Cloudy to Green

[Mi pool]

Hi,

I have an old pool that is a constant struggle. I switched tfp 3 years ago and the last 2 were better than ever. I use the recommended test kits.

I had it blue but cloudy at the beginning of the season. I haven't seen the bottom of the deep end this year. I was working on getting it clear by adding calcium (roof melt) per the tfp calculator. I began to see some progress, and I could see the bottom when brushing but it did not get clear. Then a couple weeks ago it turned green and it will not turn back to blue. I added di-chor to slam it (plus a little more). The FC went to 20, and CYA was 30 at that time. Ultimately, the pH increased and I added acid as recommended to bring it back to 7.2. The FC was still 16 at that time. We have vacummed and or brushed it more than once per day, since it turned green. In a desperate move - I added 1 gallon of algaeside. This made it a bit clearer but still green.

Today: FC 7, Alk 170, Ca 240 CYA ? as reagent is out, pH 7.5 Temp 80

The filter has to be cleaned every 2 - 3 days or more as it becomes covered with bright green algae. I use fibre in the filter instead of de powder.

I purchased an above ground pump and cartridge filter to supplement the main pump. This seemingly works well as a second skimmer and works to vacuum the pool. Unfortunately - it is still green.

I use a dolphin remote machine - it hasn't been picking up anything. It did pick up a lot of white muck-type stuff at the beginning of the season.

Questioning pump size and filter size??? These are both 6 years old. I think these may be too small but I am concerned about increasing the pressure due to low number of drains.


Any help would be appreciated.

 

[JVTrain]

Did you SLAM the pool or just one time shock the pool with dichlor? The SLAM is a procedure where you must Maintain your shock level FC until you pass the 3 criteria, indicating all algae has been eliminated. Liquid chlorine (aka bleach) is what you should use for a SLAM procedure as it only adds chlorine, unlike dichlor. Please review the SLAM procedure in my signature.

Calcium will not help to clear your pool. Having proper calcium levels can influence your CSI, which is important to maintain the quality/integrity of your plaster.

You may have a filtration issue, but first you need to make sure you're following the SLAM procedure properly to make sure you aren't allowing algae to grow in your pool. If algae is constantly present, your filtration system will always be overwhelmed.

 

[Mi pool]

I just double checked the instructions and I did Slam it as directed. The only issue might be that I used di-chlor and liquid chlorine to raise the FC level. Would this make a difference?

 

[JVTrain]

Chlorine is chlorine, no matter how it's added, but dichlor also adds stabilizer (cyanuric acid) to your pool with each addition. So your CYA is also likely higher than when you started the SLAM, which increases the FC level you must maintain during the SLAM. Not a good idea to use anything but bleach to SLAM.

How many days did you maintain the SLAM procedure? Did you pass the 3 criteria at any point? If you are/were still seeing algae in the filter and your pressure is rising, you have not completed the SLAM procedure.

 

[BattleOfYakima]

Mi pool - great name! Congratulations on your years of TFP Success! We will help you go from green to clear then you can TFP it again!

JVTrain is doing a great job for you. Be sure to read his posts really carefully. Be sure to read what he said about only using bleach until you get a crystal clear pool back - no more calcium or dichlor please.

Until your refill CYA gets there (sold separately for $17 FOR 8oz here if you need a great place to buy from, or in a refill kit if need it all soon) please try to use bleach to keep your FC at 12 and test multiple times a day so you can add what you need to keep it there. Once you can test the CYA again, we'll find out if it is safe for your liner to go to an even higher FC to get your clear water faster

The more time your water spends below FC 12, the greater the opportunity the algae has to multiply instead of die, slowing you down. You're kinda racing it, but the speed limit until you get more CYA is FC12, so buy some fresh bleach, ideally stored indoors and dated higher (more recent) than 17 150 if possible.

 

[domct203]

I had it blue but cloudy at the beginning of the season. I haven't seen the bottom of the deep end this year. I was working on getting it clear by adding calcium (roof melt) per the tfp calculator.

Welcome to the forum.

I'm curious as to what led you to using calcium to clear a cloudy pool. Was this at the recommendation of a pool store, or something you read on-line?

Large additions of calcium can actually cause cloudiness in the pool.

99% of the time cloudy water is the onset of an algae bloom, which requires a SLAM Process