tint of green with my intex swg.

[MirellaJoe]

I'm having problems with my pool having a tint of green, i've tested the water with test strips ( yes i know i should invest with a better pool testing kit) but at the moment all i can afford are these test strips. I've tested it and these are my results


ph-7.8
f.c-0-0.5(low)
t.a- 240 (high)
stabilizer-0 (low)

This is an intex salt water system and i did add the correct amount of salt to the water, had my sand filter pump run for 24 hrs before turning on the SWG. I had the SWG run for 6 hrs for the first time but it still isnt 100% clear, has a tint of green to the water...what do i do?

 

[Richard320]

With no stabilizer, your SWG can't keep up with the demand and you have the beginnings of an algae bloom. You need chlorine. Lots. Fast. Before the clear greenish pool turns into a swamp.

Have you added any "shock" powders or pucks at all? Or any stabilizer?
Answer those questions and someone will be along to guide you shortly.

 

[JasonLion]

Is the water clear transparent green? Or is there some haze/murkiness?

With CYA (stabilizer) low it is nearly impossible to maintain an appropriate FC level. You need to raise CYA to between 60 and 80 before the unit will be able to maintain consistent FC levels.

Your TA level is also very high, which is going to cause problems with the PH constantly going up. I recommend you lower TA, see the directions in the How To section of Pool School.

 

[Casey]

You need to SLAM the pool and not chlorinate with the cell. It needs to be SLAMMED hard and fast and not just nudged here and there.

If we would go off your strips, you need to bring down the pH and add 30ppm Stabilizer to the pool and then... :lookhere: SLAMing Your Pool.

 

[MirellaJoe]

With no stabilizer, your SWG can't keep up with the demand and you have the beginnings of an algae bloom. You need chlorine. Lots. Fast. Before the clear greenish pool turns into a swamp.

Have you added any "shock" powders or pucks at all? Or any stabilizer?
Answer those questions and someone will be along to guide you shortly.

No i didnt, wow did i mess things up? was i suppose to put a "shock" in? this is a pool i take down and put back up i didnt think i needed it

- - - Updated - - -

Is the water clear transparent green? Or is there some haze/murkiness?

With CYA (stabilizer) low it is nearly impossible to maintain an appropriate FC level. You need to raise CYA to between 60 and 80 before the unit will be able to maintain consistent FC levels.

Your TA level is also very high, which is going to cause problems with the PH constantly going up. I recommend you lower TA, see the directions in the How To section of Pool School.

the water is clear transparent green. Ok i will read the how to section

- - - Updated - - -

You need to SLAM the pool and not chlorinate with the cell. It needs to be SLAMMED hard and fast and not just nudged here and there.

If we would go off your strips, you need to bring down the pH and add 30ppm Stabilizer to the pool and then... :lookhere: SLAMing Your Pool.

i guess i can get this stabilizer at my local pool store.

 

[Richard320]

No i didnt, wow did i mess things up? was i suppose to put a "shock" in? this is a pool i take down and put back up i didnt think i needed it

No, nothing that can't be fixed.

The general order of things is to add CYA after filling. But it's better to have none than to have too much. You can always add, but removing means a drain, and you escaped that.

You need three things: pH down, FC up, and CYA up. You are one the extremely rare people who can benefit from "shock powder."

My advice is to buy three 1 lb bags of dichlor shock and a couple gallons of bleach. Be sure to read the label so you get the right "shock". There are three different chemicals that are sold as "shock". Add a pound. That will drive FC up to about 12 or 13. Let it mix for an hour or so and test FC again. Using poolmath and your pool volume of 5000 gallons, figure out how much more you need to get back up to 10-12 with dichlor. Just keep doing that every couple hours until the powder is used up. Then switch to bleach as the chlorine source. After the pool turns clear, keep FC up there another day. At that point, you probably need to raise CYA up to 70 using plain stabilizer, not more powdered chlorine. Worry about that later. First, kill off the green.

Ideally, you would have a proper test kit, but you know that already, and you know that one company has the monopoly om Taylor test kits in Canuckistan and charges accordingly. http://piscines-apollo.com/cubecart/test-kits/k-2006.html

 

[MirellaJoe]

thanks Richard i will be going now to get it before it gets worse! thanks again !!

 

[freqz]

^^ An excellent strategy.

 

[MirellaJoe]

i was wondering do i have only my sandfilter pump running or both the sand filter and the SWG? and how long do i have it run for ?

 

[Richard320]

i was wondering do i have only my sandfilter pump running or both the sand filter and the SWG? and how long do i have it run for ?

