Algea and high chlorine

[crandies]

Since I joined this site my pool has been awesome. But now I am facing green pool. My ph is 7.5 and my chlorine is off the charts even though I have not added that much. Right now I have it on recirculate, but it is greener every day. I have a 32,000 gal cement pool. What do I need to do if the chlorine is registering so high. I am using a 6-way HTh test.

[Watermom]

Use this chart and estimate how high your chlorine is:> http://pool9.net/oto-chart/

Also, give us a full set of current water testing results including CYA.

What have you been using as your source of chlorine? What else besides chlorine have you put in the pool?

[crandies]

Watermom,
Last night I poured in 1 gal of bleach. This morning there is yellow algea on the bottom of the pool.
I am using liquid bleach and tabs in a floater for my chlorine. I recently adjusted ph with muratic acid. I have tested my cya weekly and chlorine and ph daily but it just kept getting greener. I started the summer using the DE in my sand filter to clean out the gritty on the bottom. It worked. I am still using the DE. For cya I have only poured 1 gal of water conditioner (cya) in the pool. Here are my readings this morning: I have 32,000 gal in ground cement pool.
Using your chlorine chart - 13 ppm
ph - 7.8
hardness - could not get a reading no matter how much titrant I put in. The test water just turned light yellow
Alk - 80
CYA - 40
Thank you.

A tree fell on our house this morning and the electricity is going to be shut off. I will be offline for a while. But while still up I will watch for your answer.

[Watermom]

Aim for a shock level of 15ppm. In a 30K pool, each of the 121-oz. jugs will add approximately 2.5ppm of chlorine. Use that as a reference to help you figure out how much bleach to add each time you test. If your power stays off for awhile, you can continue to add bleach and just stir it around with a clean broom, etc. I lost power for a full week a couple of years ago and maintained my pool by doing just that -- adding bleach daily and stirring it around.

http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

[crandies]

So should I be looking to get 15 ppm level on chlorine, shocking once a week?

[crandies]

When I check my chlorine daily, where should it be and does that even register on the HTH 6-way kit?

[Watermom]

No. While you are trying to clear your pool of algae, you need to be keeping the pool at shock level until it clears. After the algae is gone, then you should begin running your maintenance chlorine levels which area again based on your CYA reading. For a CYA of 50, those maintenance levels would be between 3-6 ALL the time. If you dip below that, you risk another algae bloom.

Chlorine levels higher than 5ppm will not register on your 6-way kit which is an OTO chlorine test. That is why I recommended that you order a Taylor K2006 as it can measure levels way past 5ppm.

In the meantime, use the chart I linked for you up in post #2.

[crandies]

Thank you so much. I haven't lost electricity yet, but I applaud any woman who can stir her pool everyday with a broom.

[Watermom]

Nah, I didn't use a broom. I was actually in the pool. I would reach as far away from my body as I could and pour a little bleach and then swirl and dance around and make the water move and slosh around as much as possible. Then, I would do it again until I had put as much bleach in as I wanted. I did have on an old suit that I didn't care if it got faded.

[crandies]

That's very funny and I still applaud you !