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Peggy L

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Jun 20, 2012
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Hello everyone,
I am new to this site and really need some help with my pool. My name is Peggy and I live in the UK. I have a tiled, salt water pool in Spain with a ph regulator. The pool is suddenly starting to go slightly green although the chlorine level is high (made from the salt generator) and the PH is normal. I took a sample of water to be checked and the only thing that showed as being slightly low was the Cyanuric Acid at 30.

The pool shop suggested super cube and I have put 2 of these into the pump basket. Will this get rid of the green algae? Does anyone know what is in this super cube? I will run the pump for 24 hrs.

Is there anything else I should be doing? I am only here for 10 days and want to be able to use the pool.

Please can you tell me the best pool testing kit that I can buy in Spain?

Thank you in advance for your help. :wave:
 
:wave: Welcome :wave:

The ideal kit to get would be the Taylor K-2006, but I am not sure most places carry them locally and you would have to order them.

It is going to be very difficult to clear a pool in less than 10 days without a good test kit. At a minimum you need to know the CYA level and then be able to test for high levels of FC (need the FAS-DPD chlorine test).

Typically for a SWG we recommend a CYA up closer to 70-80ppm, but since you are showing green, it is obvious that the SWG was not able to keep the FC level up high enough for the low CYA.

Ideally, you would go through the Shocking Your Pool process at the lower CYA level (using liquid chlorine). And then once you pass the 3 tests to stop shocking, you would bump up the CYA and let the SWG take over.

Given your abbreviated schedule, I am not sure what to recommend.

It looks like the super cubes are just a flocculant. All that will do is "maybe" get the stuff in the pool to drop to the floor so you can vaccum it to waste. BUT ... that is usually only used as a last resort AFTER everything is dead and not filtering out fast enough for you liking.

You need to get the FC up using liquid chlorine if possible to start trying to kill the algae. According to Chlorine CYA Chart, for a CYA of 30ppm, you should try to maintain a FC level of 12ppm through the shocking process.
 
Hi Jason,
I have tried to find the test kit you suggested, however, I'm not sure I can buy one in Spain. I have tested the water again and using the liquid OTO drops and the Total Chlorine is 30-60 mg/l

I am really new to this, but if the Total chlorine is so high why would I need to put even more liquid chlorine in the pool. Somehow this doesn't make sense to me. I have read your info on the pool balance.

Thank you
 
I know it is possible to order the kits over in Europe, but not sure from whom.

Also realize (I just had to verify) mg/l is the same a ppm. I am pretty sure the OTO test usually only goes up to about 5ppm ... are you looking at the chlorine side or the bromine side? I think you may be seeing 3-6ppm ... that is the problem with that test and it is subjective and does not go the high enough levels. Also it only gives Total Chlorine (TC) so you do not know how much is the good (FC) and the bad (CC).
 
Thank you everyone. You are right the test kit I have for the free chlorine only goes up to 3.0 ppm which is no good if I am trying to get the level up to 13 to shock the pool. And then get the level of CYA level up. It is really hot 35 degrees here at the moment and is a real pain not being able to swim. The water is still cloudy with a slight ting of green.
 
The pool was getting clearer, but thn yesterday started to look cloudy again. Added more shock chlorine and this morning is starting to look clearer, although not completely clear. Is it usual for the stabiliser to be raised by adding shock chlorine? This was about 30 to 50 but is now more like 100. Does this mean anything?

Thanks in anticipation.

Peggy
 
Was it 30-50 with you test kit? Redo the test, if it is 100, it would be best to do a partial drain/refill. The test is most accurate with the sun to your back, test cylinder at about waist height.

Peggy L said:
Is it usual for the stabiliser to be raised by adding shock chlorine?
Click to expand...
Depends what it is, and you would have needed to add a lot to go up that much. Post the ingredients and we can tell you. If it is dichlor or trichlor it will add cya.

If you need to do the shocking process, which you do if you pool is cloudy, it would be better to use bleach/liquid chlorine, though you should deal with the high cya first.
 

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Thank you for your messages. Unfortunately I haven't managed to get the proper test kit yet. I will have to get it in the UK when I get home. The aqua test strips are not really accurate enough. I have checked the composition of the chlorine i have used and it says composition sodium dichloroisocyanurate. The PH did drop and I have added about 4-5 kgs of this shock chlorine in the last week, and about 2.5 kg of this tonight. The pool is still not completely clear. No wonder the CYA has increased using this. I stupidly thought that shock treatment didn't contain cya. I should have used Bleach and I did buy some, however it is difficult looking at the ingredients in Spanish to see if this has additives. The composition is 5% blanqueantes clorados. Which i think means blank chlorine. I just didn't feel confident using it. The aqua test strips doesn't have a good scale for the cya. It has 30-50 then 100, 150. I think you are right I am going to have to drain off half of the water, and then start again. I will look at the pool in the morning and keep my fingers crossed.
 
Well things are progressing , however I am learning the hard way. Yesterday, I managed to get a pool man in to test the water. I know I was so hopeful that everything was going to be ok. He tested the PH and this was 7.5 great, then he tested for Free chlorine and it was off his scale. The combined chlorine was an error too. The Total AlkiLinity was 135 which is good, but the CYA was 110. The pool looked cristal clear but the bottom go the pool had some sandy coloured areas on the floor, just where the return jets are.

So today, I have drained one third of the pool, and at the moment I am refilling it. By reducing the CYA I am hoping the water will stay clear and I will be able to go home on Saturday knowing the pool is ok. I am going to clean the pool, again, balance the PH, check the Salt level and Chlorine. I have bought some 12% liquid chlorine if we have the slightest bit of Algae I will cry. So far I have not been able to swim at all on this 12 day break and the temperature today has been 43 degrees C.

Please let me know if I have missed something?
 
One note. If the pool guy was using the proper chlorine test that we recommend (FAS-DPD) there is no "off the scale". Boggles my mind that guys in the industry do not even use that test.
 
All I know was he had a Palin test kit machine that he put the pool water in a test tube, to set the machine and then in another 10ml test tube he put a tablet in I think it was no 1 2 or 3 put it then in the machine after the pool water without tablet and he had a greater than sign. He said the kit cost about 400 E . He does a few pools here on this urbanisation, which is why I don't have him doing my pool. I showed him the trouble free pool website to show him the levels of chlorine required to shock a pool with the Cya levels and he was very surprised. I will definately be getting the Taylor test kit, but haven't been able to get it here. Thankyou for your help.
 
I have now drained off one third of the pool, to bring the CYA level back down to within normal limits. The water looks cristal clear. I'm not sure now what the CYA level is now. Hopefully the algae has gone. I managed one swim before I left to go back to the UK. I have left liquid chlorine to use as a back up for the pool. Are there any chlorine slow release tablets without stabiliser in them that can be used so I don't need someone going in every day to add liquid chlorine? We rent the villa out in the summer and I want to ensure that heavy usage does not do this again. Thankyou.
 
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