Yes, pump on, filtering. Any time you're adding chemicals you need the pump on. The SWG is your choice. If you do leave it on, turn it down to the middle somewhere. Running on boost will just burn it out.

What you're doing is sort of a SLAM, but since you have no test kit, it isn't, really. But during the SLAM, you keep the filter on the whole time.

 

[MirellaJoe]

Thanks Richard I don't mean to be a pain but do I have to run the pump for 24hrs? More? Less?

 

[Richard320]

Thanks Richard I don't mean to be a pain but do I have to run the pump for 24hrs? More? Less?

24 hours until the water clears up. Have you read the SLAM article? You're doing a modification of that. You're adjusting the pH and the CYA as you add chlorine by using the powdered shock. And you won't be able to do the overnight loss test without one of those massively overpriced test kits from Apollo I can't justify asking you to spend 1/3 the cost of the pool on the kit, when you could dump the water and refill ten times for what the kit costs, thats all.

Just follow the SLAM instructions as close as you can but use the powder instead of bleach until you've used up three pounds of it. The filtering running, brushing, testing and adding every couple hours, that's all the same. I expect the water will change colors within a day. You'll want to keep the chlorine level high at least one more day after that to be sure you got it all. Othewise, it will green up again, and you'll have to do the things the hard way and spend huge money on that test kit.

 

[MirellaJoe]

Ok thanks again Richard

 

[MirellaJoe]

grrr..HELP!!

Well i did exactly what Richard said

My advice is to buy three 1 lb bags of dichlor shock and a couple gallons of bleach. Be sure to read the label so you get the right "shock". There are three different chemicals that are sold as "shock". Add a pound. That will drive FC up to about 12 or 13. Let it mix for an hour or so and test FC again. Using poolmath and your pool volume of 5000 gallons, figure out how much more you need to get back up to 10-12 with dichlor. Just keep doing that every couple hours until the powder is used up. Then switch to bleach as the chlorine source. After the pool turns clear, keep FC up there another day. At that point, you probably need to raise CYA up to 70 using plain stabilizer, not more powdered chlorine. Worry about that later. First, kill off the green.

I kept testing it every few hrs last night, then this morning i woke and it looked pretty clear so i was excited, went out to test it ( and yes i know i need a test kit) as of 10am it read,

PH- 6.8
FC- 3
TA- 0
I've had my sand filter pump running and my SWG has been shut off. I know my PH is a little low. Now i vacuumed the pool and everytime i vacuumed i noticed a lot of powder coming out of my vacuum which i remembered i used some cornstarch when i packed up the pool last season ( read some where on TFP before packing it up i should dust some cornstarch on it so the liner doesn't stick together) anyways it made the water cloudy again!! anyways I continued to vacuum. Once i was done vacuuming i ended up doing a backwash. Ok now i turned on my SWG since the 24 hrs are up. What i was wondering is can the cornstarch cause any problems with the PH or the colour of the water? I thought i washed it all off when I opened the pool up. I guess not I wanted to take pics to show you but i cant seem to find my phone at the moment but when i do i will post them.

thanks for any help i can get

 

[Richard320]

Re: grrr..HELP!!

The "cornstarch" is probably dead algae carcasses. It shoulkd filter out over time.

I highly doubt that TA reading. 24 hours ago you posted

ph-7.8
f.c-0-0.5(low)
t.a- 240 (high)
stabilizer-0 (low)

pH could be momentarily that low today, but if your TA was that high yesterday, it will bounce back up.

So one of those readings has to be wrong. Either TA wasn't 240 yesterday or it isn't zero today. Maybe you should take a sample to the pool store and see what their tester says, since the test strips aren't cutting it. You might need to add some baking soda.

I apologize. I should have known better than to try to guide someone through anything when there is no test kit. I will never ever make that mistake again. Lesson learned. I'm an idiot.

 

[MirellaJoe]

Sorry Richard I don't mean to make you frustrated and you aren't an idiot I really appreciate your help and you were right about the TA i just tested it again and it's still high. I honestly sometimes have a hard time matching colours, so I'm the idiot not you. I know i should really invest in a test kit it would probably make life so much easier with testing...I'll work on hubby to give in ...

here is my test strip...it's still high



pool water, cloudy

 

[Richard320]

At least it isn't green any more!

 

[MirellaJoe]

nope thanks to you!! thanks

 

[Granny]

It looks pretty

 

[Casey]

You can get a TF50 at TFtestkits.net.