dark green pool - how do I clean it??

[Guest]

my pool loks like the end of day two BTW

[Guest]

Hey! I can see the bottom! Full of leaves! That I can see to vaccum! Loaded with yellow mustrd algae! But ...I can see the bottom. Cheap ass bleach is the way to go. I spent over $60 on yellow out and shock= nothing but foam: $18 on 12 bottles o bleach= Bottom!
Lisa I hope you are listening.BBB Rules!

[Demons1964]

That's great news, you're on the home stretch now. Mustard algae will tend to form in areas of low water movement so keep up the vacuuming. Make sure you get the free chlorine up to at least 15ppm to kill the spores otherwise it will return. I've had a dose of mustard algae myself, nasty stuff.

Ongoing, keep your free chlorine at a minimum of 5ppm, you'd be surprised that the industry standard 1-3ppm doesn't quite cut the mustard (excuse the pun).

[Guest]

Hey Demon! Sorry I was busy, couldn't get back, but hey! pool is chrystal clear! The pool liner has the mustard stuff all over it ie; sides and shallow end, but the water itself is clear as glass. I'm brushing and vaccuming as often as I can,(have a cold, and I have to do a brake job, etc), but yeah I'm gonna keep the chlorine up there,10- 11, and keep after it, till it warms up. Thanks for your help.
I am sorry, Lisa. that I hijacked the thread, but I hope you have gotten some help out of all this after all.

[MOTHER22TWINS]

Hi, we have an inground pool 18x36. It is very green. My husband usually takes care of it but hasn't yet. I came across this site while searching for information. I don't know much about pool maintenance. Am I understanding previous posts correctly? Do you use straight bleach?
If so, would it be the same with a salt system?

[jwatkins]

When we closed our pool last winter we were fighting green algae, but we closed anyway. When we opened this spring it was a mess. We shocked and algaecided, but still green and a mess. Here is the inexpensive simple fix that cured the problem: (we are a 10,000 gallon pool 16x24 Kayak) We poured 4 gallons of chlorine in and let it mix well. We turned the pump off during the night and vacuumed the dead algae the next morning with the filter on WASTE. We then had to add some miriatic acid to fix the PH balance. The pool is clear now and believe me it was a green mess. It was so green that we couldn't see more than 2 or 3 inches into the water. The pool liquid chlorine only costs about $3.00 a gallon. We had spent over $100 on other stuff. This is the fix. Good luck

[Guest]

We have a 16x36 pool that is lined. It has turned dark green. we have not neglected our pool. We thought we had been putting the right chemicals in it. What do we do? I have been told Bleach works does it? We had been putting the DEA powder in the skimmer blackflushing and nothing seems to be working. HELP!
VA

[ktownkid]

Pool is green tried everything 200 in chemicals so far. thinking about getting rid of pool, but reading other peoples troubles and learning that maybe bleach is the solution, I want to know is it the answer I've been looking for. I have a 18 foot above ground pool. How much should I use in it if it works. signed Like green in my wallet.

[dvdg]

We have a 27ft round above ground pool. Our problem is trees!!! Every time we get the pool clear, it rains! Then it turns green! We spent $$$$ on chemicals last year, this year all we add is bleach and baking soda, but the one thing we have not done is check our ph balance. Does that have a lot to do with keeping the water clear? Please help!![/b][/i]

[chem geek]

You probably don't have the Free Chlorine (FC) level high enough for the demand that occurs when there is rain and dropping organics from the trees. You really do need to test for Free Chlorine (FC), Combined Chlorine (CC), pH, Total Alkalinity (TA), Cyanuric Acid (CYA), and Calcium Hardness (CH) though the latter doesn't have to be checked very often. The Taylor K-2006 test kit is excellent and will test all of these accurately. You can get it at a good online price here. Or you could get the TF100 kit from tftestkits(dot)com here that has 36% more volume of reagents so is comparably priced per test.

Are you keeping an absolute minimum FC that is 7.5% or more of the CYA level?

[pool911help]

is bleach the same thing as liquid chlorine?

