CLEARING UP A GREEN POOL, Movie magic or can it be this easy...

Anyone with a bit of free time check out this video link of someone clearing a med green colored pool almost effortlessly. Ive been working hard at clearing my 20k gallon pool out over the last 2 days, adding over 20 gallons of sodium hypochlorite. Ive made progress but nothing like this video portrays.

Id really like to hear some opinions of veterns of pool care. thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShyGK...eature=related

i read about the flock stuff online before joining the forum. im interested in peoples opinions on this as well. ill be following this thread

I have a thread going on my cloudy pool. I am about ready to go to the pool store and try something else to clear up mine. Thats crazy I am using BBB and my pool is crude, and all my neighbors are swimming in thiers.

I think you're confusing "3 days" with "effortlessly" -- he didn't film either the effort or the skill involved.

I can clean a pool like that in three days, too. I've turned pools from green swamp to gray-blue in 3 hours.

But I can't teach y'all to do it. There are too many if's, and's and but's involved.

Vacuuming settled floc is a SKILL I can demonstrate, but not one I can teach easily with a video, much less with words. Every single time I've ever tried to get a homeowner or lifeguard to vacuum settled floc out, they've made a mess of it, stirring it all up, breaking the floc and generally making things worse than they were before. This has even happened when I worked with them (guards) for 30 minutes doing the "Do it like this. Now, you try. No, not like that! Like this!" dance. I STILL came back to floc soup.

Granted, there are folks here who are NOT all thumbs and who can and will follow careful instructions. But there's no little star by their internet IP number that tells me, OK, this guy can do it for real! And, generally speaking people can't.

For every time I've heard of someone using floc successfully, I've heard 20 times of someone making a mess. A process that has -- under the conditions that apply here -- a 95% failure rate is NOT one I'll be recommending.

The information here is selected on the concept of trying to give average pool owners methods they can almost always use successfully.

Ben


PS. If I sound a little irked, I am. I've got 25 years experience trying to teach teen age lifeguards and 20-something pool managers how to do this or that. The guy in that video seemingly has little or no experience trying to teach folks a skill. I checked some of his videos -- the guy is an engineer, who's uploaded a number of "look what I can do" videos. There are guys like that, with a tremendous knack for things mechanical (I'm not among them). If you can find a mechanic like that, to work on your car, you are fortunate. But those guys are not helpful teachers or useful role models.

Hi Lawrosa;

I looked at your thread.

The bleach did what it should: killed the algae and oxidized what it can.

The problem is, your filter is not doing what it should: removing what was killed. A functioning filter's pressure will go up rapidly when you try to filter a white snow storm like yours . . . and that's what's happening when you add DE.

But it's absolutely common for undersized sand filters to be coupled with oversized pool pumps on AG pools . . . and to produce precisely the results you're getting. I first wrote a page about that on PoolSolutions back around 1998.

Ben

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PoolDoc

I think you're confusing "3 days" with "effortlessly" -- he didn't film either the effort or the skill involved.

I can clean a pool like that in three days, too. I've turned pools from green swamp to gray-blue in 3 hours.

But I can't teach y'all to do it. There are too many if's, and's and but's involved.

Vacuuming settled floc is a SKILL I can demonstrate, but not one I can teach easily with a video, much less with words. Every single time I've ever tried to get a homeowner or lifeguard to vacuum settled floc out, they've made a mess of it, stirring it all up, breaking the floc and generally making things worse than they were before. This has even happened when I worked with them (guards) for 30 minutes doing the "Do it like this. Now, you try. No, not like that! Like this!" dance. I STILL came back to floc soup.

Granted, there are folks here who are NOT all thumbs and who can and will follow careful instructions. But there's no little star by their internet IP number that tells me, OK, this guy can do it for real! And, generally speaking people can't.

For every time I've heard of someone using floc successfully, I've heard 20 times of someone making a mess. A process that has -- under the conditions that apply here -- a 95% failure rate is NOT one I'll be recommending.

The information here is selected on the concept of trying to give average pool owners methods they can almost always use successfully.

Ben


PS. If I sound a little irked, I am. I've got 25 years experience trying to teach teen age lifeguards and 20-something pool managers how to do this or that. The guy in that video seemingly has little or no experience trying to teach folks a skill. I checked some of his videos -- the guy is an engineer, who's uploaded a number of "look what I can do" videos. There are guys like that, with a tremendous knack for things mechanical (I'm not among them). If you can find a mechanic like that, to work on your car, you are fortunate. But those guys are not helpful teachers or useful role models.

