Looking for help...green and cloudy with some pink in the pipes...?

[poolpatience]

Hello everyone! Just an update...going to get my DE this evening and try it out ASAP. I've been keeping tabs in the skimmer and my skimmer sock/knee high has been catching a ton of little debris. I know I shouldn't shock to avoid staining, but the tabs in the basket have been keeping a chlorine level greater than 5 in the pool...However, I had checked the eye of the return for slime and found an orange stain on the actual eye (this was the day after I posted here, so I guess I already had staining issues). I was just wondering if anybody had a guess as to how serious of a staining problem I might have from keeping the chlorine high these last few days?
Also wanted to let ya'll know that I ordered a K-2006 test kit! Can't wait for it to get here! I'll post again after I try out the DE. Thanks again for all of your help!!! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

[poolpatience]

It's been 10 days since my initial post. I've done everything in the instructions with the exception of the last step...POPP...I'm still working on that one.
Okay, put in DE Saturday and filter checked out okay (diluted 2 cups in some pool water and poured down the skimmer; within 10 minutes pressure jumped almost 3 pounds; may have poured it in a little fast, but the test proved that the filter is working either way). Backwashed and added 1 and 1/2 cups to filter which raised pressure about a pound and let filter overnight; pressure raised about 1/2 pound overnight; repeated again with 2 cups DE Sunday which raised 1 pound (and which is why I figure I poured it in too fast the first time), kept an eye on it Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. There was barely any pressure raise over these 3 days. Each time I backwash, I see the DE come out white followed by a very small amount of tan water...backwashing is complete within a couple minutes. My skimmer sock/nylon isn't catching very much debris...for those 3 days it didn't catch anything but bugs; then we had some rain Monday and a little Tuesday, so last night there was a little debris and leaves caught in the sock. I'm wondering if it's just that fine or if the majority of it is actually filtered out. We've been brushing everyday and it appears that most of it is gone (no clouds of green and tan rising in the water, no slimy feeling on the walls). The water clarity looks good still, but it is still green. It appears to be clearing from the outside though. I can see the entire return including the actual eye, and today I can see below the bottom of the skimmer. It looks clearer about 1/4 of the way down and about 6-8 inches in from the edges. The green does seem to be looking more blue-green in places and gray in places...
I got my test kit yesterday evening so I only had time to test the chlorine and pH. Here's what I got:
Free Chlorine-8.0
Combined Chlorine-1.5
pH-7.4 (If chlorine is high, then pH is sometimes not accurate, right...?)
Just wondering if there is anything I should do now, or continue waiting? I have no problem with POPP, just wanna make sure I take the right steps to clear this thing. My husband is starting to get anxious on me. Friday starts his week vacation from work and he wants to swim...he's told me he would really rather drain out most of the water to try to help it clear up...I dunno if that's a good idea at all...lol!
Thanks again for all your help...it's greatly appreciated!

[PoolDoc]

Lemme see if I understand:
+ your pool is clear, but greenish;
+ the visible algae & debris is gone;
+ you've got a K2006 and your FC=8.0 and your CC=1.5;
+ your filter is working OK.

Is that right?

If so, you just need to keep your chlorine up, your pump on, and your patience working. As far as I know, there's no reason why you can't swim right now. With those CC's -- probably from your past chemical history, but possibly, from what was in the stream -- may take some days of high chlorine and sunlight to disappear. The green but clear color is the same.

You might want to go ahead and test both TA and CH, and tell us what those readings are.

