Green/Brown water..about to give up!!

[shelbi]

Update..water still green but much lighter. I've been adding 2-4 jugs of bleach a day. The sock on the return seems to help - it's turning green. Also been changing filter everyday. Really picking up a lot of green ick! Thanks for keeping me on the right track.

[RavenNS]

Shelbi,
you're doing awesome! Just hang in there a bit longer. Yes it is "safe" to bring the chlorine levels up much higher than 15ppm ( although most people wouldn't want to swim in it..lol)
Keep it at 15+ a couple of days & continue with the filter changing & brush/vacuum (to waste). The filter socks are also excellent; stay on top of cleaning those as well.
after the algae is all gone you can let the chlorine levels dissapate back down to normal

Best of luck to you

[aylad]

Yes it is "safe" to bring the chlorine levels up much higher than 15ppm ( although most people wouldn't want to swim in it..lol)

With a vinyl liner and a CYA of 40, it is NOT "safe" to bring the chlorine levels up much higher than 15--you run a really good risk of bleaching out your liner that way. Keep it at 15, and adjust upward according to the best guess chart only if your CYA level changes.

Janet

[RavenNS]

my bad, but I thought I saw in the best-guess chart, about bringing it up past 25ppm...? ( perhaps the cya was higher?)

I had my pool at 30ppm with cya at 30 recently (possibly fighting algae... it was cloudy water), anyway, it did not bleach my dark blue liner. Guess I got lucky

[chem geek]

I had my pool at 30ppm with cya at 30 recently (possibly fighting algae... it was cloudy water), anyway, it did not bleach my dark blue liner. Guess I got lucky

At 30 ppm FC and 30 ppm CYA, the actual disinfecting and oxidizing amount of chlorine (HOCl) is 2.5 ppm which would be equivalent to having 5 ppm of chlorine in a pool without CYA (at a pH of 7.5). So while that it is on the high side, it apparently isn't in the range that causes bleaching to occur. Perhaps one needs 10 ppm or higher FC "no CYA" equivalent before that happens.

Or maybe you were just lucky!

Richard

[shelbi]

I know a few weeks ago, one of our floater bottles with chlorine tabs in it SUNK and stayed there for several hours before i found it....it bleached a huge spot on the bottom.

Still green today but much lighter - very pale greenish. Still cloudy. How long does this take? I know I had a pretty bad problem and it's only been 3 days. thank goodness it is working! I've been keeping my chlorine between 15-20ppm. My CYA was about 40 the other day. Have not checked it since Sat...does not seem to fluctuate much.

[shelbi]

Wed update: Water still very cloudy - very pale green. Most of this is from settlement on the bottom. When I vacuum, it lightens. I still have some brown color coming out of the return. Have not figured out how to vacuum to waste. I tried it the other day and my hoses collapsed - cheap intex tubes. Overall, it looks much better!! Here are my numbers:

FC - 10
TC - 12.5 (these were obtained by diluting then multiply by 5 - probably not completely accurate but pretty close)

pH - 7.6
Alk - 160-170
CYA 35

How am I doing? I have added about 4 jugs of bleach everyday since Sat. My numbers are always a tad lower than 15 when I check them but I always add a jug. Doing this three times a day. Anything else I should be doing? Try some patience, maybe? ha ha I'm trying!

Thanks again for everyone who has helped. I know sometimes it seems we ask the same questions that are already on here somewhere but it can be a bit overwhelming so personal help is certainly appreciated.