Green (algae ?) water-test results karenkr

[karenkr]

need help bad-problem green yuky water, have been fighting it for over 2 weeks. Have added almost 25 lbs of Dura Chlor(sodium dichloro triazinetrone 57%) using dura chlor tabs -3- daily , has trichloro-s-triazinetrone 99%, and have added 2 qts of OMNI Algae Terminator. This was all done by pool peoples direction. Could not ever get chlorine level up no matter how much chlorine added. Luckily I have found your site so Im hoping you can help. From previous discussion I took your advice and purchased borax and bleach and a drop test kit. Last night I added 2 boxes of borax and 1 gallon of bleach. This am I tested cl/br: 5/10 ph: 6.8 total alkalinity: 120 total hardness: 450 cya: under 90. What do I need to do next??
I dont know what kind of pool I have other than it is not a vinyl liner and the pool people said it held about 50,000 gal.

[aylad]

Hi Karen,
First of all, in a 50K gallon pool, one gallon of bleach will only raise your Cl by about 1 ppm. That's WAYYYY too low to clear up green water. To tell you how high your Cl needs to be, we need an accurate number for CYA. "under 90" isn't close enough--because there's a big difference in required Cl levels if your CYA is 30 than if it is 80. If you can either retest for it, or have the pool store test for it and post the result, it will help us tell you what to do. With that much dichlor and trichor used (both of which contain CYA), I'm suspecting that it's much higher than 90, so we may be looking at draining/refilling part of your water. Do not add any more algaecide or anything else the pool store tries to sell you until you've come back and posted a CYA number. We've helped lots and lots of people in your situation, without the need for buying a bunch of unnecessary chemicals that just cause more problems with your water, but it's going to take a little patience and some accurate numbers.

Welcome to the forum!

Janet

[karenkr]

Thanks for the info. There is no pool store within 30 miles and today being the 4th they are probalbly closed so I will re-test. All I have to re-test with is the walmart drop test - will that do any good to re-test with that? Sure appreciate your input

[aylad]

Yes, go ahead and retest with the kit you have....but ignore the Bromine scale since you don't have a bromine pool.

Janet

[karenkr]

Re-tested the water. Results as follows
Chlorine: 0
Ph : 6.8
CYA : 100
Should I add some more borax to try and bring up Ph? I have more dura chlor but am afraid to add until I hear from someone.
Thanks

[Simmons99]

You can add some Borax to raise the PH to 7.2, but you need to get the chlorine to at least 25ppm and keep it there (testing 3X a day). There is a bleach calculator that some of the members have on their signature that can assist you in the amount of BLEACH (plain unscented ULTRA bleach) to add. NO more tablets (trichlor or dichlor)- your CYA is too high and it will keep the chlorine from being as effective.

Also a 50K gallon pool is HUGE. What are the dimensions? You need an accurate # of gallons otherwise you will be overdosing your pool.

[karenkr]

I tried to measure my pool but I dont think I did it right. It is kinda L shaped and is 9-10ft deep at one end and 3-4ft deep at the other. The measurements I came up with were 14ft x 18ft at one end and 19ft x20ft at the other. I feel so dumb because I dont know what I am doing. I am basing the gallon size on what the pool guy told me . Im going to walmarts and getting about 10 gallons of bleach and a couple boxes of borax. Hopefully someone will tell me about how many gallons I should add and how much borax to add. I am a total geek at this , have always relied on the pool guy---but this year it has just about gotten the best of me financially with all the stuff he has put in and what he has sold me. Then I found this site so I am trying to go it alone ( with help from you guys) Test reading now are
chlorine: 0
ph: 6.8
TA: 120
CYA: 100
Sure hope someone out there can help me!!! Appreciate any input given
Thanks in advance

[karenkr]

