Green pool for 10 days, today finally a bluish/cloudy..to keep adding chlorine?

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Jamie A 14

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Aug 11, 2015
98
St Johns, MI
We have a 16x32 AG pool 4 years old with vinyl liner (new this year), 4'-6' depths. Hayward sand filter, with Frog cycler. We noticed cloudy water approx 2 wks ago, turned green about 10 days ago. Initially had water tested at pool store, Alk was around 70 (added baking soda), ph was a bit high (addsd reducer), chlorine was 5.9 (we had turned it up couple days before). No change after doing these things. Had water tested a couple more times and Alk/ph stabilized but chlorine at a 10 now. But pool was greener. This past Friday (4 days ago) :
TC 10
FC 10
Ph 7.8
TA 135
CH 175
Stab 55
They were stumped at the pool store and said my chlorine level should be killing the algae (I asked about shocking, as we hadn't at all yet and they advised no that it wouldn't make a difference???), and said to try changing filter sand (which my son and I did Sat morning). They were stumped basically. This changed nothing with my water. I had been using strips, which I realize now are useless and have since ordered the Taylor k-2006. Anyway, Sunday night I put in 4 gals of liquid chlorine. No real change visibly in the water yesterday....last night added 4 more and FINALLY today it is pretty much blue but VERY cloudy. My question is, do I add more tonight again and if so how much? My filter has been running continuously and my Frog cycler set on 5-6. Thanks for any help!
 
I hope your new test kit comes soon cause you need to get that mess straightened out so you can enjoy it, right?? How do you disinfect your pool- *only* with a Frog mineral system? Did your pool store test for metals in your water....because basically that's what a Frog system adds. The copper can stain the pool surface and turn blond hair green. Were you also adding the chlorine packs? You can add 1/2-1 gallon of bleach nightly just to hold things at bay while waiting on the tester to arrive. It won't fix your problem but might stop it worsening??

Pool sand rarely to never needs changing. Its survived for millions (billions?) of years just fine...perhaps it just needed the sand cleaned which is much more common. I'm sorry your pool store caused you to have to do that. I hate to read about unnecessary expenses :( Please stop listening to the store that just loves for you to spend money there and obviously doesn't know what to do.

First off, as you wait for your test kit to arrive, start stocking up on liquid chlorine. Either regular household bleach (8.25%, but no scents, detergent added or splashless types) or liquid chlorine of a higher % often found at pool stores. NO bags of granular or stabilized "shock" products, please. Those add other ingredients you do NOT want or need now.

When your test kit arrives, you're going to need to perform a SLAM procedure Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
which means raising the killing power with chlorine up to a particular level and *keeping it there* longer than the algae cooties can reproduce and grow. So it may take days to maybe a week or two of keeping the chlorine high, cleaning and brushing the pool to keep it circulated and letting the filter do its thing.

I can't tell you now how much liquid chlorine to add because you need to test EVERYTHING first. FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA. Tell us what those are and we'll double down on the green with ya, ok?

I'd also suggest a little bedtime reading up in Pool School <top right of this site> to learn about pool chemistry and care.
 
What is a Frog cycler?

WONDERFUL job ordering the good test kit! THAT will make all of the difference. I am going to post a link to what we call SLAM. It is what you need to do.

Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

If you follow this you can clear your pool of algae!

The most important part of it is the MAINTAIN as in keep the FC at SLAM level as much as possible.

Let us know if you have ANY questions. Someone can/will answer them!

Kim
 
A frog cycler is an attachment to the filter that automatically adds chlorine along with "minerals", unsure which though I know copper is one. We have had great luck with it keeping the pool clean over the last 4 yrs, but this last episode I think we had our setting too low and the filter not running enough hrs a day for the hotter weather and swimmer load and to be honest weren't testing out water that regularly. So, it got away from us. I will add more liquid chlorine or bleach tonight again. I was paranoid to add more last night, as we just spent $2500 having a new liner installed this year due to what they said was probably too high a chlorine level that weakened our other one. I can't wait to get the test kit so I can get on with this, but I am encouraged that finally the water has taken on a blue hue rather than swamp green!

