Heavy TX Rains and now Pool is GREEN

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IPvFletch

0
Feb 24, 2008
79
Dripping Springs, TX
We had some heavy rains yesterday, and our pool gained about 3" of water. It's 10K gallons, btw.

After the rains subsided, we got outside and found the water was murky and green..

We noticed some of our mulch had run into the pool with our water and was on the bottom, but the Polaris and Skimmer picked it all up.

But could that have turned the water green? Or was it the rain?

We ran the filter all night (going o n24 hours straight now) and checked the filter this morning and it is mostly clean, low pressure, so I guess it is OK.

I upped the CL a bit and added a 1/4 gallon of 31% Acid.. The water is a little clearer today, but not much. It is still kind of green and murky.

I don't know what to do or how long it should be until it clears up or what.. I'm afraid to go to the pool store because they will probably make me buy all sorts of Crud I don't need..

Any advice is appreciated... Thanks!
 
You need to do a full shock, bring the FC up to shock level (which depends on your CYA level) and hold it there till the water clears or the FC level holds overnight.

Enough organic debris got into the pool to overwhelm the chlorine, which gave the algae a chance to get going. In some areas the rain can do that by it's self, but with the addition of mulch there was sure to be a problem.
 
Oh Crud!! Stupid friggin mulch!! And stupid friggin landscaper who put the mulch that high that close to my patio!! GRRRR!!

Ok, so I'm looking on the CL/CYA chart and it looks like even since my CYA is < 10, I still need 2ppm FC to reach "shock" level.. Does that sound right? Seems awfully low compared to other's stories..

So then I go to the pool calculator and to get from 0 to 2ppm FC for my 10K gallon pool, I need to add 41oz of 6% bleach (that is what I bought)..

IS THAT RIGHT??? That doesn't seem like much, so will it really "shock" it??
 
IPvFletch said:
We had some heavy rains yesterday, and our pool gained about 3" of water. It's 10K gallons, btw.

After the rains subsided, we got outside and found the water was murky and green..

We noticed some of our mulch had run into the pool with our water and was on the bottom, but the Polaris and Skimmer picked it all up.

But could that have turned the water green? Or was it the rain?

We ran the filter all night (going o n24 hours straight now) and checked the filter this morning and it is mostly clean, low pressure, so I guess it is OK.

I upped the CL a bit and added a 1/4 gallon of 31% Acid.. The water is a little clearer today, but not much. It is still kind of green and murky.

I don't know what to do or how long it should be until it clears up or what.. I'm afraid to go to the pool store because they will probably make me buy all sorts of Crud I don't need..

Any advice is appreciated... Thanks!
Click to expand...

Well, I guess that you could shock as JasonLion said. I also live in North Texas and got the same rain and at first, suspected my greenish pool was due to algae. However, my chlorine readings were all normal with no indication of combined chlorine. This kinda tells me that what I had probably wasn't algae, but pollen from the trees around my pool. It cleared up today after running the pump for 24 hours.

Craig
 
I'm on a conf call right now, but will go check the FC and CC levels here in a sec and report back BEFORE dumping a ******** (actually it's only 5 cups!?!?) of bleach in there.. I turned my trichlor from 1 to 4 last night, so hopefully that is helping stave off algae until I can get it shocked (assuming it does need it).
 
If your CYA level is really really zero then you only need a FC level of 2 to shock. If your CYA level is anywhere above zero and below 20 then you should shock at a FC level of 10. If you have been using trichlor tablets your CYA level is above zero, so I would aim for a shock level of 10.

Shocking is annoying, but if you catch the algae early enough it can clear up very quickly.
 
FC is 1.5 and CC is 1.5, so since CC is not 0, it is time to shock, right? :)

(I'm a shock virgin)

So if you think I should do 10ppm, which I'm fine with at this point, then it seems like I need to add:

10,000Galls to go from 1.5ppm to 10ppm = 176oz of 6% bleach, which is 1gallon, 1qt, and 2cups of CL.. Wow..

HERE GOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) (This is so exciting -- NOT - YES! NOT!!) :D
 
IPvFletch said:
FC is 1.5 and CC is 1.5, so since CC is not 0, it is time to shock, right? :)

(I'm a shock virgin)

So if you think I should do 10ppm, which I'm fine with at this point, then it seems like I need to add:

10,000Galls to go from 1.5ppm to 10ppm = 176oz of 6% bleach, which is 1gallon, 1qt, and 2cups of CL.. Wow..

HERE GOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) (This is so exciting -- NOT - YES! NOT!!) :D
Click to expand...

pretty sure you mean FC=1.5 and TC(total chlorine)=1.5, and thus CC=0. im pretty sure that at a CC level of .5 or is it 1ppm means its time to shock, not a 0 reading, that means youre good.

i just bought a scumbug for $5 at the local pool store to go with my skimmer socks and it seems to be picking up almost all the pollen. if it is indeed pollen that has gotten in there to change the blue water green (blue+yellow=green right?), then maybe a scumbug is a good investment. if those are considered ripoffs by some people on this site, i do know that a skimmer sock is an EXCELLENT investment at $5/5pack.
 
No, I meant what I said - FC is 1.5 and CC is also 1.5 (ignore the fact they are the same, it is just a conicidence). This means it is time to shock because CC is high (should be 0 all the time). FC is still high because I had just upped the CL level the night before, and probably not all of my FC was used up so some remains.

