Green Pool - Please Help

Ok, I had the store open up the pool. It didn't get clear. I had to put about 30 bags of shock into it to get the chlorine to hold. The pool store came and vaccumed out the bottom (while still cloudy) and put shock in it after words. It cleared after that. I had the pool company come back out and vaccum it when it was clear. They didn't have enough water to vaccum all to waste, so they vaccumed with the filter and backwashed. My pool turned into a green mess and 7 days later is still green. Chlorine Levels are holding. The pool store isn't giving any information other than might need to change sand. But it cleared already on its own a week ago. Below are my test Readings. I am in the process of upping the alkalinity and ph. I also was using Sam's chlorine shock, and thought the store brand might be better (since the pool company used there own shock to clear it last time and it did clear). My Levels are below:

Temp: 84
Sat Inx: -1
CYA: 70
Tot Chlorine: 7.9
Free Chlorine: 7.9 (haven't added shock in 5 days)
ph: 6.6
Tot Alkalinity: 75
Adj Alkalinity: 54
Tot Hardness: 276

I assume these readings are from the pool store? Unfortunately, pool stores are notorious for inaccurate testing. It would be better for you to test it yourself.

The test kit that we think is by far the best is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). Not available locally but you can get it through this link that takes you to Amazon: http://pool9.net/tk/ (Since you have a CYA reading of 70, you're going to need that K2006 kit. Other kits can only read chlorine levels to 5ppm and you'll have to run higher than that to compensate for that CYA reading. You can read more about the connection between CYA and chlorine here:> http://pool9.net/cl-cya/)

But, in the meantime, go to Walmart and see if they have the HTH 6-Way drops-based kit (no test strips!) and get that. If they don't, get an OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops) instead. Use it to test and then post your numbers. Also while you are at WallyWorld, get several jugs of their generic 8.25% bleach, several boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle) and a gallon of distilled water.

Test your water and post your numbers. Also tell us about your pool. What kind it is and volume. What size of pump (hp) and what kind and size of filter.

The most critical thing, assuming that pH reading is correct, is that any pH readings below 7.0 are acidic and can damage your pool. You need to get the pH up ASAP. You can use the borax to raise the pH. I can't really suggest an amount without knowing your volume.

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Get a cheap OTO/phenol red drops kit and 20 gallons of PLAIN 8% bleach per 10k gal of pool water and a gallon of distilled (NOT: spring, bottled, artesian, etc => distilled) water. You should be able to get all these at Walmart.

1. Retest pH using 1/2 pool water and 1/2 distilled water. If the pH is between 7 & 8, leave it, the calcium, and the alkalinity levels alone for now. If the pH is less than 7 or more than 8, post the results you got AND tell us what sort of pool you have.

2. Make sure your filter is ON 24/7. If you have a DE filter, put it on bypass or recirculate.

3. Unless you have a DE filter, odds are against you having 'pretty' water by July 4th. Not impossible, but not likely either.

4. Till the algae is dead, there are ONLY TWO things you should focus on: (1) maintaining a pH level that won't hurt your pool and (2) killing the algae. Forget about everything else.

5. You NEED the K2006 Mom mentioned. If your CYA level is really 70 ppm, you may need as much as 35 ppm of chlorine to kill the algae. You can only measure and control those levels with a K2006 (or kits that are even more expensive!)



Concrete or vinyl pool?

If it's concrete,
+ adding bleach at the rate of 4 gallons every 2 hours.
+ continue till the algae turns gray / brown OR until you reach an ORANGE (off-scale) OTO test result.

If it's vinyl
+ adding bleach at the rate of 2 gallons every 2 hours.
+ continue till the algae turns gray / brown OR until you reach an orange-tinted yellow (off-scale) OTO test result.