Hello,
My name is Charlie and I reside in RI. I have been reading this forum with interest for over a week and I am very impressed with the information I have found here. I thank you for accepting me into your fold and for any information you may provide.
It is rather ironic that I am posting here in need of help because I have owned this very same pool for over 37 years and have never had a problem opening it. This year I was forced to hire someone to open the pool for me because of neck and back problems that prevented me from doing it myself. The contractor that I hired is very well known to me and has an excellent track record for repairing pool problems, such as leaks, liner installations, etc.
They removed the cover from my pool and put some algecide into it. I do not have any idea of the kind or amount of algecide. They then told me to get some liquid chlorine and to give the pool a good shock which I did. I was amazed to see how quickly my pool had cleared to a light green color and within two days I was able to see my drain in the pool's deep end. I should note that my water was balanced according to the test strips I was using, and also according to my neighbors pool test kit chemicals. As effective as I had been at pool openings in the past 37 years I had never seen my pool clear so quickly. Despite the quick clearing the green never went away. It may have become a slightly lighter shade of green and the pool water is very clear but the green never left. I went to the pool store and told the operator about my problem. He gave me 4 gallons of algecide and told me to dump them all in. He told me to follow that up a couple of hours later with three carboys of chlorine to shock the pool. This was probably around 22 gallons of chlorine. We waited and waited and the pool showed no signs of losing the light green tint. It should be noted that while we waited and waited we vacuumed to waste three times completely evacuating the pool of all bottom material. We brushed the pool and walls, and we even changed the 20 year old sand in our filter last week. Despite all this no signs of improvement whatsoever. Our most recent attempt to solve the problem was to order the T-100 test kit which arrived today, and to put DE into our sand filter to raise the operating pressure 1 LB. We have put the DE in a second time after back washing a second time but still no improvement.
I should also note that the pool store had me put in more chlorine and algecide after the first time but I don't remember how much. I did check the pool stores algecide container and did not see any mention of copper on the label. I should also not that very little water was added to the pool this year, but when we did add water it came from the City which historically has not had any metal issues.
Upon using the new test kit today here are the results:
Chlorine Drop Test 10
Combined Chloramines .5
Calcium Hardness 50
Total Alkalinity 110
CYA 42
Total Chlorine 10.5 if I did it right
PH 7.5
I know that the Calcium Hardness is low but I hate to tackle that now unless it is the culprit causing the problem. Needless to say we are wits end trying to solve this problem. I am suspecting that the light green may be caused by copper maybe from the algecide. As a last ditch effort we have CULator arriving tomorrow, but I will not put it in until I get a consensus from all of you. Have any ideas? Please let me know.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
My name is Charlie and I reside in RI. I have been reading this forum with interest for over a week and I am very impressed with the information I have found here. I thank you for accepting me into your fold and for any information you may provide.
It is rather ironic that I am posting here in need of help because I have owned this very same pool for over 37 years and have never had a problem opening it. This year I was forced to hire someone to open the pool for me because of neck and back problems that prevented me from doing it myself. The contractor that I hired is very well known to me and has an excellent track record for repairing pool problems, such as leaks, liner installations, etc.
They removed the cover from my pool and put some algecide into it. I do not have any idea of the kind or amount of algecide. They then told me to get some liquid chlorine and to give the pool a good shock which I did. I was amazed to see how quickly my pool had cleared to a light green color and within two days I was able to see my drain in the pool's deep end. I should note that my water was balanced according to the test strips I was using, and also according to my neighbors pool test kit chemicals. As effective as I had been at pool openings in the past 37 years I had never seen my pool clear so quickly. Despite the quick clearing the green never went away. It may have become a slightly lighter shade of green and the pool water is very clear but the green never left. I went to the pool store and told the operator about my problem. He gave me 4 gallons of algecide and told me to dump them all in. He told me to follow that up a couple of hours later with three carboys of chlorine to shock the pool. This was probably around 22 gallons of chlorine. We waited and waited and the pool showed no signs of losing the light green tint. It should be noted that while we waited and waited we vacuumed to waste three times completely evacuating the pool of all bottom material. We brushed the pool and walls, and we even changed the 20 year old sand in our filter last week. Despite all this no signs of improvement whatsoever. Our most recent attempt to solve the problem was to order the T-100 test kit which arrived today, and to put DE into our sand filter to raise the operating pressure 1 LB. We have put the DE in a second time after back washing a second time but still no improvement.
I should also note that the pool store had me put in more chlorine and algecide after the first time but I don't remember how much. I did check the pool stores algecide container and did not see any mention of copper on the label. I should also not that very little water was added to the pool this year, but when we did add water it came from the City which historically has not had any metal issues.
Upon using the new test kit today here are the results:
Chlorine Drop Test 10
Combined Chloramines .5
Calcium Hardness 50
Total Alkalinity 110
CYA 42
Total Chlorine 10.5 if I did it right
PH 7.5
I know that the Calcium Hardness is low but I hate to tackle that now unless it is the culprit causing the problem. Needless to say we are wits end trying to solve this problem. I am suspecting that the light green may be caused by copper maybe from the algecide. As a last ditch effort we have CULator arriving tomorrow, but I will not put it in until I get a consensus from all of you. Have any ideas? Please let me know.
Thanks for any and all suggestions.
