Cloudy water with a green tint?

Hello All,

I started the season with a new Summer Escapes pool, 15'x42", approx 3800 gallons per the literature. I've had a few issues leading up to the issue described in the subject so please bare with me.

I live one block from the beach in NC and we decided to try one of these pools to see if a larger investment would be worth the money for days when the beach is too crowded or in the evenings after we get off the beach. It started out amazing!

This pool has the "in the wall" skimmer which was a huge selling point for me as I know the benefits of an effective skimmer and had one in my IGP at my last house. The pool came with an attachment (skimmer plate I guess?) that connects a hose to the skimmer to vacuum. The pool, however didn't come with a vacuum so I went to Lowes and purchased a pole, hose, and vacuum (pool master 27514) which kept it clean. The pool came with one of those less than stellar pumps fed through a canister filter.

Hurricane #1 this summer... Left the pool with some leaves and debris but overall in good shape. I quickly vacuumed the pool and we were back in business. After vacuuming, however, the pump ceased operations. I contacted the manufacturer and waited three weeks for a replacement. Knowing what that time of no filtration would do to a pool, I happened across a great deal on a slightly used Waterway Hi Flo pump/sand filter combo (19") which operates at 45 gpm (2700 gph)... More power!

I used the BBB method which worked very effectively until we experienced the rainiest summer I have ever known. As much as 7" in an afternoon. I shocked the pool as needed, monitored the PH, and vacuumed ASAP.

Unfortunately one of the 6" in a day rainstorms occurred during a week long business trip and I returned to a green pool. My PH was high (I tested with drops then also had a computerized test done at my LPS) so I have been using muriatic acid to get it to the correct rate. I shocked the pool after returning to the correct PH, brushed the sides, vacuumed the bottom (light green/dark algae collecting in areas) and continued to keep an ideal PH and high chlorine level.

A few days later, I am still brushing up/vacuuming the small patches of algae that collect on the bottom, back washing frequently, etc. the pool remains cloudy with a tint of green. I've debated using a clarifier or an algaecide but since the pool has such a small volume of water, I wanted to ask the experts before I added any more chemicals.

Below is my readout from two days ago, prior to adding muriatic acid and shock. All of the calculations from the computer generated test aligned with the readings from my home test, therefore I trust that the fact of my PH being currently at 7.2 by my home dork test is correct. Due to shock, chlorine is obviously higher than what is stated below but it's a little too high for me to get an exact read from my drops.

I have been running my pump 24/7 and have even added back in the cartridge thinking that double filtering couldn't hurt?? I spray it off twice a day and it's usually covered in green.

Free Chlorine 0.67 ppm
Total Chlorine 0.99 ppm
Combined Chlorine 0.25 ppm (again much higher now)
PH 8.2 (again, at 7.2 now)
Hardness 84 ppm
Alkalinity (with stabilizer correction) 109ppm
Cyanuric acid 45ppm
Copper 0.1ppm
Iron 0.1ppm

Thanks so much in advance for any advice you can offer.

Killing algae requires the appropriate chlorine levels which are based on your CYA level. If you will take a look at this chart http://pool9.net/cl-cya/ , you'll see that with a CYA of 45ppm, your shock level is 15ppm. You need to raise your chlorine to that level and hold it there until you are losing no more than 1ppm of chlorine from sundown one evening to within one hour of sunrise the next morning. At that point, we advise holding the chlorine high for one additional day and then let it drift down but always keep it between the minimum and maximum in the chart or else you'll end up getting algae again.

The problem is that you don't have a kit that can measure chlorine readings that high and we have learned through the years, that most pool store testing is inaccurate. It looks all official with the readings to two decimal places but it usually really isn't. That is why we advise getting a good kit for yourself so you don't have to rely on pool stores. 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/

What kind of kit do you have? One that uses a yellow scale to read chlorine? If that is the case, you can use the chart at this link to read off the scale OTO readings:> http://pool9.net/oto-chart/ This does not negate the need to buy a good kit but just gives you something to use in the meantime. (Not super accurate though.)

A CYA reading of 45ppm is just about perfect. So, you don't want to use any forms of chlorine that have CYA in them such as trichlor tabs or dichlor powder. Best to use is just plain, unscented bleach. Many of us use Walmart's generic 8.25% bleach.

Test in the evening and add enough bleach to take your chlorine level back up to 15ppm. In a 3800 gallon pool, each cup of bleach will add approximately 1.5ppm and each quart will add about 5ppm. You can use those as a reference to help you figure out how much bleach you need to add to get back to shock level.

Your pH test won't be accurate when the chlorine is over 5ppm (or over 10ppm with a Taylor kit). So, if you need to test pH when the chlorine is high, you'll need to dilute the sample first by mixing one part pool water with an equal part of distilled water and then run the pH test with that mix as normal.

Keep running the pump 24/7 and clean the filter as needed and also brush the pool daily.

Hope this helps.

(Until your registration is completed, you won't be able to see the rest of the forum nor follow links while you are logged in. So, copy those links and paste them into a browser window after you first log out.)

Thanks for your help. I will give it a try. I am not sure what else I need to do to get my membership upgraded to allow me to connect with others with similar issues and to be able to use more features so I am going to try TFP to see if I can get more use there. Thanks again.

I'm sorry that you are unhappy with the responses you are getting at Pool Forum. We have been a little shorthanded this week since the forum owner, PoolDoc (Ben) lost his father last week when he passed away unexpectedly. You only registered yesterday and got a reply the same day. At any rate, I hope you are more successful finding what you need at TFP. Good luck.

My First post was June 30th. I didn't mean that to sound as "whiny" as it did, I just would love to be able to take full advantage of the knowledge here but can't as browsing without being logged in is beyond frustrating but I have to do so to see anything and even still I can't reply or ask for help in a thread that applies to my issue. I am sorry to hear about his loss.

You are right. I just checked and you registered on June 29. My bad. I'm sorry it is taking so long. I totally understand your frustration. :(

. . . membership upgraded.

Several quick points:

1. Clearing cloudy water on soft-side pools is SLOW and DIFFICULT. With our help it can be a little quicker and a little easier, but it will NOT be either QUICK or EASY.

2. The EASY way to clear a soft-side pool is to drain and refill. You should compare costs for the water (4,000 gallons in your case) versus the time and chemicals otherwise needed.

3. Once you refill, if you follow the "Super Simple Recipe" you have a better chance of avoiding problems. Replacing the OEM cartridges with the Unicel cartridges linked there, will help significantly too. http://pool9.net/ssr/

4. The LONG TERM solution is to either AVOID problems, by careful consistent pool care OR to get a much larger pump and filter.

5. The SSR (S. S. Recipe) is a SHORT TERM method, and works 2 - 3 months, max. After that, you must drain, refill and start over OR go ahead an use standard BBB methods. You *still* eventually need the K2006 testkit. http://pool9.net/tk/