GREEN pool water!!! HELP!

[CarlD]

Yup. Regular, ordinary, unscented, non-foaming Bleach, either 5.25% concentration or Ultra (6%) concentration. In case you are concerned, pool stores sell "Liquid Chlorine, 6%" and it is IDENTICAL to Ultra Bleach.
One gallon of 6% bleach should raise your FC level (Free Chlorine) by 3 to 3.5ppm.

That's what our B-B-B Method of pool care is all about: Using Bleach, Borax and Baking Soda as your primary chemicals (plus a few others, but saying "BBB" is catchier! )

Carl

[Watermom]

Actually, since your CYA is low, this is one time I think it would be better to go ahead and shock with the dichlor instead of bleach. Dichlor will also add some CYA which you need. Once you get a good test kit like I recommended above, you'll be able to test your own water including CYA. You don't want your CYA to go much over 40 so you'll need to monitor it and then switch to just using bleach for your source of chlorine at that point. For every 10ppm of chlorine that dichlor adds, it also adds 9ppm of CYA. So, you can see that it won't take too long to build up the CYA. Try and keep your chlorine at shock level to make it clear faster. We suggest testing at least twice a day and each time, adding enough chlorine to get back to shock level. (Another reason you need a good kt.)

In the meantime, go to Walmart and buy an OTO/Phenol red kit. It will only read chlorine levels to 5 but you can force it to higher than that by using a dilution method that you can read about here:

http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/how-...d-testkit.html

It is not super accurate but will do to tide you over until you can get a kit ordered. Keep us posted with how things are going.

[mermaid_82]

I just checked the chlorine again and it is showing plenty of chlorine, but now the Ph is back up. If my chlorine levels are high then why is the pool still green?

[aylad]

A chlorine level of 3 is not high. Chlorine at 3 ppm is the very minimum level that you can keep a pool and not get algae, IF there is no stabilizer in the pool.

In order to clear the green, if it's algae, with a CYA of 10 (not sure how they got that, I've never seen a tester that could distinguish levels less than 30) then you need to get the chlorine up to 12-15 ppm and keep it there by testing and adding more chlorine as many times daily as you can. It is getting the high chlorine level and sustaining it until the pool is cleared up that will get rid of the algae. Keeping it at 3 ppm is wasting time and chlorine if you're trying to clear up the pool with algae.

Don't add anymore clarifier or phosphate remover. The metal out is to keep the copper in suspension in the water and keep it from staining your pool (which can also cause green water). The best way I know to tell if the green is algae or copper is to test your chlorine at night, and then again in the morning before the sun is on the pool. If you're losing chlorine overnight, then you're fighting algae. Also, if the green water is "thick" looking, it's algae. If it appears clear, and you're not losing chlorine overnight, then it's most likely copper staining. Testing the water will help you differentiate.

Janet

[enchantedmountain]

The key for my pool staying clear was to add a stabilizer to the water on start up in the beginning of the summer and I have to buy a 25lb bucket of ph down at the beginning of the summer. I have to add ph down weekly (at least) to the pool. As long as the ph is in a good range and the stabilizer is in there keeping the chlorine stable.....I have a perfect clear pool all year long. The big trick for me was those two key things. I really didnt' pay attention to anything else except to make sure my salt water chlorine generator was working.

[CarlD]

Since you have a salt-water generator, I would say you need to get your CYA to about 60 (or what the manufacturer calls for). You can shock with the dichlor or even tri-chlor powder at this point.

But you'll have to get your FC to 15. It will never clear at 3

As for pH: if the FC is below 10, then if it's high, you need to bring it down (Dichlor will do it , but trichlor will do it faster.) If FC is around 15, you only can reliably say your pH is high if it's reading 8 or higher. In high chlorine situations, pH reads high.

Carl

[mermaid_82]

OK. Last night I added bleach and some more acid. I tested the CYA and got 60. I read my chlorine this morning. I had to use the dilution method and got 30. My ph is between 7.8 and 7.5. So I added just a little more acid. My water is no longer GREEN!!! YAY!!! It is now a milky blue color. I am still backwashing every 12 hrs and brushing twice a day. What should I do next? Just pray that my skimmer gets all that dead algae out?? All you seasoned pool people have helped me thus far, so I am going on what you all say. THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!