greenish yellowish water

This forum absolutely rescued my pool a few years ago & I am forever grateful. Ever since starting the BBB method my pool is sparkling from the first day I open it to the day that I put the cover on it in September.

This post is for a friend who is in trouble with algae and has seen my pool & thinks I am a pool wizard & needs help. I am an expert at maintaining my pool (typically only adding bleach to maintain the proper chemistry) but I have no idea on how to solve a problem pool. 3 years ago this forum fixed my problems so I'm hoping it could do the same for my friends algae problem. I do not know what she has been tossing into her pool but I told her to stop.

Here's her numbers from a visit to the pool store yesterday (she isn't local enough for me to test her water):

25,000 gallon inground vinyl liner
CYA 150
total CH 10
free CH 9.4
PH 6.9
total alk 107
adj. total alk 62

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. And thanks again for straightening me out when I needed it.

First off, tell her to order a Taylor K2006 or 2006C ASAP (test kit link in my signature below) and do her own testing. With her high CYA, she will have to run high chlorine levels and will need the kit to be able to measure that high.

She needs to bring her pH up some. She should add some borax slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running, breaking up any clumps. Maybe start with a third of the box. Test a few hours later and redose if needed. Don't test pH when the chlorine is high, however, or the reading will not be accurate.

She has really high CYA although I don't know how they arrived at 150. The CYA test cannot differentiate past 100. At any rate, she needs to stop using any form of stabilized chlorine. (No triclor, no dichlor.) Best to stick with bleach or liquid sodium hypochlorite from a pool store.

She needs to shock her pool based on the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below. Keep it at shock level until she can go overnight without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine and the pool is clear and she has no more than 0.5 CC. Then keep chlorine high for one more day. At that point, let the chlorine drift down and keep it in range per the Best Guess chart. Run the pump 24/7 while trying to clear the pool, cleaning filter as needed.

Until she gets the good kit, have her get a cheap OTO/Phenol red kit (yellow and red drops). Though not terribly accurate, she can use a dilution method to force the kit to read chlorine higher than 5. Go to www.poolsolutions.com and click on 'guides.' Find the one called 'Testing without a good kit.'

Another option is to do a partial drain and refill and try and lower the CYA but do not totally drain.

Lastly, tell her to join Pool Forum and read, read, read. Also read on Pool Solutions. Then she can learn to manage her own pool which is better than her having to get her info through a third party -- you!

Hope this helps.