Green pool now blue after shock, what now?

[kluczenk]

Sounds good, I'll start reading around a bit more on the stickied items. One other question as I think I at least have a direction for the time being. Now that the water is a bluish color but still seems cloudy what can I do to get things back to a clear/blue rather than a milky/blue? I'll continue running the filter and keep the chlorine high by adding plain bleach. I have some water softener/mineral additive, should I add that?

[aylad]

No additives, just good filtration and adequate chlorine levels. It takes longer than a day to develop the kind of algae bloom that you had (and I'm not convinced you've completely killed it yet--cloudy water is often THE early announcement of an algae problem) and it's going to take longer than a day to clear it up. Bump the chlorine up to 25 ppm and hold it there as I described in the other post, and keep the filter clean and running. Oh--there IS one more additive that we do recommend very often--POPP (pool owner patience and persistence). That one is usually the key to everything!!

Janet

[kluczenk]

Many thanks. I'll go get some store-bought bleach to keep the chlorine level high and throw in a little POPP for good measure! On a related note I've purchased the Taylor self-test kit. I'm hoping with a little TLC from Poolforum I won't feel like moving out of this house because of my costly pool. I'll keep you posted on progress.

[aylad]

Buying your own test kit will make taking control of your pool SO much easier!!!

Let us know how it's going....

Janet

[kluczenk]

Test kit came and I did my first set of tests! Unfortunately the pool is getting green/cloudy again. I don't want to add any more shock and increase the stabilizer any further but have no idea how much bleach to be adding. I posted in the water treatment/balancing section of the site with the following data:

FC=0
pH=7.6
TA=200
CH=325
CYA=70
Water Balance=.575

I've added a bit of bleach since last week but clearly not enough. How much do I need to be adding to my 33,000 gallon pool to keep it high enough for the stabilizer? You can reply here or my post in the other section.

[kluczenk]

Sorry for the double post, here are the stats from the original message:

Hi all, I've posted previously in the algae section and received great responses. I was able to clear my murky pool but in waiting for my Taylor test kit to arrive it has started to go green on me again. Please take a look at these results and let me know how to proceed:

FC=0
pH=7.6
TA=200
CH=325
CYA=70
Water balance=.575 (using the included wheel)

I have a 33,000 gallon chlorinated plaster pool and due to high levels of stabilizer have been told that I should just use regular bleach to chlorinate the pool or be forced to empty and refill to reduce stabilizers (which won't happen this summer). How much bleach do I need to add to the pool to get my chlorine to a high level and kill off the algea. I don't know whether to go out and buy 3 or 4 bottles of bleach or 20 or 30. I'll obviously continue to run the pumps and will scrub and vacuum the pool as well. Please help to clean the pool back up.

[aylad]

If you'll look at the best guess chart in one of my above posts, it tells you that to shock a pool with a stabilizer (CYA) of 75, you need to raise your chlorine up to 20 ppm and keep it there by testing and adding more 2-3 times daily until the water clears up again. To get to 20 ppm, it will take 11 gallons of 6% bleach. After that, when you're re-testing to add more, each 1/2 gallon of bleach will raise your chlorine by 1 ppm, so you can use that as a guide to figure out how much more to put in each time. Keep the filter running, brush the pool daily. Keep it at 20 ppm until the water clears, you have no combined chlorine, and you're not losing any chlorine when testing at night after the sun is off the pool and again in the morning before the sun is on the pool. After that, then you can let it drift back down, just like you did before. However, this time, DO NOT LET THE CHLORINE DRIFT BACK DOWN BELOW 5 PPM. Because your stabilizer is so high, you must keep it higher than 5 ppm to keep from having to repeat this cycle over and over again. This means that you must test the water daily, and add chlorine (bleach) as needed (probably daily, or at least every other day) to maintain your chlorine levels and not let them go to zero again. This is an ongoing process, not a one-time cure.

You want to enjoy your pool, not just spend the summer treating it!

Janet