Green Pool Water tried everything Please Help

[VickiP]

I wish I found you guys last year!!! We replaced the sand today and WOW, the pump works so much better. We can actually see a bit of the bottom of the pool today still green but much better. It didnt hold the chlorine level overnight so we will just keep vacuuming, scrubbing and adding bleach everyday until it does. I will keep adding udates!! Thank you so much for the help!

[ChuckD]

Vicki, I'm also on a well and feel I need to throw this into the mix as something to keep in mind:

If you have added a combination of chlorine and significant amount of well water that has a high iron content, mix in some sunshine and you will get a green pool while you watch. I've reproduced this many times thinking I had an algae bloom. And it sure looked like one too.

I got suspicious when we were not yet fulltime residents in our home. We were in the process of relocating and we'd arrive once a month for a weekend. I had a small leak in the liner and when we'd arrive Friday night I knew I'd have to turn the hose on for a while to top it off, and then add a bunch of bleach, then off to bed.

Next morning I'd get up and pull the opaque cover off, and within 20 minutes the pool would go from crystal clear to deep green. Very, VERY frustrating. Especially when you only have the weekend to enjoy!

After reading something here I decided to instead fill the pool only via the skimmer so the water was first filtered through the DE and this was the solution. So also be aware that this combination, iron-rich well water, chlorine and sunlight will give you a false algae bloom. It ultimately filters out but no amount of chlorine will clear it.

Also, I read you have a sand filter. There are posts here, I think by Carl, about adding a small amount of DE to a sand filter to get all DE's benefits (and there are, once you've seen pool water filtered through it, it's beautiful). See if you can search on that, it's a small amount, like 1/4 - 1/2 cup but you should read those posts to get the right idea.

C.

[Watermom]

Very good advice from ChuckD who has been with us for awhile! (Thank you, Chuck!) This is what makes this forum work. People sharing their experiences with new people who are just learning the ins and outs of pool care.

Here is the thread he was talking about (adding DE to a sand filter).
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=3742