MY POOL ISN'T WORKING PROPERLY..CLOUDY/GREEN WATER

by Phillip
(Bradenton, Florida, USA, ( A hour south of Tampa)

My grandmother and uncle got a rental that has a personal pool, but ever since they moved in, they could not get it to work. We have shocked it, the blue water gel de-cloudifier stuff, EVERYTHING!

Over the last month we got it less cloudy, but after the last 4 days, it is extremely green again, and cloudy. We can get the pool balanced and we still have problems.

Also, before we run the pump, all of the stuff usually settles. We believe that the pressure of our sand filter is high, being 12, and the globe on the side today is low and has white chunky stuff in it.

And how do you tell if it is channeled inside the filter?

They live close to a pretty busy street. Can the exhaust and dirt debris change this? Sorry for all of the questions, but, is there a way to clear a pool within hours?

We also live an hour south of Tampa in Florida.

Thank you for all of the help

Thanks for your questions Philip

I would encourage you to get a Taylor Reagent FAS-DPD K-2006 pool water test kit. It's the best on the market. A little getting used to but it's worth it.

Water Testing Kit..FAQ..Chemistry Testing..Procedures..Balance..Swimming..

We should start from one of the last questions; channeling. You can use all the chemicals in the world but if your sand filter has channeling, it won't make a bit of difference.

You'll need to open the sand filter top and feel the sand inside. The media should feel like regular, wet, smooth sand and shouldn't ball up when squeezed. If it does then you'll need to de-grease the sand filter. Your local pool store should have a de-greaser. The product I use at the Y to de-grease those filters is called "Filter Fresh" and it works very well.

Feel around the sides of the filter. If you can feel holes or pits on the sides of the filter, then you have channeling and you'll still need to de-grease the filters. If you find this, just send me another post because there is a way to do it that's very effective.

Now for your pool chlorine and green pool water problems.

Normally when a pool can't keep a chlorine level for longer than a few hours, it means there's little to no cyanuric acid (CYA) in the pool. This is the stabilizer for the chlorine and can reduce the amount of chlorine used by 50%.

Go to these links to learn about chlorine and CYA:

Adjust Your Swimming Pool Chlorine..Chemistry..Salt Water Maintenance..Inground

Swimming Pool Chlorine..Water Testing..Balance..Problems..Information

Chlorine Tablets..Swimming Pool Chlorine..Chemistry..3..1..Inch

Your FAS-DPD test kit will have a very easy way to test the CYA. Keep it between 20ppm - 40ppm and the chlorine between 1.5ppm - 3.5ppm.

For clearing up your green pool water and algae, go to this link:

Remove Swimming Pool Algae..Green..Chemistry..Care..

There are a couple of other links in the above page to help you as well.

After you clear up your green pool water, if the water is still a bit cloudy, you can use a Flocculant. This is inexpensive and can be used in pools that are exposed to high levels of pollutants.

Having a filter pressure of 12psi is a bit high. Normally you want to backwash after the filter reaches about 8 - 10psi above your "just backwashed" pressure.

Have the proper amount of sand in the filter. You can check with the manufacturer for that information.

The skimmer(s), bottom drain, and pump basket need to be clean and free of debris. You can also check inside the pump motor and clear out any debris that might be in the pump motor impeller. Be sure to turn off the motor and the breaker to the pump motor before doing this.

Clearing up a green pool does take some time because you have an algae problem. First you'll need to shock the pool to kill the pool algae, then allow the filter to do its job.

Keeping your pool manually dosed with chlorine is good while the shock is going on and the next couple of days following. If you don't have your CYA in line the chlorine can go down from 10ppm - 12ppm to 0ppm in a day or two, so keep an eye on the chlorine.

You can also use an algaecide during this process to keep the pool algae away.

Hope this helps and let me know how this turns out for you.

Have a great Summer

Robert

Donation..My Pool Guy..