Green Pool Water tried everything Please Help

[VickiP]

We have a 27 ft round pool. We have had water problems for years but this year is horrible. We opened the pool in late April adding 15 gallons of bleach over two weeks time. Got all the leaves out and started the pump. We added our well water too. I brought our water to be checked at pool store and sold me slo and lo, alk stuff, 2 gallons shock, ph decreaser. I add all of it and water turned green after the shock. So we have a well and brought water back and a small amt of copper was detected. Added Metal out and waited two days, still green and looked worse. Brought water to another pool store and she said add 5 gallons of shock and let is sit a day turn pump on and clean it. Well we did that and it was greener the next morning. So back to the 1st pool store and they are clueless but bought $40 bottle of Banish. Did that and still looked bad. Today added 4 bags of powder shock and some ph up. It is a bit lighter green now. My PH is at 7.6, chlorine is off the charts at 10,, alkalinity 120, stablizer 0. Any idea what is wrong or what we are missing???? Thanks

[VickiP]

Sorry I have a sand filter and 18,000 gallons of water

[Watermom]

VickiP --- I'm going to move your thread into the "algae" section of the forum. This Forum Q & A section is for questions about how to use the forum rather than advice on how to clear a pool. By the way, welcome!

[Watermom]

Don't add anything else at this point. If you have metal in your water, shocking causes it to fall out of suspension. I'm going to ask Marie to look at this thread for you. She is our "go to" on pools with metal issues.

And, stay out of that pool store! Not only are they emptying your wallet needlessly, but they are also giving you bad advice.

[VickiP]

Thanks so much, I will wait to hear. They did check the metal again it is no iron and very very low copper reading. Thanks again.

[CarlD]

That last is good news.

Pool stores complicate stuff for two reasons: 1) to sell you lots more stuff 2) they have no idea what REALLY works and what does not.

You are going to need to follow some basics to get your pool clean, but first you will need to get us all these numbers:
FC
CC or TC
pH
T/A
CH
CYA

You've given us some of them. You can ask the pool store to test your water and get us those numbers and say something like "I just want to see how your advice is working" and DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM!

We have some sections on dealing with algae. You should read them.

You'll need to keep chlorine levels high, clean all the detritus from your pool, vacuum to waste once a day. Brush the walls and bottom once a day, and check and keep your chlorine up 2 to 3x / day.

You'll also need lots of POPP--Pool Owner Patience and Persistence.

[VickiP]

HI,
I have the print out from the pool store from yesterday
FC (free chlorine) 7
TC (total Chlorine) 7
PH 7.6
T/A (Tot Alkalinity) 114
CH ??? dont see it on the list what is it
CYA 30
TDS 700
Total Hardness 100

We did add the 4 bags of shock and 5 (96 oz) of bleach today. We scrubbed the walls and should we vacuum to waste today too? Still same color of green. Also I did add last week a bottle of algeacide and yesterday the bottle of banish.
Thanks for the help

[VickiP]

We just opened up our sand filter because is seemed to bog down every once in a while. We replace it years ago and we found lots of pieces of pine needles and chunks of leaves it was gross. So we are going to empty it and clean out the canister and get new sand tomorrow. Do you think this could be a problem too?

[mbar]

I don't know what all the chemicals you have added contain. Don't add anything else but bleach or chlorine shock. It sounds like you may have an algae bloom - a chlorine level of 7 is not enough to kill an algae bloom. With a cya of 30 you have to bring the chlorine up to 15 to really shock the pool. You also have to keep it at 15 until the chlorine level holds overnight. You should also lower your ph down to 7.2. It will help to keep any metals from falling out of solution until you are finished shocking the water. The only other thing you want to add to your water is a metal sequestering agent. Any product that says "Metal Out" will do. Make sure it is a good on it should cost between $16 and $22. Once you have a stable chlorine level, and if the water is still green we can address the metal problem further. You must make sure that any of the chemicals you are using do not have copper - this may be how copper was introduced to your pool. Even some of the chlorine pucks contain copper now. Keep us informed on your progress

[aylad]

CH ??? dont see it on the list what is it ....
Total Hardness 100

CH means calcium hardness, which doesn't apply to a vinyl pool, as long as it's not over 300 or so. Yours is fine, despite what the pool store will tell you....just don't buy anything else from them and stick with what Watermom and Mbar are telling you. They've helped clear up more pool problems in a week or two than you'll see in a lifetime, and Mbar is THE resident expert on metal problems (besides Ben, of course)!!

Janet