Green bottom when opening pool

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yensidw

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Jun 27, 2016
5
Frackville PA
Took the winter cover off and the bottom of my pool is green. The water is clear. My pool is a 18 x 48 above ground. I have a Sta-Rite System 2 PLM 100 cartridge filter. The last two years my pool was crystal clear on opening. Had the winter cover come part way off this year so I assume this is the problem. Anyway, I tested the water using the Taylor K6000 kit. The results are:

FC 0
pH 7.0
TA 100
CH 260
CYA 40

I don't know where to start. I am adding water to the pool now so I can run the filter, but don't know what to do next. Do I scrub the bottom and filter? Or do I add chlorine? At a loss so would appreciate any help!

Thanks!
 
Familiarize yourself with SLAMing Pool School and the ABC's of Water Chemistry. Also CYA to Chlorine ratio chart here on TFP. Start adding liquid bleach or liquid pool chlorine to SHOCK OR SLAM levels accordance wih your CYA of 40 which is FC 16ppm. Use the Pool Math Calculator to determine the amount of fluid ounces of bleach to add. You want to keep a shock level of FC 16 PPM. And run your filter 24/7 or when convenient, until you meet three criteria. One the water is clear, two you pass the OCLT test and three, you have a CC of 0.5 less.
 
Get chlorine (with the pump running) in that water before you do anything. No chlorine with a CYA of 40 risks the introduction of bacteria that will convert your CYA to ammonia, forcing you to use a lot more chlorine getting rid of it.

So your immediate steps are add chlorine to FC=SLAM, brush, test (brushing should mix up the dosing pretty thoroughly), add chlorine to FC=Slam.

The Chlorine you add should be in liquid form. Stabilized tablets, sticks, or granules won't get the FC high enough quick enough.
 
Wait. If there is a bunch of algae on the bottom you can save yourself a lot of SLAM time. If you can vacuum to waste then you should vacuum the bottom before you start the water circulating. Get as much of the algae physically removed from the pool as possible. Then you can start circulating the water and brushing everything up and begin the SLAM process.

Any algae that is removed from the pool is algae that doesn't have to be killed by chlorine or filtered out. That is time and money saved.
 
What Donaldson said. I had a green pool this year, I filtered out and vaccumed out any solids of algae first before adding SLAM levels of liquid chlorine, it probably saved me a couple of jugs of bleach. I cleared my pool in a week with triple filtration, and maybe 3 to 4 jugs of bleach, however it wouldnt hurt to get a gallon or two in there immediately to kill off the contaminates to get a head start. Just make sure all solid debris is out, and brush the heck out of it because algae contains a slimy biofilm that you must break up a brush bristles for chlorine to penetrate it
 

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My in ground pool is always green upon opening and I open in early May in Toronto where the ambient water temperature is much lower then what you will have in PA in mid-June.
 
Great to hear!

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