I've been fighting this problem since we opened the pool back in early June. About two weeks after opening, I had it looking pretty good, but not sparkling. Then it rained every day for about three weeks, during which time the water greened up considerably. Once the rain quit, I started shocking and brushing, and after about a week it was starting to look better. A friend of my wife's, who takes care of the pool at her work, came by to look at it a few times. About the time I thought I was getting somewhere, I started getting brown "crud" on the floor, and he said it was sand. So...I changed the sand (the sand in the filter was play sand, which I replaced with filter sand), ran the pump for three days with no issues, then my wife's friend used ascorbic acid to try to get the stains off of the vinyl liner. Two days later he shocked it, and a day after that the "crud" was back on the pool floor. He says it is sand, but I vacuumed last night and I'm pretty sure it's not sand (it "poofs" up when I get the vacuum head even close to it). Now I'm confused, disgusted, mad, all of the above! Someone please chime in with some opinions. By the way, my numbers are: FC 5, TC 5, Ph 7.4, TA 100. Last time I checked CYA it was 30 (about three weeks ago), and the others (CH, TDS) were fine. Sorry for rambling, but I need help!
Cloudy sea green water--please help!
- Thread starter bfin
- Start date
bfin,
Welcome. You'll get a lot of good advice here but some clarification is needed. Your post title says "sea green water" but your body text indicates it's the brown crud that's got you baffled......Is it both? A little more info is needed and we'll get your pool back to sparkling. If you've put any other chemistry in the pool, please tell us.
Welcome. You'll get a lot of good advice here but some clarification is needed. Your post title says "sea green water" but your body text indicates it's the brown crud that's got you baffled......Is it both? A little more info is needed and we'll get your pool back to sparkling. If you've put any other chemistry in the pool, please tell us.
When you have algae in the pool and then kill it with chlorine some of it will clump up and settle to the bottom, at which point it needs to be vacuumed up. The trick is to not let algae get started in the first place. To do that you need to never allow the chlorine level to get too low.
duraleigh, yes I have both problems: sea green cloudy water and the brown stuff on the floor. I have put in 16 oz of PhosFree, a pound of soda ash, and some clarifier, all within the last couple of days. JasonLion, you are absolutely right. I shouldn't have let it go during the rainy period. Since then, though, I've shocked and brushed, brushed and shocked, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
PhosFree is going to cloud up the pool for several days, in addition to whatever else might be going on.
While the pool is cloudy you should run the pump 24/7, brush the pool once a day, and remember to backwash/clean the filter every couple of days or when the filter pressure rises by 8-10 psi.
To kill the algae you need to bring the FC level up to 15 and hold it there till you don't lose any FC overnight and CC is zero.
While the pool is cloudy you should run the pump 24/7, brush the pool once a day, and remember to backwash/clean the filter every couple of days or when the filter pressure rises by 8-10 psi.
To kill the algae you need to bring the FC level up to 15 and hold it there till you don't lose any FC overnight and CC is zero.
JasonLion, the water is no more cloudy since the Phosfree; in fact, it may be a little better. The pump has been on 24/7 for six days now, and I have backwashed twice in that span, although the filter pressure stays between 20 and 22 psi at all times. I have only brushed three times in the last six days, simply because I'm not home every evening. And I realize I typed "5" for FC & TC in my original post, but that was a typo; I meant "15". Thanks!
Okay, so I just got home from the pool store w/ test results: FC=2.5, TC=3, Ph=7.4, TA=70, CH=260, CA=40, TDS=600. I've been at work today, and the first thing I noticed when I got home was that the pool color is closer to a greenish-blue than a blueish-green now, so maybe I'm getting there? I have more splotchy greenish-brown stuff on the floor tonight (I vacuumed last night), not a lot of it though. Is it possible that its just more dead algae falling to the bottom? I didn't say so in my original post, but the pool started looking progressively worse last Wednesday thru Saturday, when I changed the sand, and now it looks better than it did Saturday. The guy at the store recommended 12lbs of alkalinity up, then 32ozs of algae control, then (only) 2lbs of chlorine, then 8ozs of clarifier, then 32ozs of Phos-Free, with brushing in between. Good thing I didn't buy everything he recommended or I'd have to cancel my satellite service!
So, what do you think? And thank you very much for the advice.
So, what do you think? And thank you very much for the advice.
All you need is to take your chlorine up to I would say to 20, and hold it there, oh yeah and you need a little POP 
(pool owner patience). POP is the hardest - because we all want to keep throwing stuff in the water to "clear it up" The only problem is that everything we throw in the water does a little something to it - and the reactions against each other are sometimes not good 
So what I would do is take the chlorine up to 20 - I know it is higher than 15, but it seems like you may have some mustard algae, test as often as you can bringing it back to 20, and brush the pool whenever you can, keeping the pump running 24/7/ Do this until the chlorine holds overnight, and then two days more 
This way you will get rid of it once and for all. Once all of the algae is dead and vacuumed up, your water will be clear and beautiful 
(pool owner patience). POP is the hardest - because we all want to keep throwing stuff in the water to "clear it up" The only problem is that everything we throw in the water does a little something to it - and the reactions against each other are sometimes not good So what I would do is take the chlorine up to 20 - I know it is higher than 15, but it seems like you may have some mustard algae, test as often as you can bringing it back to 20, and brush the pool whenever you can, keeping the pump running 24/7/ Do this until the chlorine holds overnight, and then two days more This way you will get rid of it once and for all. Once all of the algae is dead and vacuumed up, your water will be clear and beautiful Thanks for the help. I guess the reason my POP is lacking is because we are leaving on vacation tomorrow morning and I'm trying to get the pool swimmable for my son and my mother, who will be staying with him. If I can get it close, then my mom can stick to the routine I leave for her and it'll be alright when I get back in 9 days.