Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground pool?

[annp]

I have an above ground Intex like vinyl pool. 5000 gallons. I've checked and remedied chlroine and ph every night for 3 months since we have owned it with no problems.

The light green cloudy water has just started. I think it is because we have had 100 degree heat and by the end of the day on several days the chlorine was down near to zero and I didn't shock that week, just brought the chlorine back up to regular swimming levels like 3 - 4.

So I have been checking these boards (thank you!) and I have seen many people with cloudy water issues....but no one that I have found has come back to the thread and said they were able to successfully clear it.

I'm thinking it may just be easier and less expensive to empty and refill the pool rather than go out and buy expensive test kits and chemicals which may or may not work anyway.

Is it really too difficult or too big of a "pain in the rear" to drain and refill the pool? Any reason why I shouldn't just take an "empty and refill" approach right away? I anticipate the water bill will only increase by $35 to $40 to refill the pool. So I'm thinking that may just be the fastest and most economical approach, since I do not see others having success with clearing their own pools.

 

[linen]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

Welcome to tfp, annp

So I have been checking these boards (thank you!) and I have seen many people with cloudy water issues....but no one that I have found has come back to the thread and said they were able to successfully clear it.

Then you have not searched enough. A thread that is currently active is likely not finished with the process. However, I can not think of a situation where a poster has keep with the method and not have their pool clear.

I'm thinking it may just be easier and less expensive to empty and refill the pool rather than go out and buy expensive test kits and chemicals which may or may not work anyway.

In your case, if your water is cheap, and since you have a intex, that may work for you. For many people it is still cheaper and faster to clear the water they have (unless their is a high cya concentration). If you do drain your pool, you may still have organics in it that will need to be sanitized with chlorine. As for the testing, if you do not learn to test your water appropriately and then respond appropriately, you will likely have the same problem again and again...and that gets expensive. Acurate testing will help you prevent algae outbreaks and be most efficient with chemicals under normal conditions.

With green cloudy water you need to do the shocking process

 

[Mesamav]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

I have an above ground Intex like vinyl pool. 5000 gallons. I've checked and remedied chlroine and ph every night for 3 months since we have owned it with no problems.

The light green cloudy water has just started. I think it is because we have had 100 degree heat and by the end of the day on several days the chlorine was down near to zero and I didn't shock that week, just brought the chlorine back up to regular swimming levels like 3 - 4.

So I have been checking these boards (thank you!) and I have seen many people with cloudy water issues....but no one that I have found has come back to the thread and said they were able to successfully clear it.

I'm thinking it may just be easier and less expensive to empty and refill the pool rather than go out and buy expensive test kits and chemicals which may or may not work anyway.

Is it really too difficult or too big of a "pain in the rear" to drain and refill the pool? Any reason why I shouldn't just take an "empty and refill" approach right away? I anticipate the water bill will only increase by $35 to $40 to refill the pool. So I'm thinking that may just be the fastest and most economical approach, since I do not see others having success with clearing their own pools.

Well, I've posted about my success clearing cloudy water.
de-and-sand-filter-t49353.html
I have a 26K inground plaster pool with a sand filter and my water has been cloudy from day one. Someone on here mentioned adding a cup or two of DE to my sand filter (I didn't think you could do that and the pool store guys certainly won't tell you that.) and to my surprise, my water cleared up very quickly. In my case, I added 4 cups and I saw a huge difference in two hours. 8 hours later my water is absolutely sparkling clean. I don't even get any haze at night with the pool light on. I was amazed at how well that worked.
I did have to backwash several times. I think I backwashed 4 times in 2 days but now that the water is cleaned up, I have one cup of DE in the filter and I haven't backwashed in two days and my filter pressure is still good.
I couldn't be happier and it ended up costing almost nothing to do it.

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

Thanks for the info. I did shock two days ago and have been running the filter for the past 2 days, taking out and washing out the cartridge filter about every 6-8 hours; and brushing the pool and it does seem to be getting better. I don't think there is any sand in my filter. It's one of those cartridge filters. This is my very first pool. It was cheap enough (under $300) that if it only lasts me through the end of this summer I will feel I got my money's worth; and will buy a better one next summer year.

 

[techguy]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

Ann

When you said you "did shock two days ago", does this mean you "added two bags of a product called shock" or that you "added chlorine to bring your pool to a shock level based on your CYA and kept it there for two days until the CC<0.5 and the water was clear and you did not lose FC overnight."?

If you have no clue what I just said, I highly suggest you read the Pool School articles (link in the upper right corner). Or... you can drain the pool, refill it and then start the BBB process with a fresh fill.... after reading the Pool School.

