At My Wits End

[Jeannie]

Are you sure about your pool being 5 feet deep? I have never seen any 21' AG pool with 60+" walls.

Yes.. the walls are 5' tall. Obviously the water is not filled to 60" but that's how tall the side walls are.

My CYA level is reading about 40.

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Actually my husband says he thinks it's 54" .. my mistake!

[aylad]

With a CYA of 40, your shock level is 15 ppm--have you consistently kept it above 15 for the time you've specified, or did you let the chlorine levels yo-yo up and down? If the chlorine level isn't consistenly kept above that 15 ppm, then you're spinning your wheels--and wasting your time. If it's been consistently above the 15 ppm, and is still green, then I would either double-check your CYA levels, or check with your water company to make sure there are no metals in the water.

[Jeannie]

With a CYA of 40, your shock level is 15 ppm--have you consistently kept it above 15 for the time you've specified, or did you let the chlorine levels yo-yo up and down? If the chlorine level isn't consistenly kept above that 15 ppm, then you're spinning your wheels--and wasting your time. If it's been consistently above the 15 ppm, and is still green, then I would either double-check your CYA levels, or check with your water company to make sure there are no metals in the water.

I'm betting that I'm spinning my wheels. I need help with this because it's just not registering for some reason. How long should my Chlorine stay above 15ppm? Until it's clear? I just keep dumping in bleach? Last night my FC measured at 10ppm. I poured in a gallon of bleach at 8pm. As of 5am this morning my Chlorine is up to 19ppm. How can I hold it there? Should I put in more bleach now? Should I test again at noon and if it's below 15 I just dump in some more bleach?

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant.. but I really want to get this right. I am wasting so much money and the pool is essentially useless until we clear it up.

By the way.. the water turned much darker green yesterday.

[Watermom]

Every time you test, add enough bleach to get the chlorine reading back up to 15ppm. The more consistent you can do this, the faster the pool will clear. You need to maintain the chlorine at shock level until you can go from sundown one evening to within 2 hours of sunrise the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine, you have no higher than 0.5ppm of CC and the water is clear. Then, we usually suggest keeping the chlorine high for one more day for added insurance and then you can let the chlorine level drift down and keep it between 3-6 ALL the time.

Run your pump 24/7 right now and clean your filter whenever the pressure rises 8-10psi over your clean filter pressure.

[Jeannie]

Every time you test, add enough bleach to get the chlorine reading back up to 15ppm. The more consistent you can do this, the faster the pool will clear. You need to maintain the chlorine at shock level until you can go from sundown one evening to within 2 hours of sunrise the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine, you have no higher than 0.5ppm of CC and the water is clear. Then, we usually suggest keeping the chlorine high for one more day for added insurance and then you can let the chlorine level drift down and keep it between 3-6 ALL the time.

Run your pump 24/7 right now and clean your filter whenever the pressure rises 8-10psi over your clean filter pressure.

I'm on Day 3 of keeping my chlorine up there... I'm at about 16ppm.. although it did get as high as 20. And it's not even looking a little better. I'm feeling sooo discouraged. Hanging in there.

[PoolDoc]

OK, there are 2 stages to this: killing the algae, and cleaning up the algae. Is the algae dead, yet?
(Dead = blue, blue-gray or gray water with NO green PLUS no green when you brush or vacuum)

Also, I haven't seen a full set of test results yet (FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA). Can you post the most current readings?

Finally, what color is/was the sediment you had, and what color is your backwash discharge?

[Jeannie]

The pool is GREEN. It's straight up green. It may have gotten a LITTLE lighter green.. but it's definitely still GREEN.

Last results (this evening):
Ph: 7.4
TA: 110
CYA: 50 (it went up.. but I didn't add stabilizer or anything)
FC: 20
CC: 0? I guess? the sample didn't change color.
I didn't test for CH today.. but I think last time it was around 200.


Forgot.. the sediment that we DID have was green. I don't know if there is anything now because I can't see the bottom of the pool.


(Two posts waiting in the queue were combined.)

[Watermom]

Actually my husband says he thinks it's 54" .. my mistake!

That sounds more like it!