Turning Green Water to Blue

[moron1234]

I am about to lose it, I have tried everything, Last year I inherited a 25' circle pool that is 54 inches deep, i put everything together filled the pool with the fire truck and a day later is was perfectly blue and beautiful. This year I am about 500 dollars into the pool and I cannot get it blue. All the chemicals are right in the middle according to the test strips(guess strips according to the forum) but the water has a cloudy green to it. I just purchased a new inline chlorinator because that was the only difference between last year and this year and it has been running for a day and still nothing. It has a jacuzzi sand filter that I did a deep clean on this year and still nothing, any trips or tricks out there. I also tried 10 gallons of bleach as a friend said to try that because they saw it on the forum

Here is a picture

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

Your story could be from almost any of our members. The pool turns green, the pool store costs them a fortune and then they look for help and find us.

Luckily for you, you found the answer to your problem.

The secret isn't adding chlorine. The secret is holding the chlorine at an appropriately high level constantly until the algae is dead. Anything else gives it a chance to recover, and when it does, it grows rapidly and you are right back where you started. Believe it or not, going two hours without adding chlorine is enough to completely lose your progress in an algae battle!

The bad news is in order to stay on it, you need an FAS-DPD chlorine test and an accurate CYA test. You can get the TF-100 at TFTestkits.net, or a Taylor K2006. It costs a little, but it will pay for itself before July is over.

Get the kit, and once you have it ordered, start reading Defeating Algae , SLAMing Your Pool and Chlorine CYA Chart to start getting an understanding of what needs to be done. Your water can be clear in a week if you get started now.

 

[moron1234]

what chemicals do you recommend for this we dont have a pool store where i live, i have been using the 3in tablets and walmart chemicals because that is all we have, it worked great last year but this year i am struggling

 

[JohnT]

what chemicals do you recommend for this we dont have a pool store where i live, i have been using the 3in tablets and walmart chemicals because that is all we have, it worked great last year but this year i am struggling

You'll need liquid chlorine or bleach. Anything else you might need depends on your test results.

 

[Steve-in-VA]

Welcome to the forum and freedom from pool stores and guessing on what to do about your pool chemistry!

It'll help to add your pool specs in your signature so others seeing your post will know what you are dealing with. include filter size (how many pounds of sand), get your actual water depth when figuring your gallons for your size pool (look at the bottom of this pool math to help figure your numbers quicker: http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html )

You are definitely in the same spot I was in a month ago (PH level before the SLAM) . the main things you will need are the TF-100 test kit, liquid chlorine/bleach and muriatic acid... Kit first! the XL option is def worth the cost and will get to you pretty quickly. You'll probably need 20 gallons of chlorine to start and 3-4 gallons of muriatic acid depending on what the test kit tells you.

Oh yeah some DE filter media will help clearing out the dead algae too... Pool School - Add DE to a Sand Filter

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

It really is as simple as buying a TF100 from TFTestkits.net and Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

 

[MarianParoo]

One post linked to 3 different threads and this was not the intended thread.

 

[moron1234]

How do you get CYA under control I quit using the tablets and went straight to the liquid bleach now but my friend came over with that test kit and said cya was at 70

 

[Steve-in-VA]

I think with CYA you will have to drain if it gets too high. When's the last time you used tablets. I believe CYA takes a week to register when being added via powered form. No expert though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[msgtdan]

You can use pool math to tell how much water to drain as that's the only way to get rid of the CYA. Depending on how low you want to go it'll be 30 - 50%. High CYA just means you have to maintain a higher FC level to SLAM the pool.

 

[moron1234]

This has worked right now it is a cloudy blue, i ordered that Kit on thursday so hopefully it comes Monday so i can check the levels, How long do you normally run with straight bleach before you switch back to regular chlorine and how will it clear up, this forum is awesome and helped a ton

 

[northrn]

"Straight bleach" is regular chlorine.

This article may help: :lookhere: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/142-how-to-chlorinate-your-pool

 

[pooldv]

Right, it is all sodium hypochlorite. Want to see how ill-informed your local pool store is? Ask them what they think about using bleach (they don't sell) in your pool instead of chlorine (they do sell).