High PH , low Alkaline & a green pool. So confused !

[Angeljaye]

We have moved into a rental property with an inground concrete pool and are complete novices at this pool maintenance malarky and it's now showing. We've had a gestimate from the pool guy who opened it that it holds 60k litres but I'm not so sure. It's an oval wiggly pool, measures approx 10m by 5m at widest wiggle and is 12ft deep. Can this be right? Anyway..... After early wasted summer use because of various problems and leaks we've now happily used and maintained the pool for nearly a month without problems. Last week a new sand pump and filter was fitted, (usual pool maintenance by us) 2 days later I noticed the water looked a little cloudy, 4 days later it was green and I can't get rid of it. I've brushed, vac'd, shocked & added algicide but no change & the kids are now also driving me nuts not being able to use it. Although the water on top appears clear it all seems to be settled on the bottom, I brush & it just moves it around. I assumed if it is algae it must be dead but I sweep the steps clear & within a couple of hours I have green/brown spots appearing again.

Granted we've only been using the basic test strips but I cannot get my head around what's going on.... The PH is bright pink on the strip, probably off the scale but the Alkalinity reads at 40. Bromine also reads high? I've used PH down but nothing seems to change. If a high PH means it's Alkaline how can the Alkaline read low ... & yet a low PH would give you algae growth..but mines high????

We added another shock dose last night, the pool stinks ... All I did was dream about swimming pools only to wake, run to the window like a child and just want to cry as low & behold nothings changed.
Can anyone please explain what's going on and what I can do to get back my sparkly clean water & have happy kids again (before I become an alcoholic) any advice would be appreciated, thanks

[RPC Tech]

Visit reliablepoolcare and you can chat for free live with a technician to answer any questions about why your pool is turning on you. Hope this helps.

[mariaguas]

Hi, I had the same problem after a dirty rain (drought in CA) and living on a dirt road with kids speeding on quads. I shocked the pool, scrubbed the side down and ran the robot for about 10 hours. Only helped a little bit. After much googling on various sites, I decided to use Flocculant liquid. It coagulates the super fine particles that make the water look gross. Followed directions by pouring it carefully around the sides of the pool, especially the deep end, ran filter for about 3-4 hours then let it sit for 24-36 hours. Got home from work and all the mustard crap was on the bottom and the water was CLEAR. Back in went the robot. He dirtied things up again but with the filter running and getting the salt levels back up, we should be OK within days. Hope this helps.

[PoolCleanup]

You need to decrease the pH(7.0ppm or preferably less) levels and shock the pool so that the chlorine levels are at least 50ppm. Let the filter run for 48 hours non-stop. Make sure sure you brush the pool once the pool is shocked so you can get rid of any algae on the walls. After 48 hours, fill the pool all the way up to the point where it would overflow and put the pool on waste mode(on your multiport valve on the filter). Then vacuum the pool on waste for until you get rid of all the sediment(dead algae) at the bottom of the pool. After vacuuming, add 1/4 gallon muriatic acid into the skimmer closer to the pump and let it run into the sand filter. At this point the pool is running on filter mode. Add Jacks Magic(Magenta stuff- entire bottle) and let the pool run for another 24-48 hours non-stop. By then the pool should be crystal clean. Now check the water chemistry and adjust it accordingly. Hope that helps!

Sam Bhullar
Engineer & Pool Expert
http://www.poolcleanup.com