close enough to 7 for our purposes.

[marciastz]

I boiled the water and mixed 2 cups of it with 1 Cup pool water and it tested 7.5 this evening. So I think my PH is OK. My temporary skimmer sock caught quite a bit of dirt and it was green this evening. Took it out and washed it completely and replaced it. Ordered a couple of boxes of "real" skimmer socks today. My FC this morning @ dawn was 19, CC .5, I added two bottles of bleach and brought it to 24 ( I think I mistakenly said it was 26 earlier today but it was 24). Tonight, after sun was down, it tested FC 21.5, CC 0, Cya was 90. I added one bottle of bleach tonight to bring it to 24. Why would my CYA be 90 tonight when it was 80 this morning? Maybe because the light was better in the sun and I could see the black dot longer??? It surely can't still be rising, can it? I have added nothing but bleach since Saturday. Will vacuum to waste again in the morning. The water is still very green!

[AnnaK]

You are doing very well! Keep adding the bleach. You lose bleach during the day to sun light which is why we suggest testing in the evening (as a base number) and in the early morning for the comparison number. Don't worry about the difference in CYA. That's a very subjective test and yes, the lighting when you read it has much to do with it. + or - 10 points won't make a difference in how we need to treat the water anyway.

There will come a morning when the difference in FC readings is 1 ppm. Or 0 ppm difference from the night before. That's the day before the day you're done adding so much bleach. It'll happen soon now. The water will look blue but will probably be cloudy from the DBs. The dead algae bodies :) And your CC will be .5 or even 0. It can take 6 days or so to get the green out and then another 10 days, sometimes longer, of constant filtering and brushing the bottom to clear the cloudiness. A long time, I know, and we've all gone through it. The good part is that we are not polluting the water further by throwing chemicals at it that don't work any better or faster than the bleach but that do cost a whole lot more.

Great job on the pH testing! And the improv on the skimmer 'sock' :)

P.S.

If you haven't already, would you please fill out the PF Pool Chart Form (see last item in my signature)? It asks for information about your pool and the equipment you have and is a source of reference for us when we need to devise a solution to a problem your system may have.


Pool Chart Entry Form (http://goo.gl/cNPUO)
Pool Chart Results (http://goo.gl/PXaLu)

[CarlD]

Anna's advice is spot on. I would not worry or waste my chems testing CYA at this time. You are close enough. As you are keeping FC in the 20-25 range I wouldn't worry at all about CC at .5 either. If it was 2 or 3 I still wouldn't worry given your FC levels.

Love the diaper-as-skimmer sock solution! Very creative and should work at least as well as the skimmer sock, better than ladies hose, and just a little less convenient.
Carl

[marciastz]

Thnaks so much for following me on this difficult journey. This morning my FC was 21.5 (still lost 2.5 ppm overnight). I vacuumed to waste this morn and then added 2 more bottles of bleach. I didn't test again until after sundown and it was 23ppm, so I didn't add anymore bleach. My best guess would be that I lost 3.5 ppm during the daylight hours. My CC stayed consistent at .5 ppm last night, this morn, and this evening. My water is still green, but a lighter shade of green. Just when I really get down in the dumps about this, you say something encouraging and I become hopeful again. Thanks for the support, AnnaK and CarlD. I will keep up the good fight. I hope it won't be too much longer. My grandkids (I have 19 total, ranging in age from 19 to 1 yr old) are so dissapointed that they can't swim @ grandma's. Today I took 6 of them to the creek to play in the water and explore.

[AnnaK]

Lighter green is very encouraging. And creeks are a lot of fun. They'll swim in the pool soon, really!

[marciastz]

Ok, I'm back with great news! We were out of town for the weekend but my granddaughter came over and added 2 gallons of 6% each morning and evening. She doesn't know how to test but since that was pretty much what I'd been adding each day to keep my ppm at 20-25, I just had her add that amount and pray for good results. We came home today to a beautiful BLUE pool, very clear and I would even say "sparkly"!!!! My readings this evening look like this..FC-16 CC-0 CYA-50 ALK-90 PH- 7.5. I assume the CYA is lower because we did so much vac-to-waste and refilling last week. We put the auto vac in and it has been working for a few hours, the bottom is clean as a whistle, although when I was brooming, I stirred up a little something, not sure if it was brown or green!
The water is definitly not cloudy, I'm not sure what dead algae looks like, but I don't think there is any. I haven't added anything to it today as of yet. So I bet now would be a good time to add algecide??? And should I continue to keep my chlorine levels on the high side for safety's sake or let them gradually fall back down to a lower level? What level would you recommend? When is a safe level for swimmers? I have let them swim in the past when it was 10 ppm but not over that.Thank You, thank you for encouraging me through this!

[AnnaK]

That's fabulous! Your granddaughter deserves a little tip for being such a good pool girl :)

The pool chart indicates you're using a PS233 test kit so your results are believable. Your CYA is fine as are your other values. You can let the FC drift down and maintain it at between 3 and 5 as long as you have no CCs.

The stuff you broom up is probably just dust and dirt which falls in the pool just like it does on furniture and floor in the house. It gets stirred up when you brush and whn you swim and mostly gets filtered out. That's why I like the filter socks so much–they pick up that brown stuff.

You don't really need algaecide but if you feel you must have it, the only one we recommend is a product that says "polyquat-60" on the label. The active ingredient name is much longer but it will have 'polyquat-60' somewhere.

It's safe to swim now.

Congratulations on a job well done!

[marciastz]

Thanks! It is such a great relief to see blue water again. Maybe I'll be able to sleep better now! You have been a great help and a confidence booster for me. My granddaughter will be getting a nice tip, btw! Polyquat 60 is what I've always used, I genereally add 6 oz. a week as a preventative. I am planning on using my skimmer socks also. I hope this is my last post about this issue. But I will continue to read this forum periodically, because everything I do know about pool maintenance I have learned here over the last few years!! Just a quick comment, I went to Leslie's the other day to get another bottle of R=0871 (I was using so much of it, I thought I might run out) and they didn't have any. He asked me what it was used for and I told him you use it with the powder for a chlorine drop test. He says "Oh, the powder, well that's been discontinued because it is soooo very inaccurate! You need to stop using that!" I just said "I guess I don't have any business being here then." And I walked out! He must be an idiot, because how else would I measure these high FC levels?? Before I discovered Pool Solutions, I would have believed and trusted him. HA!

[AnnaK]

Inaccurate? Discontinued? Really?! I wonder if someone has told that to Taylor :)

I bought a 16 oz bottle of the reagent and a 125 g bottle of the DPD powder from amatoind.com. I keep them in the basement fridge and have not noticed any degradation. Every once in a while I test a known sample to make sure the reagents are still good. You can get refills from amazon as well, just be sure the vendor is Amato.

Knowledge is power. It's great that you found useful information here on the forum!

[marciastz]

Yes, after the Leslie's experience, I just ordered another bottle from Amato. In fact I ordered all my regeants this year from them. Shipping isn't bad when you order a bunch but when you just need one 2 oz bottle.... it cost as much to ship as the regeant cost. But that's OK, its worth it when you can trust them and know what you're getting.