Pool water is green

[PamCal]

We have added the 12 gallons of bleach and our water is still green. We are showing high levels of chlorine and our ph is 7.8. What next?
Thanks-
Pam

[Watermom]

What does "high" chlorine mean? A reading that we really need is CYA. Your needed chlorine levels are dependent on that reading.

[PamCal]

Our tester is reading at the highest mark on our chlorine which is 5-not sure what the CYA is you mentioned?

[PoolDoc]

What kind of tester?

You need a K2006 or an OTO kit to be able to read chlorine levels high enough to accomplish something useful with some types of algae.

And . . . as Mom told you , CYA levels are CRITICAL! It's not possible to answer your "what's next?" question without that information.

1. You need to get a local OTO kit, and test your pool chlorine with it.

2. You need a CYA reading, preferably with a HTH 6-way kit from Walmart, since you can't get a K2006 for 3 - 4 days at best.

3. You need to read these 2 pages:

http://pool9.net/cl-cya/
http://pool9.net/test/

[Watermom]

You really need a better tester. It will test everything you need to know including CYA. The one we recommend is the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). Test kit link is in my signature.

CYA is kind of like sunscreen for your chlorine. It keeps it from disappearing especially on hot sunny days. Your needed chlorine level to kill algae is based on your CYA reading.

If your pool is still not clear, keep adding bleach as Ben suggested and run pump 24/7.

[PoolDoc]

www.walmart.com/ip/17043668



Not available at all Walmart stores.

[PamCal]

Thank you-our Walmart did not have that tester --we will try to get a test reading from the pool store in the morning!

[PoolDoc]

Test strip based testing for CYA is horrendously bad. The computerized readers pool stores often use are a little better than eyeballing the strip, but not good enough to provide very useful results.

If you want us to help you, you are going to need get a K2006 . . . and use it. Otherwise we're all flying blind.

You have to understand that accurate testing HURTS pool stores, because good testing results in large reductions in chemicals sold. A few stores go to the trouble of testing accurately, but it's hard to expect them to spend time and money on activities that they can't sell (testing), when doing those things (testing) well will REDUCED their sales on things that do bring them income.

Test strips are easy. Everybody likes easy. And until you have the K2006 (or some of the more expensive alternatives) you'll never realize how much easy -- but bad -- testing hurts you.

[PamCal]

I have ordered the K2006-but will not be here for 3-5 days. After reading all the information plus other posts it seems we have been "flying blind" for a long time. At this point all we can do while waiting for the kit to arrive is to trust our local pool store reading-I will send those results as soon as my husband gets back with those~~

[PamCal]

Okay-here are the readings from the pool store --
FAC -5
TAC-5
PH -7.8
TA- 100
CYA-40
TDS-2800