Pool water turned green in one day!

[Guest]

I finally got my pool just where I wanted it about two weeks ago, crystal clear blue. But we are selling our house so I put ascorbic acid in to clean some brown spots off of the steps and seat. It is an in-ground vinyl pool, 37x19.

The ascorbic acid worked great, but the water was a bit cloudy afterward, not too bad. But yesterday my son and dog were in the pool, and afterward I noticed some greening. But today the entire pool is a light shade of green!

My pH was a little low, about 7-7.2 and my chlorine looked to be between 4-6. I just added some baking soda to get the pH up, but what else can I do? It won't help the sale of our house

Thanks

[chem geek]

Ascorbic Acid is a reducing agent so probably used up all of the chlorine in the water and then algae took hold. You need to shock the pool with unstabilized chlorine and recognize that some of it may get used up right away if there is still leftover Ascorbic Acid in the water.

Normally when you use an Ascorbic Acid treatment, you want to add some PolyQuat 60 to the water first so that you'll have some protection against algae growth.

Richard

[Guest]

Richard,

Thanks for the help. I wanted to ask what is unstabilized chlorine? I had been using the shock from Sam's Club, along with Clorox here and there. Are both of those alright?

Thanks,
Vince

[muss08]

Check the active ingredient in the shock. Cal Hypo is unstabalized while dichlor and trichlor are stabalized. You can also use regular unscented clorox

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for the help! I really appreciate it.

Vince