SWG and Milky Water Only when SWG is on

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northrn said:
Any visible signs of algae requires a SLAM. Your salt levels are the least of your problems with green in the pool.

1. Turn the SWG off. Turn the pump on 24/7.
2. Review the CYA/Chlorine Chart. For a SWG pool with a CYA 80, your shock level chlorine is 31. Use Pool Math (link at the top of the page) to determine how much liquid chlorine you would need to add to get to 31.
3. Slowly add the bleach in front of a return.
4. Review the SLAM article I linked while you wait.
5. Allow it circulate and retest in 1 hour.
6. Add enough bleach to again get to 31.
7. Repeat every hour if possible but no less than twice a day until the following happens....

Your water is crystal clear. As in so clear you can read the date on a quarter if you threw it in the deepest part of the pool clear.
You have a CC < 0.5.
You have an overnight chlorine loss of <1ppm as outline in the OCLT. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/136-perform-the-overnight-fc-chlorine-loss-test-oclt

Good luck, Josh! And post a picture please! :)
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Hi thanks for the help. I ended up putting 13 bottles of bleach in tonight which brought me a little over 31. Everything in this pool takes a lot of money since it is so big! I hope the water turns clear soon and stays! I have the pump running continuously. Is it not OK to turn my SWG on tomorrow I would think that would help hold the free chlorine at 31 rather than having to only put more bleach in? I would think that would help supplement it. Or should I not turn my swg on until it is clear? I Know in the slam article http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl it says that "the SWG, tablet dispenser, injection pump, or Liquidator can be very helpful in the follow up stages to maintain FC at shock level, but for the initial couple of chlorine applications, you need to use another chlorine source."

Also here are a few pics. I wish I had taken one at the initial state of the pool as it was horrible and it has gotten green again since the picture I have of when then pool was drained since the pump could not run. After the pump started circulating again the entire water went hazy again and green. I attached of picture of when it was drained and a picture of what it actually looked like last summer.

pool drained.jpgpool_blue_water.jpg
 
So I have had a loss of about 5ppm over night time I am adding 3 more bottles of bleach which should bring my shock level back to 31 where it should be and now I am out of bleach again! I also have the aquabot in vacuuming up debris. I am going to check back in 1 hr and turn off my SWG and see what my chlorine levels are again. Off to the store again and 16 bottles of bleach later! I did not have my swg on until after testing as I did not run it at all last night but it going to a warm day today so I am going to need it on to keep my free chlorine levels up.

Josh
 
JasonLion said:
You are doing well, keep at it.
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Thanks, I can tell this is going to be a long process. My pool has cleared up slightly but it is still green. How long will this take for a pool this big to clear up? With the sun fully out and the swg going the pool seems to be holding around 32ppm. I actually overshot earlier and my FC was almost up to 35ppm, but there is obviously heat loss from the sun.

The biggest problem is I cannot tell if I have most of the debris out of the deep end which is 11 feet deep and this may also contribute to the eating of chlorine. I fished out as much as I could prior to starting this process with a leaf rake, and vacuumed multiple times ,but my aquabot always seems to find things still in the deep end. I guess I will just leave the vacuum going.

Josh
 
A leaf gulper works great for removing leaves, under $30, it attaches to your pole and a garden hose will force the leaves into a net, also a tip I picked up from this site is to check behind the light for leaves that can cause algae , when you get your pump running get the vacuum hose and vacuum all behind the light after you remove it , and wipe it all down, this helped me.
 
Sorry, no way to test the FC until you get the reagent. This is exactly why we recommend the TF-100 since it has more of the reagents that you need. I would imagine you will need CYA reagent soon too.
 
I have been testing my chlorine levels daily. I had not been having many losses in chlorine, but last night I had a major loss of like 10 ppm. I added bleach to bring it back up. It has been about 4 days and the pool is still cloudy and green.

full pool.jpg
shallow_end.jpg

I am starting to get frustrated at this point. I have put probably 26 bottles of bleach into the pool. Also, I backwash about 3 times a day and I have had the swg's running the same time and the vacuum running and I am skimming the leaves and debris off the top of the water multiple times a day and empty all the skimmer baskets multiple times a day.

Is it possible my sand is bad in my filter? I am not sure what else to do at this point? I would think the algae would be completely dead in 4 days. Any Ideas?
 

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Sand filters can easily take a week or two to clear up the water. You should see some improvement from day to day. If you can't see any improvement, something is probably going wrong.

How has the filter pressure been behaving? Have you backwashed the filter, never, once or several times?
 
I hate to say it, but there's a chance your green tint is actually from using this copper-based algaecide you mentioned using In your first post: here's the Msds http://www.kellysolutions.com/erene...LGAE_ELIMINATOR_MAX_10_16_2012_1_39_38_PM.pdf

Maybe if you added a good dose a metal sequestrant the hue would clear up. I realize you've changed a good deal of the water now, but slamming can oxidize copper, turning the water clear green, if you don't have enough sequestrant in it. Here we like jack's Magic or Metal Magic.

Just a thought. If my guess is right, though, it may mean that you're further along than you think.
 
