Help!! Green pool...NEW to this all.

[newtothepool]

We have a 14' x 48" intex pool and it took us about 2 weeks to fill with the hose. I *think* it's salt water due to the instructions that came with the pool so we bought the Morton pool salt and put the recommend 25 lbs into the pool water. Unfortunately we weren't able to turn on the filter at all because the water wasn't high enough to reach the filter until yesterday. Our pool turned green which seems like overnight. We turned on the filter system today, but I don't know where to go from here? Will filtering it reduce the green? Do I need chlorine chemicals even though the water has salt in it?

Thanks for the advice in advance!

[aylad]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!!

Does your pool have a SWCG included? If not, just adding salt won't be enough to generate the chlorine you need--it has to have the unit that is able to convert the salt to chlorine.

Filtering the pool won't reduce the green--if it's algae, which I'm sure it is, it will take chlorine--lots of it-- to kill off the algae, then lots of filtering to remove the algae from the water. IF you have the SWCG unit, turn that off until you get the water cleared up and balanced--there's no need to burn up cell life for no reason, because a SWCG can't generate enough chlorine fast enough to do any good against algae.

You need to run a set of tests on your pool water, taken with a drop-based kit (strips don't count!) and post them here so we can help you get this sorted out. If you don't have a drop kit, please do yourself a favor and invest in the K-2006, that you can find linked in my sig. Until you can get a good kit, see if your WalMart has the hth 6-way kit in stock, and get that in the meantime. At the very least, pick up a cheapie OTO kit (uses red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine) and test chlorine and pH with that. Also, give us a list of all the chems besides the salt that you have added to the water, and please take a few seconds to fill out this chart with your pool's info so we won't waste a lot of time and posts gathering necessary info
Pool Chart Entry Form


Also, did you use city water or a well? Do you know if your water contains metals?

We'll be happy to help you get it cleared up--but that basic info and a test kit are going to be critical to get it done.
Welcome to the forum!

[PoolDoc]

membership upgraded. -ben