Pool is green/cloudy

[ddigz]

So my pool was neglected for a few days, and went south on me.

The other day I noticed it was greenish, and took a look. There was green scum on the floor of the pool, covering essentially the entire pool, and stairs. I vacuumed it up, and it looks like a lot of it just got agitated and mixed in with the water. Since then, the water itself is green, and now cloudy as well.

Yesterday I decided to raise FC to slam levels, and got it up to 12 and held it there for the day. I also cleaned the filter to ensure maximum filtration. I was hoping to see some improvement, but doesn't look any better today. When I went to bed, FC was at 12.

Here are my numbers this morning.

FC - 4.5
CC - 0.5
TA- 110
CH - 300
CYA - 30
pH - 7.8
Temp - 75 F

Any thoughts? I am assuming just hold the FC at 12, and brush/vacuum and I'll see improvement? Those numbers seem all right to me otherwise.

 

[duraleigh]

SLAM your pool. That involves holdoing your FC at 12 ppm until the pool is back to pristine and meets the following criteria

1. Your pool water is sparkling and there is no visible algae (dead
or alive)

2. Your CC's are .5 ppm or less

You have already allowed the pool to drop down so your SLAM has not yet started.

SLAM involves high FC and it involves brushing and filtering. Run the pump 24/7....follow the SLAM article meticulously.

3. You can hold your FC overnight without losing more than 1ppm.

 

[ddigz]

I'm working on keeping the FC up today. I just wasn't sure if anyone else saw something in my numbers, or situation that would have me do anything other than a SLAM.

After 2 hours, FC only dropped to 11.5. Keeping it at 12 all day. and night until this clears up.

 

[Divin Dave]

Keep SLAMMING - Its a process that takes a little time. The more you stay on top of it, the quicker it will go.

 

[ddigz]

So, apparently my CYA number was way off.

I tested my CYA about 10 times this summer, and it was always 30, so I didn't test it this morning.

I noticed a major chlorine drop when sun was out, as opposed to earlier this morning, and decided to test. Well, when doing the test, I filled the tube up and the dot never even got cloudy, so I'm assuming I have no CYA, or super low amount. I only had about 3/4lb of dry CYA on hand, and dumped all of that in a sock and tossed it in the skimmer. That's completely dissolved, so I threw 3 3" trichlor pucks in the skimmer to add a bit more CYA. I'm thinking about dumping a 1lb packet of dry "shock" that I got from lowes when I first bought this house, and hadn't found this forum. Looks like it's just powdered trichlor.

How did my CYA get so low? I haven't drained/refilled my pool at all, and only refilled 2" one time due to evaporation.

I'll keep my eye on that CYA and get it back to 30 with these pucks and other stuff I have on hand. Not sure how long it'll take the tabs to dissolve in the skimmer.

 

[Mr Bruce]

I'd pull those pucks out of the skimmer immediately. They are very acid and can cause damage to your skimmer and equipment.

e: It's always best to use Pool Math to determine the amounts to add for the intended effect. You seem to be picking random amounts of the different chemicals.

 

[ddigz]

Random?

I had 12oz of dry stabilizer. Pool math is asking for 54oz of that to bring my CYA up to 30. Pool Math says 12 oz of dry stabilizer will raise my CYA by 6.7.

Each trichlor tablet is 8 oz. According to pool math, 24oz of trichlor will bring my CYA up by 7.4. Totaling 14.1 between the two.

My thought is if I'm simultaneously trying to maintain a high FC, and raise my CYA, how is it wrong to use trichlor?

Am I missing something?

 

[dsmith99]

Using the pucks for your reasoning is ok, it's putting them in the skimmer that isn't recommended. Best to use them in a floater or chlorinator. It's not good on the pump and filter to draw in highly concentrated chemical, can make the plastic brittle. I would test CYA a second time before getting too carried away. I tested earlier in the summer and it appeared my CYA had dropped by 75%, I waited for a while and ran the test again. Not sure what went wrong but the second test was right where I thought it should be.

 

[ddigz]

I've been SLAMing, and last did overnight test and passed with the numbers. However, water is still cloudy... No longer tinted green though.

 

[jeffchap]

Since clear water is one of the conditions to ending a SLAM, you can save your reagents by waiting to perform an OCLT until the water is clear, unless you're just curious.

 

[ddigz]

Well I continue to test just to ensure the FC is where I want it.

Hoping this is chased up tonight or tomorrow.

I'm guessing the only thing really left is to have the filter get out the dead algae?