Looks like green food coloring in my pool

My pool water has a green tint that I cannot get rid of (it is getting worse). I stuck my hand in the deep end of the pool and the sides do not feel slick and do not have algae stuck to it.

I finally took water sample to Leslies on Sunday afternoon (the only choice I have of a pool company to test). The results were:
FAC 1
TAC 2
CH 150
CYA 60
TA 50
PH 7.4
Copper 0
Iron 0
Pho 300
I added about 8-9 lbs of baking soda to get up the TA, and they had me add 2 bags of their Fresh N Clear that night.

Monday night the TA was 130, PH was 7.6, and it had no chlorine. and i put two chlorine tablets in the skimmer. I added their product PhosFree (they said it would get rid of the green tint).

I don't know how long it is supposed to take the PhosFree to work but this morning...it looks the same. I called Leslies, they said to bring the water in to test and they will tell me what else I need to add to it.

I am panicking because my husbands WHOLE family is coming into town on Saturday for a pool party! I don't know what to do.

Pool info:
17,000 gallon octagon vinyl liner
I use baking soda and borax for PH & ALK but I use chlorine tabs and shock from walmart because I am scared of they CYA product (yes, I know I am a baby).

First... you really need to be testing your own water to take control of it. (I assumed that you don't since you went to Leslies for testing-- if I'm mistaken-- I'm sorry). Look for a Taylor K-2006 test kit. You can find that in the stickies at the top of the forum. That said, a bit of useful info from the store test is that you don't have metals in your water (at least by their test). Your description sounds exactly like my scenario years ago --- water is bright emerald green but transparent. Long story very short... mine was algae and I had to shock (raise the FC level to shock level) for several days to get rid of it. I think that's what you've got going on, but let's get confirmation from the moderators before you act. You will need plenty of bleach on hand... looks like you already have plenty of CYA in your pool by the testing at Leslies, so you probably need to use bleach for chlorination as well as shocking at this point.

Help for her anyone?

Thanks drband. I do test my water at home; I took it to Leslies because I thought maybe they would give me more info on my numbers than what I could get at home. I hope someone knows what I should do.

Do you fill your pool from a well?

No m'am I dont fill it from a well.

Glad to hear you don't fill from a well. Go ahead and shock your pool. With a CYA of 60, you'll need to shock the pool up to about 20ppm and try and hold it there. Test 2 or 3 times per day and each time, add enough bleach to get the chlorine level back up to 20. Since you basically have no chlorine in the pool at this time, (unless you have added some since those numbers were posted), go ahead and add 5.5 gallons of plain 6% household bleach. That should take you up to around 20ppm. (For reference to help you figure out how much to add each time you test, each quart will add about 1ppm of chlorine to your pool.) Run the pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the pool. Continue with the sustained high cl reading until the water clears and you can go from sundown one day til within 2 hours of sunup the next day without losing more than 1ppm of cl. At that point, I'd sustain the high cl for one more day for added insurance and then you can let it drift down but always keep it between 5-10ppm. Take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below for my info about that. I would suggest only using bleach for your source of chlorine. You don't want to use any more trichlor tabs or any dichlor powdered shock because both of them contain stabilizer (CYA0 and your level is already high.

Like drband said above, you really need to get a good kit. Especially since you are going to have to run chlorine levels between 5-10 and other kits won't measure readings that high. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C (same kit, larger bottle of some reagents). If you buy it through the Amazon link in my signature, the Pool Forum makes a little money on the sale which helps us keep this form online. Only buy if the seller is Amato Industries, however. Some other sellers are substituting the K-2005 which you do NOT want. If Amato isn't listed, wait a day or two and try again. They seem to restock pretty quickly when they sell out.


Until you get one, go to Walmart and pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops) and use that to test the water yourself. If you have a choice between one that reads chlorine to 3 or 5, choose 5. Also get a jug of distilled water. You can force the kit to read higher by using a dilution method explained here: Testing Without a Good Kit

Run your pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the water.

One last thing if you will. To make it easier for us to help, if people will create a signature line with their pool specs, it keeps us from having to reread through posts to find out basic information. You can create a signature by clicking on 'settings' in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage. In your sig, please put type of pool, volume, type of filter, size of pump, whether or not you have a SWCG or any water features and the fact that you do or do not have a K-2006. Thanks!

Looks like Watermom gave you a good plan. Work it just like she said and you'll have clear water soon.
Good luck.

I will order a kit today. I went straight down and added the bleach. Rereading this post I have a couple questions. Do you mean that after I have this cleaned up I should keep my chlorine levels 5-10ppm always? I thought that was too high a number for swimming? Any educated guess on how long this will take? I really, really appreciate all your help. Thank you.

Good decision to order the kit. You won't be sorry.

Yes, after you clean this up, you'll need to keep your chlorine between 5-10ppm. Chlorine levels are based on CYA levels. Did you look at the Best Guess Chlorine chart? It is no more irritating to swim with cl of 10ppm and CYA of 60 than it is to swim in 3ppm cl and no CYA. If you don't keep the cl between 5-10, you're gonna have algae over and over.

And, you're welcome! We're glad to be able to help!