green water

[Lauralai]

is it safe to add stabilizer to our pool even though we can't see through it? the people at the pool shop said not to since it's not clear yet, but we add bleach and get it high it just won't stay that high. meaning i added bleachto get it at sbout 8 yesterday and today it's below 2

[jdolby]

Stabilizer is cyuranic acid (CYA) and comes in many forms. I use 3" tri-clor pucks and put them in the skimmer. I remove the pucks when my CYA meaures 30 on my pool test kit (Ben's). You should test your CYA level before you add. After you vaccum and filter all the dead alge you are going to have to backwash several times. I used 7 gal of bleach per day, for 3 days to kill all the alge in my pool. Your pool may take longer. Keep adding bleach and nothing else. Yes, it is ok to add stabilizer, but you will lose some when you backwash. IT WILL CLEAR UP!
After your pool clears your chlorine demand will go down. I use about 3/4 gal per day to maintain my pool. At 2-3 ppm (depending on use)
If your chlorine readings were 8, and then 2 the next day (this is normal) just add more bleach to get it back to 8. But I would add more. If you can't measure more than 8 on your tester just add another gal and keep it there. Try to test and add bleach at least 2 times per day. Don't let your readings yo-yo up and down.
PS> If you did not remove all the leaves in the pool you will use alot of bleach. How much bleach are you using per day?

JD

[jdolby]

Hello Lauralai,

Read the post above yours "My Green Pool Saga - Help!"
Sherra and the gang gives alot of good info there.

JD

[Watermom]

You are getting good advice = keep hitting it with bleach. You need to test 3x a day if at all possible (at the minimum twice a day) and each time, add enough bleach to get back up to 10ppm. If you let the chlorine level bounce up and down, you'll never kill the algae. To make your test kit read higher, dilute your sample. Mix one part pool water and one part distilled water, test as usual, multiply your result by 2. If you still need to go higher, one part pool water, two parts distilled, multiply by 3, etc. Each time you dilute, you lose some accuracy, but it will be better than nothing. Consider buying the test kit from Ben. Well worth it.

I would hold off on adding any stabilizer (cya) until you have the algae problem solved.