Swampwoman said:
I hate to say it, but there's a chance your green tint is actually from using this copper-based algaecide you mentioned using In your first post: here's the Msds http://www.kellysolutions.com/erene...LGAE_ELIMINATOR_MAX_10_16_2012_1_39_38_PM.pdf

Maybe if you added a good dose a metal sequestrant the hue would clear up. I realize you've changed a good deal of the water now, but slamming can oxidize copper, turning the water clear green, if you don't have enough sequestrant in it. Here we like jack's Magic or Metal Magic.

Just a thought. If my guess is right, though, it may mean that you're further along than you think.
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Thanks for the suggestion I thought that was a good guess, but I ran a calcium hardness test with my taylor k-2006 and added the r-0012 and color came back as blue. I know if there is normally metal in your water the color turns a purple tint instead of blue like it is supposed to because of the metal ions in the water.

The only other thing I can think of is, it just has not had to filter long enough I guess. I has been about 5 days now and has cleared up a little more today, but is still a green tint.
 
Re: Water Balance for SWGs

chem geek said:
First of all, an SWG can't remain algae free with 3 ppm FC with 80 ppm CYA unless the pool is poor in algae nutrients. We've had plenty of examples of a 3 ppm FC target that simply doesn't work -- it's too close to the edge with high chlorine demand even if algae isn't yet visible. 4 ppm FC is pretty much the minimum required with 80 ppm CYA and as a minimum that's a number to be measured in the morning after any overnight loss.

Also, remember that the SWG is maintaining the FC level whenever the pump is running so if things are set up correctly where that is mostly during the day when FC loss is greatest, then the FC level is fairly constant. A manually dosed pool will fluctuate in FC up and down so targeting an "average" 4 ppm FC with 80 ppm CYA may have the FC get below that over long enough periods of time that algae can grow. In theory, an automated dosing system, such as a peristaltic pump, maintaining 4 ppm FC with 80 ppm CYA might work, but we don't have enough experience with those to know for sure.

Also, there is some superchlorination in the SWG itself that might help kill off floating algae though obviously would do nothing against any algae on pool surfaces. The superchlorination in the SWG is different than that from manual dosing using hypochlorite chlorine because the chlorine generated in the SWG at the anode is in very acidic conditions, at least until it meets the water that is very basic/alkaline from the cathode.
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Thanks for the response. I had the entire pool super chlorinated from 35ppm to 40ppm for 7 days, which is above what I needed with my cya levels. I did this for extra measure. I highly doubt anything could survive that although I could be wrong. I went through like 40 bottles of chlorine. Also, my vacuum does not seem to really be picking up any more debris so I believe almost everything is gone.

I was not seeing any loss in chlorine over night and the last time I checked my free chlorine was 0. The pool is a blue color now and not green. I can see totally to the bottom on the shallow end with no issue. However, the deep end is also blue and I can see further, but I cannot see all the way to the bottom.

I could be wrong, but I have come to the determination that I believe I need to change the sand in my filter. The reason for this is I added some D.E. to my sand filter and 4 hrs later I could see an immediate difference in the water clarity and I only raised my psi by 1 with the D.E. and 4 hrs later the pressure had jumped up by 10 psi, which tells me there has to be a lot of little particles floating around that the sand is not filtering.

Is it possible all my problems have been caused by my sand with the water not totally clearing? By the way I have no idea how old the sand is as we bought the house less than 1 year and we were never told how old the sand is. I am just dreading changing the sand as my filter is huge and I am not even sure how I am going to move it to get the sand out. I am definitely going to need help doing it that is for sure.

Thanks,

Josh
 
Raising the FC level up above SLAM level is not recommended. Doing so can damage the pool and provides no advantages to offset that risk.

There is some chance your sand has something to do with the water remaining cloudy, but no chance at all it relates to the algae problem you just had and there is no reason for you to replace the sand in anything you have posted.

Sand removes debris from the water more slowly than other kinds of filters, but does eventually get there. Adding DE can speed up the process, but doesn't change what is happening in any other way.
 
Thanks I appreciate all the help and that is good to know about the SLAM level I will never raise it that high again. Sorry, I did not mean to imply that I thought the filter had anything to do with algae. I just meant that having bad sand in my pool filter may take forever to clear or it may not at all. For now I will just continue to add D.E. and keep back washing because it seems to be helping some.

I wish I had a way to know the last time the sand was changed, but the previous owner gave no indication of when this was.

Also, I know for a fact that the previous owners did poor maintenance on things. So, the chance the sand has been replaced anytime recently is not very high. In fact 1 of the spouses had moved to another state and the wife was staying her by herself until their daughter graduated. So, they already had their foot out the door for at least 1 yr.

Josh
 
I suggest for you to do a deep cleaning on the filter, http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/73192-Deep-Cleaning-a-Sand-Filter. You can inspect the sand and see if it is calcified or not. The main reason to ever replace sand is when it is all calcified and clumped together. Other than that, a good deep cleaning once a year should keep the sand in great shape for the lifetime of the filter.
 
The only time you replace sand is when it is clumped up very badly. The sand has already been around a really long time, and will still be sand quite some time from now.

Sand filters are very slow to clear up the water. Adding DE speeds that up. But sand alone will get to the same point eventually.
 
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