GREEN pool water!!! HELP!

[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!!!!!

[Watermom]

Keep doing exactly what you're doing. Maintaining high cl levels, run the pump 24/7 and backwash as needed. It will take the filter a little time to clear out the dead algae. When you get to the point where you don't lose more than 1ppm of chlorine from sundown one day til sunup the next day, then hold the shock level for one additional day for insurance and then after that you can let the cl drift down. With a CYA of 60, you're maintenance level for chlorine will be between 5-10 all the time or you'll risk another algae bloom.

Stick with using only bleach for the chlorine source now since your CYA is already at 60. Unless your SWC manual tells you to run the CYA at a higher level, I'd leave iit where it is at 60. Dichlor and trichlor will both raise it.

[CarlD]

Yes, and your pH is probably lower than you think if you tested it when FC was 30. So that's another reason not to use trichlor or dichlor.

Blue is DEFINITELY an improvement from green!

Carl

[madwil]

did I read you have a sand filter? if so, you can add some DE to it to make it filter better/faster; otherwise, it sounds like you're winning the battle, just a little patience while the filter gets rid of the dead algae!