- - - Updated - - -

We just use the frog cycler, no chlorine packs. I did last week add 2 lbs of the granular chlorine because that was what we had...stupid, useless move I know!

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and also, I haven't done a "signature" yet on all our pool specifics but it's roughly 16K gallons capacity FYI
 
I see that now, that minerals are not recommended. Unfortunately when our pool was installed, they automatically put the Frog cycler on the filter. We had no idea. What would I use instead of the bac pacs? We actually for a while the last couple of years refilled the pricey Bac-pacs with tablet chlorine, which is what (the pool store) said led to us using too much chlorine and destroying our liner. I know that chlorine tablets are bad also as they add other undesirable chemicals to the pool. Also, is there concern of using so much chlorine for SLAM that we would possible weaken another (very expensive) liner?
 
Jamie A 14 said:
We have a 16x32 AG pool 4 years old with vinyl liner (new this year), 4'-6' depths. Hayward sand filter, with Frog cycler. We noticed cloudy water approx 2 wks ago, turned green about 10 days ago. Initially had water tested at pool store, Alk was around 70 (added baking soda), ph was a bit high (addsd reducer), chlorine was 5.9 (we had turned it up couple days before). No change after doing these things. Had water tested a couple more times and Alk/ph stabilized but chlorine at a 10 now. But pool was greener. This past Friday (4 days ago) :
TC 10
FC 10
Ph 7.8
TA 135
CH 175
Stab 55
They were stumped at the pool store and said my chlorine level should be killing the algae (I asked about shocking, as we hadn't at all yet and they advised no that it wouldn't make a difference???), and said to try changing filter sand (which my son and I did Sat morning). They were stumped basically. This changed nothing with my water. I had been using strips, which I realize now are useless and have since ordered the Taylor k-2006. Anyway, Sunday night I put in 4 gals of liquid chlorine. No real change visibly in the water yesterday....last night added 4 more and FINALLY today it is pretty much blue but VERY cloudy. My question is, do I add more tonight again and if so how much? My filter has been running continuously and my Frog cycler set on 5-6. Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
Many/most pool store employees have no idea of the chlorine/CYA relationship; thus they look at that FC 10 number and think it should kill anything, when, in fact, it is not nearly high enough with CYA at 55. Take a look here to see what I mean:
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

There is the added complication that pool store test results are often quite unreliable, so wait to get your own good test kit before you act on the numbers. However, the 55/10 example lets you see why the algae was perfectly content to keep growing, even though the people at the pool store were "stumped" -- when you dumped in the bottles of bleach, you finally, by blind luck, reached chlorine levels high enough to actually inconvenience the algae. Once you have good test numbers, from your new test kit, you will be doing something similar, but much more precisely targeted as far as determining the quantity of bleach that needs to be added.
 
I still haven't gotten the test kit, it is on its way. But, last night put another gallon of liquid chlorine in....pool looks good, very blue, with white cloudy water...obviously dead algae. My question is will water continue to clear on its own or should I use a clarifier at all? And think I will add another gallon of chlorine tonight to try and keep up till the test arrives.
 

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Don't consider clarifier at this point - it is hardly ever needed. You're still on the starting line, not even having your initial test numbers yet. Wait and see what the numbers are, and then go through the SLAM process and see where you stand then.
 
I have not removed the frog. I should just turn it off, even though it us circulating chlorine? And then how do we chlorinate without it?? Also, we haven't backwashed in a couple days as we were told to wait till it clears a bit to avoid flushing out valuable chlorine. At what point should we? And vacuum?
 
Ok, just started with the chlorine test and am already confused. I have a 10 ml sample (not sure what difference between 10 and 25 is) and have added like 12 drops and water still dark pink. Think I'm doing something wrong. Help! I need a walk thru&#55357;&#56876;
 

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