Just got an email from the pool guy I used???? to deal with. Scared the living daylights out of me.Said he tested my water (I didnt know that he did) yesterday with these results, States I have to drain my pool because I have minerals in the water. Also that my water hardness is 540 and that I had a Phosphate reading of 1000. Also said that my pool is leaching through the concrete/gunite. Said my pool surface was shotand I needed a new gunite job--cost of $5000-6000. Can someone help me. There is no way can afford to re-gunite this year. Any suggestions?????? Back to my algae problems, I did add 4 gallons of ultra bleach earlier in the evening. Just re-tested my water and FINALLY had some chlorine , New test re: Free Chlorine: 5/10 Ph: 7.5 (finally coming up too) TA: 120 CYA: 100. For me this is an improvement. What do I do next??
Thanks

[aylad]

If you've been able to shock the pool without staining so far, then don't worry about the minerals--if they're there, the pool guy must have put them there. Ca hardness is high at 540, but as long as your TA and pH stay fairly low, it shouldn't be a problem for you right now. Ignore the phosphate reading, it's meaningless to you for right now. As far as the new gunite job, how does your pool look?

As far as the algae goes, shock your pool up to 25 ppm and keep it there by testing and adding more a couple of times daily...here's the link to the bleach calculator you can use to help determine how much you need.

http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe

Janet

[karenkr]

First--thanks so much for helping me. I am beginning to get so frustrated and I feel so D----Dumb. I was really upset when the pool guy said what he did- when always before he was telling us what a pretty pool and how good shape it was in. It is true that it is an older pool, dont know exact age, guess about 15 years but all it needed as far as we knew was a good paint job. There is no staining on it that I can tell. And until about 3 wks ago had not had algae or any major problems with the water. Anyway back to my green algae? problem. So far I have added 10 gallons total of ultra bleach and 3 boxes of borax. When I first started with the advice of this site--I had horrible algae and green yuky water, no chlorine level and a ph of below 6. Just re-tested with these results Chlorine: 3/6 Ph: 7.5 TA: 120 amd CYA: 100. I have tried to download the site you recommended and for some reason it just keeps coming up Page Expired , I even tried to type in address and am told the site does not exist. Is there another way to access the site? What do I do next. I was told by the pool guy that we had a 50,000 gallon pool, so how much bleach at a time should I add? Just tell me what to do and I will do it. Should I be adding anything else beside the bleach? The water is still green but I do feel like I am at least on the right track now-----thanks to you guys. Just dont know what to do next so please advise. Thanks so much--
Karen

[ChuckD]

Karen, don't feel dumb!
(I know, easy to say...but that link doesn't work for me either)

Assuming your pool guy's estimation of your pool volume is correct, there's a truth you'll have to face right now: you're going to need a whole bunch of chlorine to get going. Partially due to the size of your pool, but also due to the high CYA. Brace yourself, with that size pool, and with the guidance of Ben's Best Guess CYA chart indicating a need for 25 ppm chlorine level to shock, you'll need 20 gallons of Clorox Ultra laundry bleach (6% sodium hypochlorite). And that's just the initial shock. You'll have to sustain that 25 ppm for a couple days to clear the algae. Quite a task!

First, I think it would be a big help to lower your CYA level which can only be done by draining half the water and refilling to dilute it. This will reduce the amount of chlorine you'll need.

Next, I think this might be a situation where you might consider buying the higher concentration chlorine available at pool stores. It's typically 10 or 12.5%. Double the concentration, halve the dosage. I've recently found I can buy it at a local family-run pool place and it's actually cheaper than Clorox.

I hope Mike comes along with the link to his bleachcalc (Mods: can't this be a sticky somewhere?) because it's a Godsend for finding all your chemical needs.

Anyway, I'm not an expert, just a veteran BBB user. I hope a real expert can comment on my advice because that's what I'd do in your shoes (actually I think I'd jump for joy at having such a pool too!). Hope you don't have to heat it too.

C.