[poolpatience]

Sorry I wasn't specific enough...the water isn't clear, but is green...it's murky and looks kinda grayish green-bluish green-green (it's not pretty...lol). There is no algae that I can see in the pool, but I can only see about 1/4 of the way down from the top and only about 6-8 inches inward from the edges. The water is very murky...I can see the bottom, but only very faintly...can barely make out the pattern on the liner.
I did purchase a K2006 and those readings are correct, and my filter is working properly (there just doesn't seem to be anything left to filter out...it's like whatever is causing the murky greeness is too small to be filtered by a skimmer sock or DE). I added 3 cups of DE yesterday which raised the pressure 2 pounds...everything is still the same this morning.
I also completed the other tests yesterday:
CYA-50
TA-100
Calcium Hardness-250? Had trouble with this one...tried it twice and it done the same thing both times. Maybe this has something to do with the condition of the water. I readied my sample, added in the calcium buffer, then added the calcium indicator...at this point, instead of the 'sample' turning red, tiny little floating specs turned red while the water they were floating in stayed clear...? I thought, okay, I'll try to do the test and watch for the specs to turn blue instead of the entire sample. However, when I started adding the hardness regeant, it took between 23 and 25 drops to turn purple instead of blue...? This happened both times I tried to test.
Could this floating stuff be a clue as to what's murking up the pool?

[PoolDoc]

+ CYA = 50 ppm. OK
+ Still greenish and murky. OK
+ pH above 7.2. OK
+ Chlorine variable, but up to 8 ppm
+ Pool gallons = ~12,000. OK


Do this:

#1 - Continue with the pump on 24/7 and the DE topcoat.
#2 - Get a gallon of muriatic acid (Home Depot, hardware store, etc.) and add 1/4 gallon to the pool. (Glasses, gloves, watch the fumes: after opening, submerge the jug part way into the pool water, so you can pour with the lip only a few inches above the water. Add about 1/4 of the jug.)
#3 - Test the pH an hour later. If it's 7.2 or above, repeat.
#4 - Adjust a return eyeball so it's 'ruffling' the water surface.
#5 - That evening, add 2 gallons of plain 6% household bleach, poured slowly into the skimmer. (Pump ON, any tabs or other chemicals REMOVED!!)

Continue doing all the above:
+ Lower the pH each time it goes above 7.2
+ Repeat evening chlorine dose each time the chlorine is below 8 ppm FC
+ Do not add other chemicals
+ Backwash as needed, and re-coat with DE.

If, after 2 days, the green is not all gray (no green), then:
+ Continue with the pH adjustment
+ Change to 3 gallon bleach doses and a target chlorine level of 12 ppm

After no more than 3 days, report FC, CC, pH (measure midday when chlorine is lowest), TA, CH, & CYA.

Explanation (abbreviated):
Trying to lower your TA via low pH and aeration, to remove any calcium scale; trying to keep your pH low to facilitate this AND to avoid copper staining; maintaining high enough chlorine to control algae and gradually kill it, without copper stains (hopefully); gradually increasing chlorine as (again, hopefully) the copper comes out on the filter.

[poolpatience]

Okay, so hubby decided to drain Thursday. It was probably for the best. It looked like we might've had some flocked junk on the bottom that apparently was causing the turbidity. (We flocked a long time ago and apparently didn't get it all out...I see why this is not recommended...). Nearly completely drained the pool and refilled. It looks soooo much better. Our fill water was a bit muddy, but that was gone by Friday morning. Now, I'm working on completely clearing. It's still a bit cloudy, but bluer than it's been in two seasons! As of this morning, the test results were:
FC-12.0
CC-0.0
pH-7.4
TA-80
Hardness-50
(The last two were tested late last night)
Since we drained, CYA should be 0. We've got 2 cups DE in the filter with a skimmer sock (nylon) on the basket and a chlorine tablet in the skimmer to help get some stabilizer in the water. Like I said, we're still cloudy, but I assume the muddy stream water we used probably put some algae in, so I'm in the process of holding that chlorine. There's been great improvements over the past two days! I just wanted to let you guys know what was up, and to thank you again for this invaluable forum!!!

[aylad]

Let us know how it goes...you're right to hold the shock chlorine level to kill off whatever the stream water brought in. You might find that using a trichlor puck in the skimmer doesn't get your CYA up fast enough--if if doesn't, you can always add it seperately. Keep us posted!

[ralph]

HI-just wondering how you fared with your situation.
ralph