I'm in big trouble - I turned water green

[PoolDoc]

Hi Joe;

I've never seen a bright green reaction, either.

Yellow, yes. Orange, yes. Cloudy, yes. Brown and clear, yes. Brown and cloudy, yes. Even purple, yes. (Boy, that's a wild story I should tell sometime. BIG boo-boo!)

Bright green? nope.

Odds are it doesn't matter. You've got a mess, but it will probably eventually clear up with chlorine bleach and sunshine.

I would cautiously add bleach -- the peroxide will keep destroying it for awhile -- till you can hold a residual overnight. Once you get there, you'll have to start shocking the heck out of it at night, to get rid of the bromide / bromine.

By the way, if you can reach any of the spots, scratch one with your fingernail. Then, spread the goo from under your fingernail onto a white card. If it's black algae, the smear will be dark green. No smear, or nothing under your fingernail, it's not black algae.

Oh, and if you can dig that shock container out of the trash, and find out exactly what was in it, that would be good to know and post.

Good luck,

Ben
"PoolDoc"

[Watermom]

Joe -- what I meant was that the poster in the other thread had also added sodium bromide. Lots of bleach may be needed. PoolDoc has jumped in on this one, so you're in good hands. Good luck.

[joecus]

Thanks Ben - I don't have the exact mixture of shock in front of me but it's the shock I've always used. The one pound bag, purchased at Costco. I'll get the name in the morning. I thought about it and wanted to add this. Did you ever use the test kit where you add 5 drops of oto to water sample to get a chlorine level? If you had a lot of chlorine in the sample, the water would turn bright yellow, if you had a real lot it would turn bright yellow with one drop. This is what happened to the entire pool. The color is bright yellow/greenish so maybe saying its bright green is not totally accurate. Bright yellow/greenish would be more accurate. Instant chemical reaction.

[PoolDoc]

Was there an odor?

What was the pH at that time?

[joecus]

I woke up this morning and pool back to being clear, wow. I turned the filter on and the residual water that was in the tank came out bright green/yellow. So, something happened, overnight, that caused another reaction. I checked the chlorine, zero reading (I'm using the kit with the drops). The PH was low. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[Watermom]

Glad it is clear. Post your current water testing results. Also, did you look at the ingredient label?

[joecus]

The shock I've been using is Pace Clear Shock - 99% sodium dichlorio-s-triazinetrione hydrated.

OK, hopefully my troubles are almost over. Like I said, when I woke up the pool was clear. I took a water sample to a local store and here's what they found.

CYA - 40
Tot Chlorine 0
free chlorine 0
ph - 6.2

Tot Alkalinity 0

They wanted to sell me 50 lbs of Balance pak 100 to increase the Alkalinity.

I didn't buy anything, I just added two lbs of "pace" shock. It's 99% sodium dichlorio-s-triazinetrione hydrated.
Please help. What should I do about the Alkalinity, PH and pool using so much shock? I can't keep the levels up. Thanks again.

[joecus]

OMG - Like my previous post just said, I added the shock. I just looked out my window and the water turned bright Green/yellow again. What the heck is going on? I don't know what to do. This has to be related to the Algicide (sodium bromide). Please, please help.

[joecus]

10 minutes since my last reply, the water totally clear again. Something in the algicide is reacting with the shock. However, not the chlorine. Please help.