Test results now what

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You have me stumped. I've never seen a pool stay green when there is enough chlorine in it.

Even the worst pools I've seen have turned blue within a few minutes after adding enough chlorine.

Is this well water, perhaps? Are you also dealing with a chemical reaction because of metals in your water? That can be green or brown.
 
You've told us repeatedly that your water has high alkaline. Not sure why. Not sure if this is a board faux pas or if you are just repeating yourself.
EDIT 7/29/07 TMQ removed duplicate posts... the board was having problems...
The alkaline can be taken care of with muriatic acid. However, I suspect you have metals in your water which are reacting chemically with the chlorine to make your water green.
 
Right guys as you are well aware I am very much the novice when it comes to treatment for my green pool. On this site I have followed all the advice from everyone (which has been very much appreicated I might add). Then someone was kind enough to suggest the contents of my well water may include metals, if this is the way to go can someone advice and tell me what to get exactly, is there a particular brand or make of this sequestreant.

readings for today are fc-12----ph-8-----ta-230
 

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bessanddavid said:
would everyone agree this is the way to go now since nothing else has proven successful

b/d
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Absolutely not! Okay. here goes my rant!!

You nor I nor anyone else knows if you have metal in your water until you test for it....something you cannot do with most residential kits.

Secondly, green pool water is not a condition that, in my opinion, is indicative of metals. I maintain that metals precipitate out onto solid surfaces and dont appear suspended in pool water. Additionally, well water is noted to have iron in many parts of the country but when was the last time anyone found their well water high in copper?

Copper typically is found in a pool because you put it there......David, have you put any copper in your pool by adding chemistry you haven't mentioned to us? Even if you did, my understanding (and Ben's from PF) is that it will precipitate out onto surfaces in the form of dark green or dark blue stains....Do you have those and are not reporting them?

Okay, so where do you go from here? I would suggest you read my other semi-rant posted to Roberto a few minutes ago.......his case is similar. Secondly, if you feel the need, test for metals. I truly do not believe that's your issue and I think it has side-tracked you but I've been wrong before and will be wrong again.

Next, go ahead and lower your pH to 7.2....that'll help your chlorine.

Lastly, understand that this is a process....not a one time application to fix weeks and sometimes years of neglect. You must go thru this process of learning, understanding and applying what you have learned in an orderly fashion....that's what's gonna' clear your pool.

My apologies for the directness of this post. I mean no offense and only want people to understand that the solution to 98% of the issues involving pool water chemistry is chlorine. That said, there's always that other two percent but my bet is that it's not the case here.
 
The metals theory requires that the water be cloudy because of dead algae, or some other non-metals reason, and green because of metals. That is possible, but if it was algae causing the cloudiness the water should be clearing slowly as the filter filters out the dead algae. It has been three plus days since Sunday when you reported the chlorine as holding. The filter should have made obvious progress on clearing the water since then. Have you backwashed/cleaned the filter recently?

The sequesterant isn't going to hurt anything, and it might get rid of the green, but I don't believe that it is going to clear cloudiness.

I suggest double checking the filter, have you backwashed/cleaned the filter, is the main valve set correctly (if you have one), etc. Then let the FC level come down below 10 tomorrow and try to maintain it around 8. Then the PH test will work reliably, so bring the PH to around 7.2-7.4. Then we can see what the water looks like at that point. Lowering the PH will help with metals if there are any, and clear up calcium cloudiness if there is any, and help the chlorine be more effective if there is still algae, and lower the TA a little.
 
Do an experiment. Put some of your pool water in a bucket. It should look cloudy or greenish. Now add a LOT of bleach to it, perhaps a full gallon. If you have algae the water should clear or turn milky (dead algae) in a short time. This can confirm that you are battling algae. With your CYA at 60-65 ppm I would then raise your FC level to 20 ppm, wait 4 hours and then add some polyquat 60 algaecide (don't use anything except polyquat 60 and put in 1 pt per 10000 gallons) and let the pool circulate for about 6 hours. Bring the FC back up to 20 ppm and KEEP IT THERE by testing the wate and adding chlorine as needed at LEAST 3 times a day (more if you can). Do you last chorine addition in the evening when the sun is going down and make sure you have 20 ppm FC. Test in the morning and see if you lose any chlorine overnight, even 1 or 2 ppm is chlorine loss. Use the FAS-DPD test for your chlorine. The OTO total chlorine test is really just for daily checks when your pool is good to make sure that your clorine is holding. If you keep this up you will clear the pool. Do NOT worry about your TA or pH right now. You can get them in line once the pool is clear.

If the water in your bucket looks yellowish or if it should get greener when you add the chorine (or turn yellowish or get a brown sediment) then you have iron in your water and need to use a metal seqesterant.

From the pictures it does look like algae but since you filled with well water it is possible that you have a combination of both, compounding the problem.

It will not hurt anything to add a metal sequesterant but realize that if metals are present then your pool might get more cloudy from the seqesterant for a day or two.
 
After my post last night, I went back to PF to find an old post of Ben's that has stuck with me for a while...to wit:

With very few exceptions, there will be no copper in your water, unless you added it, or unless you corroded it off of a pool heater. So, to check for copper, check your chemical product labels. (NOTE: you are actually going to have to READ the fine print on the chemical ingredients, to check this.) If you haven't added anything that has copper in it, and don't have a heater, you probably don't have copper.

Iron is common is well water. If you have it, you probably already know that. If you have a softener, it will also remove the iron from the water . . . and you should fill your pool with that. Removing iron from an AG pool with a sand filter is not the easiest thing in the world. The sand filters are almost always 'over driven' (ie, the pump's way too big for the filter) and the precipitated (orange rust dust) is blown right on through the filter. Of course, if you do refill with softened water, you'll most likely need to be prepared to regenerate your softener several times.

But, green is not a common color from metals. If your filter is slimey and stinky, and has green slimey clumps, almost certainly, your problem is simply good old algae due to a lack of pool chemical maintenance.
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Based on your posts, I still believe you have algae and have not quite yet developed an understanding of how chlorine is consumed on a continual basis, particularly in an algae-laden pool.

Test your pool water this evening for FC. Next, CAREFULLY add enough bleach to bring your pool water to 20ppm. In a couple of hours, test again to find out exactly what your FC is at that time.

Early the next AM, Test for FC again. I strongly suspect your FC will have dropped noticeably....that tells you you still have organics in your pool and the ONLY way they can be effectively removed is to continually bring your FC back up to the 20ppm mark. This means testing and adding chlorine....This means testing and adding chlorine....This means testing and adding chlorine....This means testing and adding chlorine....again and again until your pool water clears.

Post your test results (pH and chlorine are all you need to test for at this point) on a daily basis here on the forum.

I know I sound like a stuck record and am hung up and single minded on chlorine. That said, it still remains the answer in way over 95% of pool water problems.
 
I don't disagree with waterbear and duraleigh. Though I do think that now might be a good moment to get the PH back under control before going back up to high chlorine levels. High PH levels will make the chlorine less effective, which could be why the current high chlorine levels haven't worked.

Pools require patience, it comes with the teritory. You will get the water under control, it just takes a while.
 
Right today wed fc-7, ph-8.2
put in 8 gal bleach at 2pm will check back soon with an update
btw did the bucket test and it,s funny the water looked quite clear before adding 1 gal of bleach result is a little cloudy

brb b/d
 

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