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hahaha dont worry buddy, i cant speak for other people but i can assume that everyone is very appreciative of your advice. i know i am. i think thats why this thread is actually a good one, because when we see something on tv or online, we want to know more about it. flock falls into that category for sure. the idea of adding something to the water, having it drop everything down to be vacuumed up is a great one. its good that you inject real world experience and let people know that it may help but it takes finesse and isnt as easy as it seems. i think thats life in general.

lol@the lifeguard thing. i was a lifeguard during college summers for three years. i was responsible and on top of my job, but even a responsible 20 year old isnt very responsible. dont let the guy get under your skin too much. there are tons of shmucks in this world, just chalk him up as another one and enjoy your day.

im going to stick with the bbb method and really try to keep on top of it. it may be cloudy but , my pool smells fantastic haahahah

I don't think he's a shmuck -- just a little full of himself. I can't whine about that better, since that's a quality my family has observed in me. ;-0

It's just that he's leading folks down a yellow-brick road right into the witch's lair. I can't blame him -- I really doubt that he knows that. So I don't really have anyone to be irked 'at' -- I just wish he hadn't done that.

Ben

Last year, before I found this forum, our pool turned milky and no matter what we did we could not get it clear. The pool place suggested flocking it and I said sure. They sold me the stuff and off I went.

Did as they said in my 24 round pool and yes, flock will do what it's supposed to. It looked like it had snowed in the bottom of the pool. This was about at the end of the season so we were trying to close it and get it clear before we did. Vacuuming the stuff to waste was no problem.

However, the pool was as full as it could be of water and of course vacuuming it to waste sucked it down pretty good. As a newbie to this, I did it slowly and carefully but managed to get a lot of it on the first go around. I had to put more water in the pool, wait for it to settle again and get the rest of it.

It does and will try your patience, you have to go slow and be careful not to stir it up. It's almost like holding your breath and trying not to sneeze.

Hi DC;

You're exactly right about what it takes: "it's almost like holding your breath and trying not to sneeze" is a GREAT description of it.

The problem is that a LOT of the folk here were in a hurry before they got here, and in even more of a hurry by the time they decide to look into something as strange as a "BBB method". Just to get them to slow down, test their pool, stop adding goo, and clean their filters is as much as we can do. Trying to get them to spend several hours (depending on vacuum head, suction, and so on) slowly and meticulously vacuuming their pool is just a recipe for disaster.

I constantly cut and trim things toward my thumb; I don't recall ever cutting myself that way. But I NEVER teach my Scouts to cut that way!

Ben

1ST thanks for the responses, i have no problem hearing opposing opinions. ive learned tons here over the yrs and felt this was infomercial fake..
Aside from using floc, will algaecide alone give similar results to what this video shows. In the video he only shows adding algaecide to kill off the current algae. When he reutrns the next day the water is visibally much better, aside from the floating white residue on top. He mentions no type of sanatizer added, and uses the floc to drop the floaties to the bottom for easy vacuuming.

whats the general opinion of adding say a complete bottle of good algaecide to a green pool and not adding any other chemicals. Than running your filter to circulate the water.
Can this alone make GREEN GO CLEAN or at least turn green water noticabally clearer and much closer to having a clean pool.

please dont take this as if im doubting anyones opinion or knowledge on the forum., i like to know my options and methods of handling a GREEN MONSTER POOL.
Currently im a bbb user and have achieved good results that way using techniques learned here.

Algaecide is better at preventing algae than clearing up and existing bloom.

I'm not understanding the line of logic. Been dealing with a pool for almost my entire conscious life (missing a few years back in the mid 80's, but I know they were way fun). This forum has de-mystified the process and chemistry like nothing else. The chlorine (sodum hypochlorite/bleach) will kill everything. Getting the dead stuff out is a different issue. Flock to weight down dead algea and other organic waste is a way to do that but it is a bit like using caviar to de-ice your driveway instead of rock salt. This is strictly a filtration issue. DE in a sand filter works well. If the issue is a bit too much for that, vac to waste works great. Fill to absolute max. On waste I have about 17-20 minutes of vac time before getting to below half of the skimmer. Fill. Repeat. And again. Using a brush, you can gently push the dead algae to a spot that stuff naturally gathers the day before vac'ing. Let's you get more bang for the limited time. Takes a whole day but not non-stop work. And once a year at most. I have not needed to do this in two years though.

Take your time, be patient and use the simplest methods possible. Use them well. I wish I could get people to think like that in their every day lives because it works. If your equipment is mis-matched you MUST fix that because it will haunt you until you do.

Kill it. Chill. Push it to where you want it. Chill. Vac to waste. Chill. Repeat. Chill. DE vac. Chill. Swim for the rest of summer.