Our first year opening the pool

[Wards11]

Last year was our first year with our new pool.It’s a 24x54 Cameo Pool with hydrotools sand filter. Came with the fancy liner, pump, ladder, a vacuum a few other bells and whistles. Starting off with fresh water was easy obviously. For the rest of the summer we chlorinated with regular bleach, baking soda tablets, and Clorox products from Walmart. Mostly the XtraBlue tablets and a bottle of shock once a week. Water stayed crystal clear and clean all summer long, pump worked great. We shut the pool down end of Sep. being as we’re in SW Missouri with some kind of winterizer. Tarped the pool all winter, it stayed on, collected water on top of it, but the directions said that’s what it was intended to do. Here’s where the fun starts. We took the tarp this past weekend. GREEN SWAMPY POOL. Frogs, tadpoles, LEAVES?! How did leaves get in the pool? There was a tarp on it all winter. It was crystal clear when we covered it, I don’t get it at all, my husband is baffled as well. Started off with six scoops of EZ Pool, and two bags of shock. Again, husband says we will use this only exclusively this year. Mmkay. Water turned a nice cloudy shade of teal. Bugs started to die off. Still greenish looking. (This is before we discovered the leaves at the bottom.) I test the water, it says 0 chlorine. For real? After some research we chlorinate with just regular bleach. Chlorine at that point was super high. 9ppm. Water turned cloudy blue. After waiting a couple days for the chlorine level to drop, water is still cloudy. But still blue. we get in and start skimming, picking out small debri. That’s when we find all the freaking leaves at the bottom. Can’t see them, but can feel them. Gross. Skimming is impossible. The vacuum is faster but the filter needs cleaned out every 2 minutes because it fills up so fast. After we spend 3 hours in the pool yesterday skimming, brushing, vacuuming, we’re no closer to having a cleaner, clearer pool. In fact after all the cleaning we did, it turned green again by stirring it all up!

My question today, is what everyone asks... how to get the water clear?! It’s hard to clean what you can’t see. When I test the water, everything reads it’s where it should be. I don’t get it. Also, thoughts on EZ Pool and winterizing the pool would be helpful. Sorry for the long rant. We’re just frustrated, lol. Husband is tempted to drain and refill. We have a well. And it was expensive to fill the first time with a water truck. So refilling is out.

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome! Unfortunately, you're not able to make much progress for a few reasons. We can help if you start with some of the following:
- You need a proper test kit. The TF-100 is recommended followed by the Taylor K-2006C. See Test Kits Compared
- Stop adding off the shelf products with "Blue" in it as those probably contain copper. Use regular bleach, and avoid Clorox brand bleach.
- To remove algae you must follow the SLAM Process process and use a TF-100 test kit to do so.
- Proper balance of the CYA and FC are ctirical to keeping algae away. See FC/CYA Levels. Those store all-in-one packages do nothing.
- Review our ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry for more great info.
- Also understand that on well water, you probably also have iron in the water. That can stain and change the water color as well.

Once you get your TF-100 (or Taylor K-2006C) test kit, post a full set of results and we'll be able to help you from there.