green water

[Jim Etters]

my pool is 16x32. how many gallons is that. Also open to green water , no chlorine reading and ph test says to add soda ash. Water is clearing up after adding bleach

[PoolDoc]

. . . membership updated.

If you want to post your pool info here:
http://pool9.net/pf-pool-form/


And test results here:
http://pool9.net/pf-hist-form/

We can take a look.

Here are the basic green swamp clean up steps:

1. Test pH, adjust immediately if below 7.0 or above 8.0. If you have a K2006, Taylor K2005 or HTH 6-way drops kit, ALSO test the CYA level. It is common for 'swamp goo' to eat stabilizer, and if you had 60 ppm CYA last fall and none now ... that will be important to know.

2. Remove all physical debris -- leaves, sticks, nuts, bugs, etc. -- using a vacuum or leaf net.

3. If possible, vacuum algae piles to waste. (Can be done via a multiport valve, OR by a siphon vacuum if the pool is above ground or on a hill side.)

4. Make sure you're ready to test. An OTO / phenol red drops kit is a MUST. Having the K2006 is not essential at this stage, but will be later once the pool is somewhat cleaned up.

5. Begin circulating the water WITHOUT filtering: put filters with a multiport valve on bypass, remove DE from DE filters, remove cartridge from cartridge filter.

Filtering live algae is not a good idea. DE filters will stop up almost instantly. Sand filters won't accomplish anything good, but as the algae bits die, may fragment those bits into pieces too small to filter.

5. With the water circulating, do a first dose of chlorine, in the late evening. For each 10,000 gallons of pool water add 30 ppm of chlorine: (5) gallons of plain 8% bleach, 5 pounds of dichlor (56% available chlorine) or 4 lbs of calcium hypochlorite (65% available chlorine). Test and report chlorine 1 hour after dosing, and again early in the AM, before the sun is high.

With liner pools, if you are concerned about bleaching, stagger the doses into 3 parts, with 1/3 added each hour.

6a. If there is no visible effect on the pool water, and the chlorine disappears, consider doing a chlorine demand test. In some cases, it may be cheaper and easier to drain and refill, than to clean up a really bad swamp!

6b. If the algae is noticeably affected, but the pool is still green tinted, repeat the same dose the following evening.

6c. If there is no noticeable effect, do a chlorine demand test. As mentioned above, 'swamp goo' (algae + bacteria) usually eats CYA (stabilizer). As it eats the CYA, it poops residue out. Sometimes, this residue is nitrogen gas -- which is no problem, apart from the loss of stabilizer. Sometimes, it poops nitrates, which aren't great -- nitrates fertilize algae -- but is not a disaster. But, sometimes 'swamp goo' poops ammonia . . . and that's a BIG problem. The primary symptom will be the repeated overnight loss of ALL the chlorine added, even when you've added huge doses. If this is the case in your pool, you need to (a) prepare yourself mentally for a long expensive battle, (b) make sure you have what you need to test and treat the water, and (c) adjust the treatment plan to compensate, mostly by raising the pH to near 8.0.

Of course, at this point, if you have a concrete pool or an above-ground pool, you may want to re-consider draining and refilling. Likewise, if you have a fiberglass pool in a location where the ground is dry and there's no risk of 'floating' the pool out of the ground. IMPORTANT: in-ground vinyl pools can NOT be drained with out professional help, and not always even then!

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TBC

[PoolDoc]

16x32 vinyl IG pool with deep end is usually about 20,000 gallons.

[Jim Etters]

thanks, trying the bbb method and have put in about 3gallons of bleach, some muriac acid and borax. reading at 6:00 PM . Clorine level at .o5 and Ph 8.2

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also wather is clearing up is a little cloudy

[PoolDoc]

Check it tomorrow. The chlorine is way too low, and the pH way too high.