Hi New Here!! Having green/cloudy water problems! HELP!

[poolmom06]

I have a 18x4' round above ground pool, we had about an inch of rain week before last, but my pool was still clear afterwards I figured everything was ok( all I had was a superclorinator shock) But last Thursday, my nephews were over swimming and after they left, I went ahead and shocked it. After a day or so, it turned green, and cloudy I was like great! I went to the pool store, got some Floc( this helped a BUNCH last time) the pool guy said raise your PH to 7.8 then put the floc in. Well I did that and the PH went WAY up to 8.4, so I went back to the pool store, they say bring it back down and then add the floc, well I did that last night and SHOCKED before I flocked, let the pump run and turned it off over night, well I got up this morning and it was still green. So this morning, I went to another pool store and got three bags of shock, let the pump run all day, no change, went and got another 4 bags of shock tonight and just put it in, care to wage any bets as to whether it will be blue in the morning or tommmorow at all?? I have Clarifier, I have more floc ready to clear up the cloudiness, but I want the water blue first. I have 25 people coming on Tuesday for the fourth, I have already informed there may be no swimming, but i can hope can't I??

Is there anything else I can do in the mean time to help this cause or be patient( something I am NOT very good at??)

Thanks!
Deb

[CarlD]

Deb,
The reason your pool won't clear is very simple: You have algae and it keeps growing. All floc does is clump tiny particles together...see where I'm going?

You have to KILL the algae and keep killing it until it's all dead, then get the dead algae out of your pool to clear it.

However, if you don't have patience, we cannot help you. When you have an algae bloom you need 4 things at a minimum:
1) Lots and lots of chlorine--bleach is the best source for lots of reasons
2) A good test kit
3) Patience
4) Persistence

You need to get us a set of test values--if you have a WalMart HTH 5 Way test kit you can get them. If not, a pool store should be able to give you these tests--don't buy anything just yet.

FC (Free Chlorine--the good stuff)
CC(Combined Chloramines--a sign of problems)
pH( your latest reading)
CYA(Stabilizer/Cyanuric Acid--dictates ideal chlorine levels)
T/A(Total Alkalinity, or Alk--a buffer for pH)
CH (Calcium, Calcium Hardness, Hardness--only important in a vinyl pool if too high).

Is it your water that's 4' deep or is that your pool height? The water depth is more important for calculating volume. I estimate you have just over 7,000 gallons.

For the moment I suggest you pour in 6 quarts of Ultra bleach. Then, after 6-8 hours check your chlorine and if it's low or 0 put in another 6 quarts. This should at least slow down the algae.

You also need to get pH to the low to mid 7's--the chlorine will be more effective. You can use dry acid or muriatic acid to lower it.

Meantime, do not add ANYTHING else to your water--especially floc, clarifiers, phosphate removers, metal--out--none of it will help, and most of it will cause more problems.

Get us those numbers so we can see what's going on.

[poolmom06]

Ok, just ran a test... things are a little outa wack!

Free Cl-5
Total cl-5
CC-0
PH 6.8
TALK- undetermined- went a offwhite color, couldn't ever get a red result...

Yesterday, I shocked with 7 pounds of Super Shock, this morning it was still cloudy and a light teal color, I vaccumed this morning, added 3 qurts of Ultra bleach... The water is blue now, but still cloudy, what now??

[Watermom]

We need to know your cya reading. How high you need to shock is dependent on your cya reading. Without it, we are only guessing.

Another big issue is your low ph. Seems like you overshot your target when adding acid to lower it. Since 6.8 is the lowest reading on your kit, your ph actually could be much lower. Add a half box of Borax slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running. Wait while to let it circulate and then retest and redose to get to 7.4. Once it starts moving up, you'll probably need smaller doses or you'll overshoot it.

We also need a alk reading. With the way your ph is bouncing all over, I suspect it is probably low.

Repost with cya and alk readings. Run your pump 24/7.

[poolmom06]

Ok, I said on my test post that my ALk was undetermined, it turned from green to blue to off white in color, I am assuming it is sky high
I don't have a test for CYA, however it was 181 according to my pool store test on Friday... hows that?? I don't have any borax, couldn't find any in walmart at midnight last night...