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jasnovanorder

jasnovanorder

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Bronze Supporter
Jul 2, 2015
201
Hamilton Michigan
Here is my issue. Thanks to funky weather and a tree I'm in the process of doing a SLAM. My issue is I still have green cloudy water but I'm not losing any chlorine. Started this past Friday and had steady chlorine loss till Monday night. My CYA is 40 so my SLAM level is 16. Monday night test showed chlorine at 10 so added bleach to bring it up. Ended up over shooting a bit and was at 18 an hour later. Tested Tuesday morning and was right at 16. Wife tested again Tuesday afternoon and still 16. Tested late last night. Still 16. Tested this morning twice. Still 16. Vacuumed after. Just checked again and I'm at 20. Tested 3 times and all 3 were the same. Haven't added any bleach since Monday night and somehow the chlorine level stayed the same and then went up. What the devil is going on?
 
No clue on water temp other than really cold. Kids broke our thermometer last fall

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Test kit is a TF100. I thought it could be test error that's why I have started testing multiple times with a new sample from different areas in the pool. That's the confusing thing. I will get a pic later today
 
If the water is "really" cold and you have no active algae growth (algae effectively stops reproducing at water temperatures below 60F), then your FC loss will be minimal. During the winter months, when my pool water is in the upper 40's and just sitting open (I don't close here), I can literally go weeks without ever having to add chlorine. My FC will sit at 3-4ppm and stay there for weeks on end. This last winter, I think used approximately one gallon of bleach for 4 straight months....that's how low FC loss will be when it has nothing to oxidize and UV loss is low.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
If the water is "really" cold and you have no active algae growth (algae effectively stops reproducing at water temperatures below 60F), then your FC loss will be minimal. During the winter months, when my pool water is in the upper 40's and just sitting open (I don't close here), I can literally go weeks without ever having to add chlorine. My FC will sit at 3-4ppm and stay there for weeks on end. This last winter, I think used approximately one gallon of bleach for 4 straight months....that's how low FC loss will be when it has nothing to oxidize and UV loss is low.
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I doubt the water temp is above 60. We only have had a handful of days above 60 as it is.
 

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jasnovanorder said:
I doubt the water temp is above 60. We only have had a handful of days above 60 as it is.
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I really think this is just a combination of very cold water, poor mixing (due to cold water and specific gravity differences between water and bleach) and testing error (no offense to the tester, but it happens all the time).

Just let it ride for now. The cloudiness and coloration could just be from poor circulation and pollen (or whatever the "tree" event was??). If you had algae, you'd have FC loss. Keep filtering and vacuuming the best you can. You're not really going to go swimming anyway, so you can just monitor the situation for now and keep the FC elevated.

Just to be sure, do you have any issues with iron in your water? Are you using a well to fill the pool? Iron, when it oxidizes turns pure water a yellowish color which, when mixed with a blue background will make pool water look green like green-tea.
 
JoyfulNoise said:
Just to be sure, do you have any issues with iron in your water? Are you using a well to fill the pool? Iron, when it oxidizes turns pure water a yellowish color which, when mixed with a blue background will make pool water look green like green-tea.
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Iron is something you can have the pool store test to get an idea where you are at. Just don't buy anything they suggest.

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20160605_080522.jpg

This is what my water looked like when it was clean but had iron precipitating.
 
Are you brushing? Algae forms a biofilm that can resist chlorine - the brush disrupts that film and allows the chlorinated water to get at the algae itself.

Being that green, and not clear, I'm going to say it's an algae/organics problem, especially since you're getting a lot of sludge out. The sludge itself may be mostly inert due to chlorine at the moment - which may explain the green and cloudiness, but that stuff has to be scooped out/filtered out to get you clean and clear. For now, you should stay at SLAM levels while you're scooping, filtering, etc. Let's see the water itself get clear before we start checking other potential issues.
 
triptyx said:
Are you brushing? Algae forms a biofilm that can resist chlorine - the brush disrupts that film and allows the chlorinated water to get at the algae itself.

Being that green, and not clear, I'm going to say it's an algae/organics problem, especially since you're getting a lot of sludge out. The sludge itself may be mostly inert due to chlorine at the moment - which may explain the green and cloudiness, but that stuff has to be scooped out/filtered out to get you clean and clear. For now, you should stay at SLAM levels while you're scooping, filtering, etc. Let's see the water itself get clear before we start checking other potential issues.
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Not brushing but the vacuum I use has brushes on it so I use those while vacuuming. On the plus side I did have a FC loss of 4 overnight so I guess that's a step in the right direction
 
Alright, keep at it. If the vacuum doesn't get the sides of the pool, you'll want to manually brush those at least once per day. Also, if you have a ladder or any other equipment in the water that is removable, you'll want to remove it, take it apart and clean it with diluted bleach. Ladders are famous for having hollow ballast that gets full of algae and all manner of nooks and crannies for it to hide in.
 
triptyx said:
Alright, keep at it. If the vacuum doesn't get the sides of the pool, you'll want to manually brush those at least once per day. Also, if you have a ladder or any other equipment in the water that is removable, you'll want to remove it, take it apart and clean it with diluted bleach. Ladders are famous for having hollow ballast that gets full of algae and all manner of nooks and crannies for it to hide in.
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No ladder or anything in there yet so no need to worry about that.I will pick up a better brush tonight to really give it a good scrub.
 

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