Green & Cloudy Water

[Pamsel]

We got a late start on the pool this year due to my husband being in the hospital for several weeks. I shocked the pool for a week, with no improvement. Then we discovered a broken pipe in the filter. On Wednesday of this week, we finally had fixed the filter, replaced the sand and have everything running smoothly. Wednesday evening I started with bringing the chlorine to shock level again and have maintained it morning and evening. I'm also brushing down the pool once or twice a day, as well as running the robotic sweeper all day. The filter is running 24/7.

My water is not improving at all. It's a cloudy green color. When we opened the pool, the water was clear, but the pool was covered with algae. After the first brushing, the water has remained cloudy and green.

Here are my levels this morning:
CYA - 23
T.A. - 120
PH - 7.2
FC - 24
CC - 3

I shocked to 25 last night so the algae isn't depleting the chlorine overnight. I've shocked to 25-30 both morning and evening, which is actually more than recommended by Ben's Best Guess chart, but it seems that's what I always have to do in the spring to clear the pool.

For some reason, that I can't figure out, I don't seem to be getting any results. The water remains unchanged. Any suggestions??

Thanks much!

[Watermom]

If you've only been at this since Wednesday, then you may just need to continue it for longer. Sometimes it takes several days. Are you sure your filter is working properly? Is the pressure rising? Have you backwashed the filter any?

[aylad]

The fact that you have a CC of 3 means that your chlorine is killing off something in the pool, and that your beginning chlorine level after the shock had to have been higher than the 25 that you were expecting. Total chlorine = Free chlorine + Combined chlorine, so you must have started at TC of 27. What you're going to need to do is maintain that shock level until you see the pool clear up, and your CC goes down to 0, in addition to not losing any chlorine overnight.

How are you testing your water?

[Pamsel]

Yes, Watermom, I backwash once a day. It appears to be working fine now - since having it serviced and repaired. The pressure rises a little, not a lot, and then drops back down when I backwash.

Aylad, I use the test kit I got from Ben to do my testing. If I just need to stay at it, then I can do that. I just expected to begin to see some changes by now and thought I must be missing something.

I'm thinking of putting in a skimmer sock, just to see if that will help any, but I guess I'll just keep pouring in the bleach until it clears, unless anyone can see something I might be missing.

[Watermom]

Yes, try the skimmer sock and keep hammering it with bleach. Also, you don't need to backwash every day. It is best if you don't. The rule is to backwash whenever your filter pressure rises 8-10 psi over clean filter pressure.

[Pamsel]

I didn't know that about backwashing, Watermom. Thank you for your help and I'll just keep at it with the bleach and will add the skimmer sock. I'll let you know when it's sparkling in the sun. :-)

[aylad]

Just to add to what Watermom said, a dirty filter will actually filter water better than a clean one--less space for junk to get through....

Janet