All,
Late last year we started having difficulty getting the pool clean. I can't remember if it went green on us over a vacation or what happened but we ended up with a white cloudy pool that we eventually gave up on and closed green.
We opened the pool 14 days ago. Put floc in it. Vacuumed as much as we could but some streaks would not come up. First week we did not hold it at shock level, we brought it to shock level every evening but were not home during the day to keep it there. Still very cloudy so I pulled the sand filter apart, rinsed it for 30 min with a hose, moving the sand around, and then filled it with vinegar for 4 hours just in case hard water was impacting the sand (we have hard water here). 2nd week we kept it at shock level for 5 straight days until yesterday we actually got in it when it was at a 5 CL level. Still not very clear but a least we could somewhat see the drain. We found that the bottom and sides of the pool was rough like sand paper. The streaks we could not get with the vacuum that we thought was mud ended up being little mats of algae stuck to the liner, especially in the nooks and carnies. The pool broom does not seam to be able to get this algae no matter how much I brush. In the shallow end the liner is stained in spots but the algae is gone. In the deep end, well, I can't see where the algae is unless I dive down and scrub it by hand. I had a pretty strong headache after doing that and did not get it all, we did get all the shallow end and everything in the deep end down to 3 feet. I dumped in 4 gallons of 10% bleach after that to just kill whatever. Today there is a lot of what looks like sand on the bottom (dead algae I assume) but we are still very cloudy.
Can I just use an algaecide or something other than bleach to get this caked on algae up? I do not have the time to wait for the chlorline levels to go down far enough to dive in and scrub every couple of days.
My other thought is to just pull the liner because it is 9 years old anyway and torn in the corner (but no bad). But I would rather stick with my liner if I do not have to spend hours and hours scrubbing and burning chlorine.
Numbers below...
CL 12
CC 0
CH 200 - 225
TA 140
CYA 30
PH 7.7
Late last year we started having difficulty getting the pool clean. I can't remember if it went green on us over a vacation or what happened but we ended up with a white cloudy pool that we eventually gave up on and closed green.
We opened the pool 14 days ago. Put floc in it. Vacuumed as much as we could but some streaks would not come up. First week we did not hold it at shock level, we brought it to shock level every evening but were not home during the day to keep it there. Still very cloudy so I pulled the sand filter apart, rinsed it for 30 min with a hose, moving the sand around, and then filled it with vinegar for 4 hours just in case hard water was impacting the sand (we have hard water here). 2nd week we kept it at shock level for 5 straight days until yesterday we actually got in it when it was at a 5 CL level. Still not very clear but a least we could somewhat see the drain. We found that the bottom and sides of the pool was rough like sand paper. The streaks we could not get with the vacuum that we thought was mud ended up being little mats of algae stuck to the liner, especially in the nooks and carnies. The pool broom does not seam to be able to get this algae no matter how much I brush. In the shallow end the liner is stained in spots but the algae is gone. In the deep end, well, I can't see where the algae is unless I dive down and scrub it by hand. I had a pretty strong headache after doing that and did not get it all, we did get all the shallow end and everything in the deep end down to 3 feet. I dumped in 4 gallons of 10% bleach after that to just kill whatever. Today there is a lot of what looks like sand on the bottom (dead algae I assume) but we are still very cloudy.
Can I just use an algaecide or something other than bleach to get this caked on algae up? I do not have the time to wait for the chlorline levels to go down far enough to dive in and scrub every couple of days.
My other thought is to just pull the liner because it is 9 years old anyway and torn in the corner (but no bad). But I would rather stick with my liner if I do not have to spend hours and hours scrubbing and burning chlorine.
Numbers below...
CL 12
CC 0
CH 200 - 225
TA 140
CYA 30
PH 7.7