[karenkr]

Tested water this Morn with both strips and drop test Results
Drop Test:
Chlorine: 5/10
Ph: 7.5
TA: 140
Hardness: ???? water did not turn red only yellow did add drops 120 of them and the water finally turned a very light blue. Tested it twice same results
CYA: Did not register. Black dot dissappeared before water was half way up to 90 Tested twice same results

Test Strip Results
Chlorine: 3/6
Ph: 7.2
TA: 120
Hardness: 200
CYA: 100
Do I need to add some Cya? Is my hardness level anything to worry about? Will keep adding bleach at 2 bottles a day or should I add more to shock the heck out of it? Please help and advise
Thanks for your patience and help
Karen

[Simmons99]

Rely on the drops based test. The 5/10 chlorine reading is really 5ppm - OR 5 TIMES LOWER THAN YOU NEED.

Right now just test the chlorine and PH. The CYA and ALK and CA shouldn't change that much.

If you have the OTO test (which is the one that is yellow)- get some distilled water from the store and take one part pool water and one part distilled water. Mix them together and then test and multiply your results by 2. This will allow you to test to 10ppm. If you take two parts distilled water to one part pool water and then you miltiply your results by three (15ppm)....and so on.

Otherwise I would recommend a FAS-DPD test kit for the high chlorine levels. Call your pool store before you drive all the way out there to see if they have one.

[karenkr]

Ok here goes--new test re: Chl: 5/1 this was done using 2 parts distilled water and 1 part pool water. Does this mean that my chlorine level is 15 times lower than it should be????? Ph tested 7.2

I have some dura chlor (bucket says that it is sodium dichloro triaizinetrone 57%)--plenty of that left , Haviland DuraChlor 3in tabs(bucket says that it is Trichloro-s-triazinetrone 99%) and a bottle of OMNI Algae terminator. This is stuff I had bought before I found this site(MUCHO BUCKS) Should I add any of these or should I stick to bleach???? I am going to the pool store tomorrow so if someone can tell me what I need I will pick it up.

We do love our pool its just so frustrating right now. I have never had this problem before--dont understand what happened to cause it --and cant seem to get the problem under control. I know PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE----IM a Leo so dont have much(HA HA) better to laugh than to cry HUH!!! Anyway if some kind soul will tell me what I need to get at the pool store and walmarts I will get started THE RIGHT WAY thanks to this site.

Thanks
Karen

[Dr. Spike]

Since you are still reading 5PPM with a 2 to 1 ratio you are at 15PPM+. You might want to try a 3 to 1 ratio of distilled water and the water you are testing (multiply by 4 for the result), this will get you to read up to 20 PPM. If you still get a reading of 5 do a 4 to 1 ratio. Eventually you should get a reading of less than 5, this should be close to what your levels are. (Not sure how much you can dilute and still get a good reading).

I hope that makes some sense.

So far I have not had to deal with algae, but from what I have seen here, you want to keep it at shock levels until you have won the battle.

I agree with getting a FAS-DPD test kit if you can find one locally, or you could order one on-line.

And yes, it is better to laugh than cry.

Oh yeah, darn Leo's, no patience I tell ya. LOL! :D

[karenkr]

Went to Pool store yesterday. YEP they wanted to sell me bunches of stuff but I held my ground and didnt buy anything. I wanted a FDS test but they did not have any so right now will continue to use the drop test I got from walmarts. Anyway they were nice enough to run a computerized test on my water--------this is what they told me
CYA: 100
Tot. Chl: 10plus said they couldnt measure higher

Free Chl: 10plus
Ph: 7.2
Tot. Alkalinity: 118
Adj. Total Alk :125
Total Hardness: 337
Copper: none
Iron: none
Manganese: No
Cloudy: none
Staining: none
Green Algae: EXTENSIVE
Black Algae: none
Mustard Algae none
slime/mold: none

Have found out since that my pool size is about 32,600 gallons not 50,000 like my pool guy said
I did not tell the pool store that I had added 12 gallons of bleach before they tested it.
So where do I go now--how much more bleach do I add and when ---testing 3x a day on week-ends and 2x a day when I work.
Do I need to double whammy the bleach again. No where I ckd yesterday had the stronger bleach so will keep with the ultra(6%)

Question: since this post is getting so long should we delete some of it?

Thanks so much for your help
Karen