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

I added bleach to bring pool to shock level. I've never used the "bags of shock." It's been cloudy and the FC has been above 5 (I don't know exactly how high because my kit tube doesn't go above 5). I don't have the recommended test kit yet. I don't think I'm able to test for CYA with what I have. I know I need to get the better test kit. It's been 48 hours and the pool is looking much better. I've read most of the pool school but probably need to read it again and actually do ALL of it, of course. I'm going to continue this course of action for the rest of the week and see if it clears. I can see the particles in the water when they settle...but they are still too small to vaccum up. When I rinse out the filter cartridge it does have alot of green in it.

 

[techguy]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

The two choices are to bring your pool to a shock using liquid bleach to the level based on your stabilizer (CYA) level or to do the dump and fill method. It sounds like a "dump and fill" and the cost of the TF100 test kit recommend here are similar in cost.

We are now at the "feed a (wo)man for day" or "teach her to fish" point. The TF fishin'-kit will allow you to keep it clean everyday, the dump and fill will keep it clean one day and it will be green soon enough.

The only thing that will make the water clear is filtration and that's all your pump and filters. Chlorine alone will kill the algae, but leave it cloudy.

 

[llanok]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

I've gotten mine to clear, but since I didn't post about it being cloudy, I never came back to post about it being clear.

It sounds like we have nearly the same pool. Mine is 5300 gal when full, but usually about 5000 gal. One of the (many) drawbacks to this of pool is the quick green algae bloom that happens when chlorine drops too low. With the small size, it doesn't take very long for a group of kids (and grass clippings, and toys, and the dog, and whatever the heck else winds up in there) to burn through all the chlorine in the pool on a sunny day. Then the algae, that survives by hiding in the little overlaps where the various pieces of the liner are welded together, comes out and grows furiously.

I've had it happen several times, and one day of being inattentive takes several days to clear up, but I do get it clear. First by shocking for a couple of days--my cheapo test kit doesn't go above 5 either, so I have to use the pool calculator and go by the feel and smell of the pool. second, I usually maintain the chlorine level a couple of ppm higher than normal for the next two or 3 days after shocking, until the pool is clear. BTW, you should be able to calculate your CYA level by using the pool calculator and plugging in how much dichlor,, or whatever CYA containing stuff, you've added. Since CYA doesn't evaporate, you only need to add a fudge factor for how much water gets splashed out and you'll have a pretty good idea of your CYA level.

As you are doing, I also clean the filter daily during this process. One thing I've found is that the genuine Intex filters won't filter out the really fine silt and a lot of the dead algae, most of it just goes through the filter and blows back into the pool. However, the cheaper walmart filters do a much better job of catching the fine stuff. The downside of them is that I have to swap the filter out with a clean one every couple of days since they catch more stuff. Fortunately they can be cleaned off with a garden hose and decent sprayer, and used again. They still won't get all the cloudy-making silt, but if you let them get partially plugged they do a good enough job to clear up my the cloudy pool. It isn't the best solution, but it works for now. My Intex filter/pump is on it's last legs, and I'll probably replace it with a sand filter and pump kit when it dies--I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around spending more on a pump and filter than the entire pool cost me.

 

[frogabog]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

Two 800-100gph walmart dotty filter media cartridges running full time WILL clear a pool. Nicely. In 6-24 hours actually. Last year I struggled with slightly cloudy water after swimming for weeks till someone here told me about the walmart filters. I happened to have two in the garage, popped those suckers in to both pumps and could see the difference in less than two hours. My pool was sparkling by 12 hours into it.

The only real solution for Intex pools and cartridge pump/filters is to double up. We always ran two pump/filters 24/7 during the swimming season. Till today when I started up the SWG and sand filter. I've still got one cartridge filter going for the skimmer. That will run 24/7. I'll decide which filter after I see how the sand filter does with the fines. I would not, and do not ever suggest one cartridge filter on these pools. See the thread in my sig for information about how to do it with two pumps. We've actually been very happy with this solution.

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

Wow! Thanks....you all are great! Yes llanok and frogabog - it looks like we have the same pool. Good to know there is a possibility it will clear soon. I like the idea of two pumps so I'm going to see how you set that up from your siggy line. Glad walmart is open 24 hours as I can go out now and get the cartridges there. And yes, techguy, I will be getting the TF100 test kit now too. Hopefully I can come back and repost success at the end of the week.

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

you know what else I just realized? I have been using the cheap Walmart filter cartridges since the first weekend in April (when we put the pool up as it is already summer weather at Easter time here in southeast Texas). Just recently I picked up some filters from the Ace Hardware when I was there, and the new filters I've been using recently (since mid-June) are the Intex brand filters. Hmmmm.....so the cloudy problems started shortly after I unknowingly changed to the brand name filters. Just an interesting note. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.

