Help! Cloudy green water

Algae problems in swimming pool water.
Green (cloudy) water or slimy pool walls.
Black algae. Mustard algae. Pink or white pool mold.
rond
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Joined: Tue 25 May, 2010 22:38
My Pool: 16x24 oval doughboy sand filter
Location: albuquerque

Help! Cloudy green water

Postby rond » Sun 06 Jun, 2010 11:24

I really ned some advice! I have a 10K gallon above ground doughboy with a sand filter. This spring I eliminated all Bacquacil from my pool(levels are at 0) . Following pool stores instructions, I added 2 lbs of lithum hydochlorite(OMNI 35) and... the water was still dark green. Went back the next day (after I lowered the PH) and they suggested 4 more lbs of shock! Did that... still green! I changed every grain of sand in the filter(pool stores advice) and ran the filter for 48 hrs straight. Yesterday I took a new sample to the pool store and here are the readings

FAC .02
TC 1.8
CC 1.6
TA 115
PH 7.7
CH 185
CYA 10
Copper 0
Iron 0
Total dissolved solids 300

The water was a little lighter green, but still could not see past the 2nd step of my ladder. The pool store owner said more shock! 4 more lbs later and running the filter overnight and guess what? STILL GREEN!
Do I fill my pool with dirt and make a elevated putting green? Help! It is Sunday and the pool store is closed so no water sample today....


Blazing

Help! Cloudy green water

Postby Blazing » Sat 28 Aug, 2010 16:55

I have maintained inground pools, around 50 per week, for around 28 years in Phoenix Az. The first problem is that, while you may kill the algae in your pool, with a sand filter, getting it out, with the filter alone will always be a problem. Most pool algae is in the 8-14 micron particle size, and sand filters, even brand new ones with perfect sand, will only filter a particle size of 30 microns or greater. Thus, even though it is dead, the algae corpses just go into the filter and come right back out.

What you need to do is either clump the algae int larger particle sizes or close down the size of the spaces in the sand filter to allow it to filter out smaller particles. My prefereince is to take the first option, and use about a 1/16 cup of alum scattered around the pool or added to the skimmer. call around and find someone that carries it.

Next is ciurculation. If you have a main drain, make sure all the water is sucked from it, and all of the water is returned near the surface and as close to the walls of the pool as is possible. If you can, have the return(s) adjusted so that they form a ripple on the surface about 3' away from each return adn right near the wall of the pool. this will displace the dirty water forcing it down, and away from the walls. If you do not have a drain, you can hook up your vacuum and hose and push it out to the center of the pool.

In Phoenix, we could not maintain a chlorine reading at all if the Cyanuric Acid reading is less than 100 ppm. Any reading less than this guarantees no chlorine residual and a green pool. The only reason I have found for using a loewer reading is that you own a pool store and you make more money selling chlorine, and want people spending a ton of money. Check out solvemypools if you need more information.
lbridges
Swimming Pool Pro
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Posts: 119
Joined: Sat 05 Dec, 2009 17:25
My Pool: Geometric 16K gal shotcrete w/exposed aggregate; Pentair EasyTouch w/wireless, 2 Intellibrites, VS-3050 pump, C&C 200 Filter, IC-40 SWG; Heliocol solar. Rocky's reel
Location: Space Coast, Florida

Help! Cloudy green water

Postby lbridges » Sat 28 Aug, 2010 17:03

I've not had any experience doing it (the conversion), but lots of others have - a step by step can be found here.

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