But what you said would be right - if my FC was 1.5 and my TC was 1.5, then my CC is 0 which means I'm good, like you pointed out.. :)

So I shocked like I said - 10ppm, so we will see what happens in 24 hours or so... Also, do I need to do anything to undo the shock? I mean, what if all the stuff is dead in a few hours.. Even after a few days, won't that leave me, say something like 7ppm left, if only 3ppm gets used killing those last few remaining little dudes in there? Is 7ppm FC OK to swim in??

Yeah I've had skimmer socks in for a few weeks and love them. It is so much easier to clean out (leaves had been getting stuck in the basket grates making cleaning harder)..
 
If the mulch was rich with fertilizer, then that can seriously promote algae growth. As Jason said, it can also significantly use up chlorine, especially locally. Though it's possible you've got pollen as was also mentioned, the timing of the green with the rain and mulch makes it more likely to be algae growth caused by that.

As for the very low FC level for shocking, you can't readily measure very low CYA levels and if you've been using Trichlor to try and get the CYA up then for every 10 ppm FC you've added from the Trichlor, you've also added 6 ppm CYA. So I'd figure you probably have some CYA in the water and can readily go even to 10 ppm FC as Jason said. If you do have algae, you not only want enough FC relative to CYA to kill it quickly, but you also want enough FC to not run out at all. The CC level you measure indicates that the chlorine is indeed combining with organics and/or killing algae so just get the FC to 10 ppm and hold it there and see if things start to clear -- if it's algae, then it should turn from green to cloudy-gray within hours at that chlorine level. For inspiration, look at this sequence of clearing a heck of a lot of algae upon spring opening.

Richard
 

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IPvFletch said:
No, I meant what I said - FC is 1.5 and CC is also 1.5 (ignore the fact they are the same, it is just a conicidence). This means it is time to shock because CC is high (should be 0 all the time). FC is still high because I had just upped the CL level the night before, and probably not all of my FC was used up so some remains.

But what you said would be right - if my FC was 1.5 and my TC was 1.5, then my CC is 0 which means I'm good, like you pointed out.. :)

So I shocked like I said - 10ppm, so we will see what happens in 24 hours or so... Also, do I need to do anything to undo the shock? I mean, what if all the stuff is dead in a few hours.. Even after a few days, won't that leave me, say something like 7ppm left, if only 3ppm gets used killing those last few remaining little dudes in there? Is 7ppm FC OK to swim in??

Yeah I've had skimmer socks in for a few weeks and love them. It is so much easier to clean out (leaves had been getting stuck in the basket grates making cleaning harder)..
Click to expand...

yeah, i had missed a key word: "FC is 1.5 and CC is 1.5, so since CC is NOT 0, it is time to shock, right?" so i had assumed that you had meant different, my fault.
 
If you've had that much rain and Crud washed into your pool, I would just automatically shock it. The rain dilutes your water and pulls in the pollen and whatever else is in the air, mulch is very rich in micro organisms, this is all a good basis for algae to grow.
 
IkeRay said:
i just bought a scumbug for $5 at the local pool store to go with my skimmer socks and it seems to be picking up almost all the pollen. if it is indeed pollen that has gotten in there to change the blue water green (blue+yellow=green right?), then maybe a scumbug is a good investment. if those are considered ripoffs by some people on this site, i do know that a skimmer sock is an EXCELLENT investment at $5/5pack.
Click to expand...
Scumbugs work great. I recommend them all the time and keep one in my skimmer year round (along with a skimmer sock) and another one in my spa.
 
OK, I'll get one and toss it in the skimmer..

BTW, FC=6.5 and CC=0 now... W00T!! :)

So I guess the other 3.5ppm CL got used up killing the last bit of algae that was trying to grow..

So after my pool clears up in the next day or so (based on the rate it is clearing up), if I still have, say, 6ppm FC, what do I do? Just leave it? It will eventually wear back down to whatever level my Chlorinator (Trichlor for the time being) keeps it at, right?? Is it dangerous to swim with 6ppm FC?

Thanks!!!
 
Remember to turn the chlorinator back down, I believe you turned it up to max a few days ago. Other than that, just let the FC level drop naturally.

You should be fine to swim once the water is clear, if it is warm enough :)
 
Yes, I will drop the trichlor back down now since I shocked it..

I was pretending it is warm enough just so at least I can learn the answer.. :) Anyways, I supposed I *COULD* use the Spa.. :)

Is there a level which FC is above that it is NOT safe to swim? For that matter, what about pH? Above 8.2 or below 7.2 = unsafe?

And lastly, how long do you think it will take for FC to drop from ~6ppm to ~2ppm? I run my pump 10 hours a day, and there is some aeratione from my waterfalls, but if we're not using the pool/spa, I would imagine it could stay as high as 5-6ppm for several weeks, right?
 
Chlorine levels in tap water, which you drink, can be 2 ppm without any CYA. Indoor public swimming pools will often go to 5 ppm or higher, again without any CYA. CYA lowers the activity level of the chlorine dramatically. It would take very very high chlorine levels to come anywhere near that level of activity when there is CYA in the water.

PH is best between 7.2 and 7.8. Outside of that range many people will experience some amount of skin irritation and/or stinging eyes, depending on how far out of range it is. You can go quite a bit further before it is actually dangerous. The unpleasantness will normally keep you out of the water well before the danger level.

With your low CYA levels, sunlight on the pool should have the FC level down to whatever the chlorinator is maintaining in another day or so.
 

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