Just heard this morning that our pool has turned green!!! House has been empty for 10 days and during that time the automatic dosing equipment has failed - typical! Problem is, we have people going in there tomorrow............pool guy has been instructed to hoover bottom of pool, keep filtration on 24/7 and put a litre of chlorine in + chlorine tabs in the skimmers. Hopefully this'll sort it out but what are the chances that the pool will be back to normal within a couple of days? Anyone know how long it takes?
Such a shame as the dosing thing has been working so perfectly all summer.
I've read the 'Aagghh green pool' thread too already.........
Kathy
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
Do you have a covered pool? If not it is highly unlikely anyone will be using it anyway - we turned our heating off yesterday because it is simply too cold to swim. it is the first time we have turned them off in September - normally we use the pool well into October.
Pool's covered, in that it's got a summer cover on it - that's probably not what you mean though! This let tomorrow is the last one of the season except for half term so we were hoping the heater would cope till the end of October.........we turned the thermostat down on the heat pump 10 days ago but it's now back up to 27. Current pool temp is 23 and as the forecast is temperatures of between 15 and 22 for the next 10 days, I thought they'd probably want to use it.
Does anyone know how long it's likely to take to recover?
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
You can recover the pool from green to clear in one day if you are lucky. No swimmers for 12 hours after shock dosing - super chlorination. The green is an algea bloom - the chlorine should kill it.
If it still looks cloudy tonight, you could try adding flocculant overnight ( NO PUMPON OVERNIGHT - LET DEBRIS SETTLE )and then hoover in the morning. You would then need to shock dose again.
If you hit lucky and clear by tonight, your pool man will need to adjust the ph asap - check acid / alkalinty and use ph reducer if necessary. If unlucky, still do same after shock chloination second time and add some algaecide for good measure incase the algae has attacked your grouting ( presume your pool is tiled ). It is awful to get off if you leave it too long ( looks like black marks on the grout ).
Good luck - try not to worry, I'm sure it will be ok.
Hoovering is fine but walls need to be brushed paying particular attention around lights and steps. Get the pH level correct. Dose up the chlorine high to kill the bacteria, you can use normal household bleach (just as effective but cheaper). I would use at least 5 litres of bleach for a 20 cubic metre pool. Wait 24 hours hoover and brush again and leave the pump/filter running for another 24 hours. Water should be crystal clear
I'd do a chlor choc treatment and leave the filter on continuously, brushing the pool regularly and it should clear up.
My pool is 27°c, but that is with the heat pump on practically continuously. I doubt very much that without an abri your pool will be warm enough to swim in for half term Kathy, unless you have some very brave guests! For the last two years I don't think the heat pump had even kicked in by this time, it has been so cold here, especially at night.
Yes, I agree about the weather. Our pool was 27 deg. until a couple of days ago but I've now turned the heating off as the only guests we have at the moment have said they didn't bring their swimming costumes with them.
When you say your pool has turned green, I wouldn't mind betting that the water is still crystal clear but the bottom and walls are covered in algae. If the cover has been on for a week, especially at this time of year with all the bits blowing off the trees,not to mention all the rain we've had in the last week then it's no wonder this has happened. An hour or so of hoovering should do the trick and you may even find that the chlorine and pH aren't far off what they should be anyway. I wouldn't worry too much.
Latest news is that at least he can see the bottom today and it's almost blue but slightly cloudy, chlorine is now 550 (was 350 yesterday), ph 6.4 - nearly there and temp now up to 25........ He's hoovered the bottom again, thrown more chlorine and ph+ in so I'm hopeful for tomorrow.
J&J - there doesn't appear to be any algae, walls are not slimy and barely any suspended particles apparently........is that the only cause of the green gunk?
Finca - it's a liner pool so no problem with grout staining but haven't got any flocculant so am pinning my hopes on the above..........
Kathy
Waterfront location in Le Faou
"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am."
House has been empty for 10 days and during that time the automatic dosing equipment has failed - typical! Problem is, we have people going in there tomorrow............pool guy has been instructed to hoover bottom of pool, keep filtration on 24/7 and put a litre of chlorine in + chlorine tabs in the skimmers. Hopefully this'll sort it out but what are the chances that the pool will be back to normal within a couple of days? Anyone know how long it takes?
