Green and I don't know why!

MROMAN559 · Postby **MROMAN559** » Mon 30 May, 2011 22:02

I live in VA, and I just bought my house this winter no cover was on the pool and the tree that almost over hangs the pool dumped all its leaves into it. At the time of purchase the pool was pea soup....Shrek's swamp I called it. Well long story short I started early so that I may be in my pool today... Memorial day....no luck

!

According to 2 different pool shops my pool is balanced and on paper looks great. It's not, its no longer pea soup rather pale green not the dark green of before. Visibility is 5-6 inches below the surface. There is no longer anything on the bottom of the pool and the floor and walls have been scrubbed clean of slime. The pool was super chlorinated at first and has been shocked one a week for several weeks now. I have flocked the pool (raising the PH to 7.8 just before) no reaction at least that I could see and then clarified......nothing the pool just laughed at me. I'm being told by the pool pro's the algae is dead (their evidence is the high chlorine levels and my phosphate test came back 780 .....they say there is no algae to eat the phosphate resulting in high phosphate levels....therefor algae is dead!) OK moving on ..... not knowing what else to do I bought algecide and put it in 12 hours ago so far no change.

Sooooo any takers, any pool wizards out there can set me straight?

Pool is a 24ft. round above ground, with a 100 lbs Hayward sand filter running Zeo Sand that I just changed 3 weeks ago, my pump is a 1 Hp Hayward. 13,500 Gallons

Thanks in advance.

MROMAN559 · Postby **MROMAN559** » Sun 05 Jun, 2011 06:14

ok..... update I was told I was not shocking enough and instructed (by the local pool pro shop owner) to add 5lbs of shock to my 13.5k gallon pool. No reaction! test the chlorine level the next morning and I was at 1ppm.....WTF! So that evening I added 5 more lbs, (that's 10 lbs added to the pool in a 24 hr period). The next morning again I test the Chlorine level and again its 1ppm, however I do notice a slight change in the color of the pool so I opt. to floc (first time I attempted this I got no reaction). This time I have crap falling out of the water to the bottom but I'm still green and I cant see past the second step in my pool. I vac.'d the pool and got a lot of stuff out ended up vac. out half the volume of the pool. Now Im still green..... after I reported back to the pool pro he suggested I try to shock with sodium bromide (that was last night) this morning I test the water for bromine/chlorine and I see no color in the test water ...0ppm. WTF!!! please HELP!!!

Postby **chem geek** » Sun 05 Jun, 2011 13:13

Are you using a DPD chorine test kit where you compare shades of pink/red against a comparator? If so, then you should realize that this test bleaches out at high chlorine levels (roughly > 10 ppm FC) so will have you think there is no chlorine when it's actually high. If you have an inexpensive OTO chlorine test kit where you compare shades of yellow, then that will not bleach out and high chlorine levels will go from dark yellow to orange even to red at very high levels. The best test kit to use, however, is the FAS-DPD chlorine test since it does not bleach out (you just add more powder if you see a flash of pink) and you count the drops for a reading with 0.5 ppm if using a 10 ml water sample or 0.2 ppm if using a 25 ml water sample. This chlorine test can be purchased separately, but you probably don't have a good test for CH or CYA either so you should get either the Taylor K-2006 or the TFTestkits TF-100.

Also, see Defeating Algae. If your CYA level is high, then a partial drain/refill will be needed; otherwise the chlorine you are adding won't be very effective since it will be mostly bound to CYA.

Lori · Postby **Lori** » Thu 28 Jul, 2011 20:01

I'm not sure if you still need help. When we first got our pool, it turned green a few times. The only way i got it to clear up was by adding a case (4 gallons) of liquid chlorine - not too expensive either. We ran the filter constantly and vacuumed and it was crystal clear in a few days.

Guest · Postby **Guest** » Thu 28 Jul, 2011 20:07

I forgot to mention - we have a 27-ft round above-ground pool.

We just had to replace our filter and added the zeosand, but didn't backwash it long enough before filtering it and a really terrible sediment is in the pool that i am struggling to get rid of. It is so fine that when i vacuumed the first time, it re-entered the pool in the return water. I added superfloc and I have vacuumed on waste so it flushed directly out of the pool. Not quite finished yet - will probably need to vacuum a couple more times.

GreenPuzzle · Postby **GreenPuzzle** » Wed 30 May, 2012 16:58

I feel your pain Green and I don't know why! For the first time ever in twenty years my pool is GREEN, PEA SOUP that I don't seem to be able to get rid of! I use a simple test kit that compares shades of yellow and I have new test chemicals. I have shocked it 4 times and it barely registers there is chlorine. I have added a triple dose of algaecide and clarifyer. I have also added the stabalizer...I am puzzled! Should I shock it a 5th time????? It's really the only choice I see other than draining and refilling the pool and I certainly do not want to do that! What else is there to do but add more chlorine???...we have a 13,000 gallon above ground pool.