Pool Turns Green After Adding "conditioner"

[Laurie]

I have a 36,000 gal inground pool that has been a little cloudy, but not green. I've been having a heck of a time getting the chlorine level up. I was going to be out of town for a week and didn't want to leave the pool filter running, so I was advised by the people at the pool store (not my normal store, which is Leslie's) that I could add 2 gallons of their liquid shock and unplug the filter and it should be fine while we were gone. When I got back, the water was not green, so I guess they were right. Chlorine level was low/non-existent however, so I took a sample to Leslie's where they told me that pH was fine at 7.2, alkalinity was 110, but chlorine was at 0 and that the reason I was having trouble getting the chlorine to "stick" was due to my Cyr being zero. They told me to put 4lbs of Conditioner (http://www.lesliespool.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=8089&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=14&iSubCat=127&iProductID=8089) directly into the skimmer, then a few hours later to add 4 lbs of Chlor-Brite (http://www.lesliespool.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=8080&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=14&iSubCat=104&iProductID=8080).

What they didn't tell me was that the conditioner should have been mixed with water first, I didn't realize that until I read the package today, stupid me, yea I know. Anyway....I did all this yesterday and this morning woke up to a green pool. I find it hard to believe that the addition of these chemicals didn't have something to do with my pool turning green. During the week I was gone and the filter/pump wasn't even running that there was no algae, and for 2 days after that it still had no green, but within 12 hours of adding the conditioner and chlorine it was a lovely shade of green. They told me to add 6 more 1lb pkgs of the shock and that it should clear up.

Does this sound right? I'm not feeling all that confident about their advice at this moment...it's hot and my poor kids want to swim, but who wants to swim in a green pool?!?

Any advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Laurie

[waterbear]

If your CYa is at 0 ppm then your chlorine is burning off in the sunlight very quickly. that is why it turned green. About 30 minutes of full sun will destroy the chlorine in an unstabilized pool. CYA takes about a week for it to dissolve (predisssolving it won't help. It just doesn't dissolve fast). Best thing to do is pour it into the skimmer and don't clean the filter for a week since it will slowly dissolve from there.

Bottom line, your pool would have turned green anyway because the sun was burning off the chlorine. Once the CYA dissolves your chlorine will hold.

Before a pool turns green it will turn cloudy and yours had so green was the next step.

[Laurie]

If your CYa is at 0 ppm then your chlorine is burning off in the sunlight very quickly. that is why it turned green. About 30 minutes of full sun will destroy the chlorine in an unstabilized pool. CYA takes about a week for it to dissolve (predisssolving it won't help. It just doesn't dissolve fast). Best thing to do is pour it into the skimmer and don't clean the filter for a week since it will slowly dissolve from there.

Bottom line, your pool would have turned green anyway because the sun was burning off the chlorine. Once the CYA dissolves your chlorine will hold.

Before a pool turns green it will turn cloudy and yours had so green was the next step.

Thanks Waterbear. I brought them another sample today since the additional 6 lbs of Chlor-Brite seemed to have no effect on either the chlorine level or the color. They told me I needed to add 45lbs of Hardness Plus, 5lbs every 2 hours, then wait 24 hours and add 4 lbs of Chlor-Brite, then wait 12 hours and add 4lbs of Fresh n' Clear. Hopefully all of this will help...I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If it's still green after that, I'll have to go the algaecide route, but the pH needed to be raised for that to be effective anyway, hence the Hardness Plus I guess.

Thanks again!

[williamN]

Laurie, Waterbear is right, as far as he went.

I may not have all the answers for you to have your blue clear pool back, but at least I'll let you know that you are not alone with this problem. I just spent $1,000 in chemicals over 2+ months getting my water clear. (It was as green as swamp water--we could not see the first step) For me, chemicals was not the entire answer.

You didn't mention what type of filter you had, but I have a sand filter and that was the heart of the problem. The sand was old and needed changing, but I got by by opening the tank and stirring the sand up to break up the clump. (Reach down with a long arm and play like you were digging a hole at the beach.) As soon as I did that along, with lots of chemicals, we started seeing improvements in the water by the next day (a SMALL imporvemnt, but the first one in 2 months)

I went thru so many chemicals that I will not even start to tell you what to use. Let the pool guys do that and yes i got screwed by putting conditioner in too. I was told to put it in the skimmer and there it stayed! It actually plugged the skimmer. Start with stirring (or replacing) the sand and adding pump additives/helpers (I found alum to be the best helper. And I used All-Clear Algae Kill as my shock--it is 90% available chlorine)

If you replace your filter sand, consider renting a commercial wet./dry vac and suck that stuff out. When you have the sand out, use your garden hose to really get it clean. When replacing the sand, keep water in the filter so you do not break the laterals on the bottom (run it in backflush mode for a minute to putwater in the tank) And back flush every day regardless of the pressure.

good luck with your money pit