Please help me with my green pool

2011 3rd year pool owner

I have a Intex 15X48 metal frame pool this is my 3rd summer having it up, and i kinda slaked on it the last 2 weeks,..i was on vacation for a week and a half and didnt think it would get this bad.. its a cloudy lighter green color and it iv put Clarafier 6OZ in it and clorine(bleach)1 gallon and its not going away it was getting cleaner but then i just took the brush i had and it pushed it around the bottom of the pool and it got greener.. im not to sure what to im woundering what chemicals to put in it now.. i have the pump running 4-8 hours aday.. i put the clorine in it on wendsday but the clarifier i put in on friday (yesterday July 1st)... im not sure what to do or what chemicals in it because last year it got really green from not being used for 3days and i bought algae stuff from menards and it cleared it right up in 2days oh and i did put a quarter of a gallon of algae stuff in it on weds to forgot about it.. not sure what to do now... plz help me..

Welch67 · Postby **Welch67** » Sun 03 Jul, 2011 06:31

I am in the same situation...I have been trying to get my pool clean for over 3 weeks. I have shocked it repeatedly with 8 lbs of shock, I have used metal remover, phosphate remover, algecides, and brushed it daily. I am still green. Oh, and did I mention....I drained it to 18" and had 8,000 gallons of clean water trucked in because I have a well and its still GREEN!

glenntiddles · Postby **glenntiddles** » Fri 29 Jul, 2011 02:47

I am in Cyprus and every July August its the same story. Light green then dark green pool. The pump is on 8 hours a day and the chlorine and PH levels are always bang on. It partially clears with shocking using Clear blue but is back a couple of days later. Am stumped after 4 years of trying.

Postby **chem geek** » Fri 29 Jul, 2011 10:52

You don't have your Free Chlorine (FC) levels spot on -- how could you when you don't talk about the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level? You need to understand that the active chlorine (hypochlorous acid) level that is what kills pathogens and algae is NOT related to the FC level alone. CYA (aka stabilizer or conditioner) HUGELY affects the active chlorine level reducing it by orders-of-magnitude. Fortunately, it takes a very low active chlorine level to kill pathogens and a somewhat higher level to prevent algae growth. Roughly speaking, the FC/CYA ratio is proportional to the active chlorine level.

Please read the Pool School and look at the Chlorine / CYA Chart where you can see that for a manually dosed pool the minimum FC level is roughly 7.5% of the CYA level (for a saltwater chlorine generator pool it's a minimum FC that is roughly 5% of the CYA level). Also read Defeating Algae and Shock Your Pool sections (among others). Also note the following chemical facts that are independent of concentration of product or of pool size:

For every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm.
for every 10 ppm FC added by Dichlor, it also increases CYA by 9 ppm.
For every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases Calcium Hardness (CH) by at least 7 ppm.

So even with a typical 2 ppm FC per day chlorine usage, using Trichlor as your source of chlorine will increase CYA by over 35 ppm PER MONTH if there is no water dilution.

active.elemenet · Postby **active.elemenet** » Fri 29 Jul, 2011 14:50

please help... i have an above ground 4,000 gallon pool. it was clear a few days ago then it suddenly turned very green.. i have since shocked it a couple to a few times a day for the past three days.. no change.. i saw something online that mentioned that my pump/filtration system may be at fault? i definitely have thought that the pump/filter isnt very strong bc it wouldnt even run the vacuum that we bought to go with it, and there is always stuff on the bottom of the pool and/or floating.. no matter how much i get the stuff out... please assist me if possible.