Extremely cloudy green water.

[Watermom]

Yeah, that is some pretty high chlorine! A pH test is inaccurate when chlorine is that high. With a K-2006, it should be accurate when the chlorine drops below 15ppm. Retest it when your chlorine drops.

FYI for anybody else reading this thread, pH is not accurate when chlorine is above 5ppm for other kits.

[JeremyBlake]

We haven't added any chlorine at all since Tuesday and every test we did (before we got the 2006 kit today) showed the level never lightened up at all. It's stayed consistently the same color since then. Anything we can do to drop chlorine levels quickly?

[PoolDoc]

But, what does it look and smell like? And, were you able to vacuum the sediment off the bottom successfully?

[JeremyBlake]

It actually smells really clean. We left the pump off a few days to let everything settle and the water was cloudy, but not nearly as dirty or green. We didn't vacuum anything yet because we wanted to test everything first. Should we leave the pump off overnight and vacuum it then test again? At what point do we use the flock? After all levels are right or before?

[PoolDoc]

Best way to lower it? Go swimming!

Seriously, even when the sun doesn't take it out, body goo will! And, 26 ppm is NOT too high to swim in with CYA > 50 ppm.

Just to be safe though - wear last year's swim suits! Chlorine is much harder on Lycra, than people.

[JeremyBlake]

Should we use the GLB Drop N Vac now then? I mean, the algae has to all be dead. I'm pretty sure i've even seen birds dropping out of the sky from 100 yards away. Haha. Not really, but seriously, my neighbor's house is 40 yards from mine and he can smell the chlorine from his driveway. Is it better to get our levels right before we use the Drop N Vac or should we use it now, vacuum all the gunk out of the bottom and then test our levels?

[BigDave]

Your neighbor's probably smelling stuff comprising the 2ppm CC. The presence of CC indicates the FC in your pool is still doing work.
I'd definitely vaccuum the stuff that's already settled before using the floc/clarifier.

[PoolDoc]

Should we use the GLB Drop N Vac now then?

You can use the PAC anytime you like -- I had to check, but high chlorine does not affect it. You might want to do a 5 gallon white bucket test of pool water and 1/8 teaspoon of the PAC mixed, and allowed to stand for 24 hours. (If the bottle is labeled for less than 20,000 gallons, use 1/4 teaspoon.) Flocculant behavior is not fully predictable, and even though PAC performance is more stable than alum, if you have time to test first, that's good.

[JeremyBlake]

Ok, we vacuumed yesterday without the drop n' vac, then we put the drop n vac in last night and vacuumed again today. Definitely making progress. There's a ton of algae being washed out. We're doing the same thing again today. We brushed the sides really well while the pump ran after putting the drop n vac in. We haven't re-tested anything but chlorine levels yet, but we'll do that after vacuuming again tomorrow. As of today our FC is 10.5, CC .5, and TC is 11. So it's dropped a lot in the last week or so. (from a TC level of 26) Here's the latest picture.



We can actually see the bottom now, but it's still pretty cloudy. I'm guessing the CYA is still high, so we'll test tomorrow after we vacuum and drain a bit more. Anything else i'm missing or are we on the right track now? Thanks a bunch for all the help. I'd still have a green, nasty pool without all of your help.

[PoolDoc]

Great!