Suggestions for clearing pool

[oseng]

Hi all -
I received Ben's test kit October 2006, right before we closed our pool. Summer of 2007 we did not open pool due to several family crises. We opened our pool last Tuesday, and the filter has been running 24/7 for a week now. Water is still a milky light green (cannot see bottom of deep end). Have been brushing walls and vacuuming to waste every other day. I would appreciate some help in getting my pool clear. Here are my numbers as of this morning (Monday):

FC:16
CC:4
TC:20
CYA:0 (the black dot on the tube never disappeared. Not sure if I'm looking at the tube the right way)
PH: 7.8
ALK: 70
CAL: 100

Inground vinyl pool, 26,000 gallons, sand filter. We on Long Island, New York. All I've added since last Tuesday is about half a box of Borax and about 28 gallons of liquid bleach.

Thanks in advance for all your help. I've been reading Ben's forum and now this one, and want to try the BBB method this year for my pool. My husband is getting impatient and is ready to go to Leslie's to get their "shock."

 

[JohnT]

You are on the right track. Be diligent about not letting your chlorine drop. The water will be more blue or gray when the algae is dead. If there are any leaves or debris in the bottom, get what you can out. If you can post a picture, someone can tell you if it's the dead algae color or not. Many of us have personal experience with that. Checking chlorine three times a day will probably get you by now, but this will speed you along more than anything else. Once the algae is dead, to sooth your husband, you can add a heavy dose of whatever clarifier that Walmart carries. This will probably accelerate the clearing process so he'll see some progress.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

The light green color is suggestive that you haven't killed all the algae. You can double check this to be sure one way or the other by testing the FC level in the evening and again first thing in the morning. If the level holds steady overnight then all the algae is dead. If it drops then you still have more to work on.

I would add about 4 lbs of CYA, which will bring the CYA level up by about 20. That should allow more of the chlorine to go towards fighting algae and have less lost to sunlight.

If you do still have algae, one thing that really helps is if you can find some evening time when you can test the water and bring FC back to about 15 every hour for a couple of hours. If you hit the algae hard all at once it has less chance to grow back and it is easier to get it all.

 

[oseng]

Thanks for your responses. As Jason suggested, last night I tested chlorine levels again, and came up with:
FC 8
CC 1
TC 9

I added 3 gallons of bleach. Two hours later, the readings were:
FC 18
CC 1
TC 19

This morning (Wednesday) at 7:00 am, readings were:
FC 17
CC 1
TC 18
PH 7.6
ALK 70

Does this mean all the algae is dead? Will the water then eventually clear up? This morning it is still a milky light green color. We are reluctant to add any stabilizer as we are thinking of replacing the liner sometime this summer.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Guest]

If you have CC and your FC is dropping you have not killed the algae, especially if the water is green!

Adding CYA Has nothing to do with changing the liner. You NEED it if the pool is exposed to sunlight or you will have a constantly green pool. It's not that expensive. You are going to have to rebalance everything after you change the liner anyway.

 

[oseng]

Thanks for all the responses.

Here are some photos I took this morning. Do you think there's still live algae there?

 

[JasonLion]

From the pictures I would call it mostly dead, perhaps a little ambiguous. From your overnight FC numbers you are close to killing all the algae. The key to killing all of the algae is to never let the FC drop and to brush everywhere. If you aren't through the algae is mostly killed, but then it comes right back.