Light green water

[Huskerdee]

Ok working on lowering PH. I do think the water is looking better. It just looks a light greenish color, but the yellowish color looks gone, just a murky green. I really appreciate all of your help.

[PoolDoc]

OK.

I was able to reach the head chemist at Kem-Tek, and surprisingly, discovered that they not only know about PoolForum.com, but liked it! That's gotta be a first for a pool chemical company!!

Anyhow, the product you got was just 20% HEDP + water, so I'm not sure what caused the cloudiness. But DO continue lowering the pH.

AND . . . once you get the pH below 7.4, you need to begin adding nightly doses of 6% household bleach, about 3/4 gallon at a time. Recheck chlorine the following evening, and if it's below 2 ppm . . . add another dose.

BUT . . . continue lowering your pH till it's near 7.0, but not below.

FINALLY, you got the KemTek stuff, but did you also order the K2006 testkit? We really need those test results in order to keep making progress!

[Huskerdee]

I have the PH down to 7.4 but the chlorine has not lowered. My test kit goes to free chlorine of 12 but my level is somewhere over that. The water color is really orange so I'm guessing it's around maybe18 or so. Do you still want me to add bleach? I did not order a test kit because I already have one I ordered about 2 weeks ago. Do I want to vacuum the pool at all? What about back washing, or will that remove to many of the chemicals just added? I did notice a slight change in my water entering the skimmer. Before adding the metal chemical it was brown and yellow tinged. Now it's got like a slight cloudy film. Could that mean there is also dead algae in the pool? I didn't think so because usually when chlorine is fighting algae or something it drops and mine holds really steady. I don't get much of a drop at all.

[PoolDoc]

Ok, exactly what test kit did you get? And what results -- chlorine, pH, alkalinity, calcium and especially stabilizer -- are you getting with it?

We're going to have to have full and RELIABLE results, in order to continue. Right now, we're sorta playing a guessing game. I understand that, if you've spent money on a new kit, you're reluctant to buy another. That's fine with us --IF-- the kit you have is reliable and accurate.

But, if not, not so much.

Flying blind on purpose is something we try to avoid here.

[Huskerdee]

Well I had to take my son to swim practice last night. Since water was so yucky looking dear sweet husband thought he would help and add algaecide 60 to the pool. I came home and went to do my normal filter backwash and wow. The pool had grey, white, and brown stuff floating on the water. I thought, great now what. Anyway, I heavily chlorinated as suggested to do. This morning I could see a definite improvement. I still have cloudy water but not so green. There is still stuff floating a little and the water is still cloudy but looks better. Do you think I was fighting two prob
Ems? I think we finally won and the algae is dying and dead, and the metals are really precipitating. This morning I decided to unhook my salt water chlorine generaror because it seemed it couldn't keep up with the pull from the sand filter. I was right, the suction and circulation are much better and my psi on the sand filter dropped 5. I think by morning the water will look considerably better. Do I want to consider using a floc or something to drop the stuff to the bottom so I can vacuum it? Or will it eventually all filter out? Thank you so much.

[PoolDoc]

Is he swimming USS? My older son swam USS from 5 - 16; both sons now swim Masters, though my 16 year old isn't old enough to be official, yet. They both love practices where, as my younger son notes "nobody is whining about wanting to leave". In Masters, if they don't want to come, they don't.

But, back to our regularly scheduled pool:

Huskerdee . . . you are going to have to tell us what's going on with testing. I'm not willing to continue working blind. Sorry.

[BigDave]

BigDave, check your email -- Ben

[Huskerdee]

The PH is down to 7.0, the chlorine is too high to read on the test kit. After heavily chlorinating last night I think it's around 20 or so as the color is orange. The CYA I test with strips because that isn't included in the kit, but it's around 40 according to the strips. The way the pool holds chlorine it must be accurate. I have not checked alkalinity or done acid test since PH is good and you said not to worry about alkalinity.
My son is nine and has been on the local swim team for two years now. He's a little fish. This year he broke a record at the state meet. This weeken we have regionals. He qualified in three events. So far he has a ton of gold medals and some silver and bronze. I hope he continues and the coaches believe he really has potential and could go as far as he wants. Maybe I have a little Olympian on my hands, lol.

[PoolDoc]

OK, but I *still* need to know what kit you have.

If you've got any OTO/phenol red kit EXCEPT a Taylor kit . . . your pH reading is not trustworthy with OTO at orange.

I need specific brand names on the test materials you are using, so I can tell what sort of info we have. I cannot work with you, without reliable information. If you can't tell me what you've got -- for whatever reason -- we just need to call it a day.