Adding chlorine turns the water green... that's a first...

[MichaelRemillard]

Hi.

I've had a pool for years now but this is the first time that I have water which is slightly foggy/murky and whenever I add chlorine it turns greenish.

I've had greenish water before but the chlorine usually got rid of that - not make it worst.

I've added algecide and that cleared it up but when I added chlorine again it turned green again.

My pH is slightly low but nothing drastic.

Is there anyone who would know the logic involving adding chlorine and getting a green pool? Could it be that the chlorine is "bad"? Does that happen?

Let me know.

Michael.

[muss08]

Could be that you have copper in your pool. Have it tested.

[Guest]

Could be that you have copper in your pool. Have it tested.

Or iron.

[MichaelRemillard]

Just out of curiousity... what could be the source of this copper or iron???

As for my problem... it has stopped...

I didn't do anything new or differently then I usually do really and it just went away. The only possible explaination I can come up with was that perhaps I wasn't putting in the chlorine often enough. Usually I put the chlorine once every 3 days or so and I never see any green. Perhaps these past few weeks I was skipping a day and when I got around to putting in the chlorine the pool was just on the verge of turning. As a result I was thinking that the chlorine was the cause. So I would put the chlorine, the pool would turn green and then, during the next day or so the effects of the chlorine would become visible and the water would loss its green tint.

When I thought of this I decided to test my theory. First I made sure to make a good backwash and when the water was no longer coming out dirty I put my chlorine - just two days after my last shot or chlorine (so I was ahead of my usual schedule). The water didn't turn green. The next day I put in another shot of chlorine and still the water remained beautiful. Of course the chlorine count is way over what I normally expect but that's ain't much of a problem for now...

So I guess I must have missed my chlorine cycle a few times in a row and that gave the water just enough time to start showing the signs of algae.

And since the excess chlorine didn't cause any more "green" water I guess the copper or iron theory no longer apply.

Note: I did up my pH level slightly (because it was a little low) so that probably helped the chlorine be more efficient at what it was expected to do.

Well, hopefully that is all there was too it...

[Guest]

Just out of curiousity... what could be the source of this copper or iron???

Water from wells, water that is delivered by trucks, a water heater that's about to die, copper can come from overuse of certain algicides, an overdose of copper sulfate based products.

It may have been that you were on the verge of an algae bloom that got interrupted.