[Guest]

This topic may be old but I found all the info I was looking for.

Now to clean my green pool.

[chem geek]

The key to battling the algae, in addition to physical removal, brushing and filtering/backwashing, is to MAINTAIN a high FC level relative to the CYA level (an FC around 40% of the CYA level). If the CYA is already high, then doing a partial drain/refill first to dilute it will let you use a lower FC target which is usually easier and faster. See this link for more info on defeating algae.

Bleach and chlorinating liquid are the same except for strength of the chlorine. Clorox Regular and most off-brand Ultra bleaches are 6% (not 9%) and is 5.7% Available Chlorine. Off-brand regular bleaches may be only 3%. Most bleaches except for Clorox Regular unscented have too much excess lye in them so would make the pH rise over time. You may be able to get 10% or 12.5% chlorinating liquid from your pool store or hardware/big-box store. It is true that these are heavier to carry than other sources of chlorine because they are mostly water, but the chlorine is sodium hypochlorite and does not increase either the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level nor Calcium Hardness (CH).

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 Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 9 ppm.
For every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases Calcium Hardness (CH) by 7 ppm.

So you don't want to use the stabilized chlorine (Trichlor or Dichlor) products for shocking since the higher CYA just makes the chlorine less effective. You can use Cal-Hypo if your CH level isn't already high. If your water is already saturated with calcium carbonate (i.e. the saturation index is near or greater than zero) then you may find the water gets cloudy when using Cal-Hypo. This can dissipate over time, but can get confusing when trying to battle algae. See The Pool Calculator for calculating the saturation index and for dosing amounts.

A more concentrated form of chlorine that doesn't add CYA nor CH is Lithium Hypochlorite which is 35% available chlorine, but it is VERY expensive. A cost comparison of chlorine sources may be found here. Though bleach and chlorinating liquid are heavier to carry, they are less expensive in the long-run especially when accounting for long-term pH adjustment required from other sources (e.g. Trichlor).

When shocking with a hypochlorite source of chlorine, it may be a good idea to lower the pH of the water first to around 7.2 or so. The addition of the chlorine will make the pH rise and though it will come back down as the chlorine gets used up, the chlorine will be more effective if the pH doesn't rise so much. The CYA in the water will help buffer the effectiveness of the chlorine at higher pH, but there is still an effect on the pH on chlorine. The graphs in this post show the effect of pH on "active" chlorine (hypochlorous acid) concentration without and with CYA in the water.

As for the comment that algaecides are for preventative use and not for killing an existing algae bloom, that is true for most except for the copper-based algaecides which are effective at killing existing algae. However, you then have to deal with the possible side effects of staining associated with high levels of copper and high pH.

Richard

[bweihl]

Hi there,
My pool is green and I want to know the cheapest but best way to fix it. I know that's a tall order but I dont have lots of money to buy all kinds of stuff at a pool store!
I dipped a test strip in and these are the results:
Free Ch: Very low, strip is white
pH: between the 7.8 and 8.4 color
Total alkalinity 40
Cyanuric acid: low, close to the 0 color

Please help!
Thanks
Bena'

[chem geek]

Actually, Clorox Regular unscented is 6% sodium hypochlorite as are most off-brand Ultra bleaches. However, once in the water, the chlorine from ALL sources is IDENTICAL. The price per weight for bleach and chlorinating liquid is far less than for other sources of chlorine so yes, you have to use more by weight, but all that matters is that you raise the Free Chlorine (FC) to shock level -- the source of the chlorine doesn't matter except that you'll get EXTRA items you may not want with other chlorine sources.

A cost comparison of chlorine sources is here where you will see that Cal-Hypo is about the same price as typical chlorinating liquid and sometimes a little more expensive than bleach.

Just keep in mind the following chemical facts if you use a different source of chlorine:

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) b 7 ppm.

Did you read Defeating Algae and do you know the CYA level in your pool? If the CYA is very high, it may be better to do a partial drain/refill first to lower the CYA level since it will take a lower FC level to kill algae in that case.

Richard