 

[frogabog]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

If you look at the media, you'll see why the Intex and other brands don't catch fines. You can nearly see through them. I think Intex makes more money on filters than they do on pools because people think they're disposable. They last a long long time on rinse and reuse. We bought none last year, at all and some of the ones we have still are 4-5 years old easily.

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

Just checking in to report that the green is gone in my pool.

Even though the experts were telling me to "keep my pool at shock level overnight" - I didn't fully understand what they were saying until I went through and did some more reading here. So now I understand that the presence of algae in the pool makes chlorine deteriorate quickly.

So yesterday evening I added chlorine and started testing every 30 minutes (using the dilution method since I still have cheapo test kit), and sure enough, I waslosing chlorine at approx 2 ppm per 30 minutes. So, as a last ditch effort, I added enough bleach to bring the chlorine level to 38 - 40. This morning I woke up at 7 am to a blue pool with no green, just a bit cloudy still.

Oh I had also added about 10 oz of HTH Natural Clarifier to the pool the day before yesterday. Not sure why I did that - or if it helped any, I was just shooting in the dark at that point not knowing what to do because I didn't understand at that time what I was doing wrong.

I have a knee-high sock on the return, which has also been there overnight.

So if I understand correctly, I just need to maintain the pool at shock level or above until the cloudiness clears.

Thank you everyone.

 

[techguy]

It sounds like you have had some success in killing off the algae. We recommend trying at shock levels of chlorine to ensure you have killed and removed al traces of the organics in your pool. This is the hardest step. It looks good but until the testing proves it, you are guessing. It you drop the chlorine before its all gone, you can get a huge bloom.

 

[linen]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

I added enough bleach to bring the chlorine level to 38 - 40.

That is a really high Chlorine level!

Do you know what your cya level is?

Levels as high as that with no cya can damage liners.

So if I understand correctly, I just need to maintain the pool at shock level or above until the cloudiness clears.

Yes, at or above your pool's shock level, which you need cya level to know what the shock level is.

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

so did I make a big mistake taking the chlorine that high? What kind of damange to the liner? My thinking was if the chlorine was dropping that fast (dropping 2 ppm per 30 minutes)...then I better take it up really high in order to keep it above shock level all night otherwise I would have to wake up multiple times in the night to check it. So that is why I took it up that high. By 7:00 this morning the chlorine level was already down to about 18. Now it's raining quite hard so I'll go check it again when the rain stops. I can only estimate what my CYA is because I know how much trichlor I've used since I got the pool in April I've used approx 2.5 pounds of trichlor so I manipulated the calculator and estimated my CYA to be approx 20 to 30.

 

[techguy]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

I don't know if it damaged the liner or not, especially an Intex. I may be incorrect but it seems the material the Intex pools is very durable. I don't know if they have more resistance than a standard liner. Is this an EasySet (frameless with the air ring) or a framed pool?

 

[annp]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

it's a framed pool. This is our first "try it out" pool and the pool itself was inexpensive (under $300). We have enjoyed it greatly this year. I am in southeast Texas so we have hot summer for 6 months out of the year, extremely hot summer for 3 months of the year, and cooler summer for the other 3 months, lol. Besides this one experience with algae bloom, we are enjoying the pool immensely. I am already looking forward to upgrading the pool when it wears out. So if I ruin the pool in any way, I will just look forward to reading and learning more over the winter (oops, I mean our cooler summer!) about BBB water maintenance, and upgrading to a larger one next Spring.

 

[techguy]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

One way to step up tot he next pool is to fix the Intex-style pool with standard Hayward or similar ABG pump/filter, skimmer and returns. You will have an easier time filtering and you would have them available for the next pool. You can never really have 'too much' filter. I have seen great deals on equipment similar to mine for less than $150 on my local Craigslist. Do your research before buying someones old unit but some of them can be a great value.

This one is for sale for $150 near me (but i like my DE) and I were looking, this seems like a good value. Also, the owner has made it easy to see they value what they have and include many of the fittings you need.

 

[linen]

Re: Anyone w/ success w/ light green cloudy above ground poo

so did I make a big mistake taking the chlorine that high? What kind of damange to the liner?

I am sorry if I sounded alarmist. The methods taught on here are intended to be a measured approach to pool chemistry...i.e. pool has a problem, tests are run, and appropriate actions are taken. In your case, before running up to shock level the level of cya was needed to know what the appropriate measured response (chlorine in this case) that was needed.

I've used approx 2.5 pounds of trichlor so I manipulated the calculator and estimated my CYA to be approx 20 to 30.

Now that is information (albeit indirect) that you can use! Poolcalculator gives me 2.5 lbs of trichlor raises 5000 gallons to 30 ppm, that means your shock FC level is 13 ppm (also from the poolcalculator).