Pool care help
Update:
I found the issue!
Stupidly, I had listened to the advice of YouTubers and Amazon reviews. In my sand filter, I had used the woolen balls. Even though I had been performing the cycle and flush, dumping the water, the woolen balls were not clean, they were green and completely swamped in algae.
I took them out, rinsed, sat them in some diluted bleach and rinsed again. I cleaned the filter thoroughly. Upon putting it all back together, throwing in some shock and giving it a few hours, along with a 1/5 pool water dump and replace, it's looking clear again.
Thank you for all of the advice. I'll move to sand in the near future so the rinse and dump cycles actually work.
Original message:
I wasn't sure which group to shove this in, I went for home improvement as this needs serious improvement.
To be honest, with how green it is, maybe enviro would have been even better.
I have an above ground 5800l pool, which I put up during the summer for the kids. This year I decided to go with Bromine in a float. I'm using the standard slow disjsolve capsules from Everclear. I chose Bromine as one of the kids has quite sensitive skin. I started out with the winder float, 6 tabs slowly dissolving. I gave it a couple of days and realised I didn't have strips to test, so I ordered some.
In this time, with lots of abuse, a very warm season for England and probably half a metric ton of sun cream, the water was looking a bit cloudy. No biggy, the great Flow Clear 800Gal/h sand filter would be helping... It didn't seem to be. The water went from cloudy to slightly green at the bottom. The algae was arriving.
I dipped a stick: bromine didn't even register. Hmmm. I ordered a second float and some algaecide to attack the issue. Two days later, we have 12 tabs in two floats, enough algaecide to clear the Amazon river (I jest), and I leave it to clear. The following day, it's less cloudy, still green tinted and bromine still does not register on the sticks.
Over today's use, it's gotten worse. I've ordered chlorine tabs instead because the bromine is not working. It should have worked. Does anyone know where I went wrong?
Tomorrow, I'll dump half the water (over 2000l down the drain), change the tablets over to chlorine, throw in some more algaecide and let the pump keep on pumping. Hopefully, as it refills, I should get some nice clear water that doesn't have a pH of near 9.
I have a salt pool myself and what I've found immensely useful is to bring a water sample to my nearby pool store for testing a couple of times throughout the season. They'll tell you what chemicals you'll need to add, in which order, how much etc. Mention the fact you use a bromine pool instead of chlorine as it will impact the analysis and recommendations
lol Ignore everything I wrote, and do this. It's spectacularly good advice.
I would add a huge caveat to this by saying that yes you should absolutely take the water to a local pool store and get the water tested for free, and in general if things are fine their advice tends to be decent about regular maintenance, but DO NOT follow their advice blindly, especially if your pool is in bad shape and in need of some bigger solution like it sounds like OP needs. The person helping could be a veteran with 20 years of experience helping people out or it could be an 18-year old who just started last week and doesn’t know anything besides what he’s overheard from other people that work there. Local pool stores are notorious for selling you a bunch of crap that you don’t actually need. Then when the problem inevitably doesn’t get fixed you need more and more and more chemicals to fix something that another method could have solved three weeks ago for a third of the price. If you’re putting something into your pool you should know what exactly is in it and why exactly you’re using that over something else.
So this is general advice, and I'll not I don't have a pool, but my parents do and I've helped with theirs for 40 years. I'll note that theirs is a chlorine pool, not a bromine pool.
First question I have is do you have a vacuum? A pool vacuum is an important way to keep the water clear. If not, then I would definitely recommend one, and I would use it weekly when things are going well, and more often when things are cloudy or green.
You want to make sure that you keep the water level up, since vacuuming the pool will empty some of the water. That's just a general tip - the process of cleaning will remove a lot of water.
I would recommend making sure you have a good test kit. I'm not sure if it's different with bromine (edit: thanks Google, 7.8 for bromine), but for my parents' chlorine pool, we try to keep it at 7.5. You can try to adjust it in a variety of ways - muriatic acid to decrease and sodium bicarb to increase, for example. That balance is important, and you can make things a bit wonky by trying to make that adjustment with just your bromine.
Since you have algae, you probably want to do some kind of shock treatment. This would be introducing a large amount of something that kills the algae. In our case we have just used a product called "pool shock" which we dump in. It takes a few days, and we usually combine it with scrubbing and vacuuming. Adding pool shock is pretty simple - you dump it in, leave the filter on recirc for a while, then let it sit for a day or two. During this time, vacuum the pool directly to waste.
If that kills all the algae, and it goes back to just cloudy, you can use a flocculant to try to get the cloudiness out of the water. Again, we just use a product called "pool flocculant" out of a white bucket. Similar to shock, you add the flocculant, disperse it using recirculate, then let it sit for a bit to allow things to accumulate to the bottom of the pool. Then you vaccum the pool directly to waste.
If that fixes it, then great - rebalance the pool back to 7.8.
This may very well all be information that you know, if so I apologize.
I second this. Had bad issues and once the green algae really kicked in, no amount of shock and chlorine seemed to help. Swamp Treat (also on Amazon as Green Treat from United Chemicals) helped more than any other algaecide. The flocculant was amazing though. Mix, circulate, then let it sit overnight without the filter on. The green algae all sunk to the bottom and could be vacuumed up. The pool went from cloudy and green to clear the very next day. But the vacuuming was slow and tedious so as not to stir it all up again.
https://www.riverpoolsandspas.com/blog/guide-to-pool-flocculants
That was interesting and I'm off researching. Thank you.
I'm actually in an adjacent industry so I can give you some good advice!
In any case, if you're continually not showing enough sanitizer in your water, it's because there's not enough! That's the most common reason for cloudy or green water. You have to add it until there's a reserve left over. What you will want to use is a shock, which is a granular or liquid form that dumps it all in at once instead of letting it dissolve slowly. There's different kinds, but probably the best kind to get is "non-chlorine shock", or potassium monopersulfate (AKA MPS). Pool shocks in the US are typically sold in bags that treat 1000 gallons, so you'd want to add two of them to start, but check the label on the stuff you buy. Keep in mind you will almost certainly need more than they recommend, but start with the recommendations, let it circulate and kill bacteria for a few hours, and retest before you add more.
The thing is, though that bromine is not quite a drop-in replacement for chlorine. The chemistry is just slightly different. For one thing, it converts into sodium bromide when it's done, and when you add chlorine to the water it combines to make hyperbromous acid (which is the actual sanitizer in your pool water). But the thing is that it's become so uncommon to use bromine in pools and spas that I don't remember the details, including if it also has that same reaction with MPS. There's a reason why it's not common to use it in pools that is currently evading me; I think it is not UV-stable, which means that the sun basically causes it to evaporate.
There's actually a number of things you should check before you try to shock it. Most importantly, check your water's pH, alkalinity, and hardness, and then check to make sure your filter is working properly. Fix all of those things before you shock it because all of them affect the ability of chlorine and bromine to kill bacteria.
The green on the bottom of your pool may not necessarily be algae, but it's a sign that your pump is not working well enough, which is usually a problem with the filter. Do you remember the last time you cleaned it? You probably need to replace it. You're talking about "putting up" your pool, so I assume it's a collapsible model, right? Those typically come with the absolute worst filter/pump combo equipment they can get away with. They are so small that you have to regularly replace the filters (it's a good thing they're so cheap!) and run the pump 24 hours a day. If the pool gets a lot of use, I'd go to a local pool store and ask for a skid pack - hopefully that's not a US term, but if it is, it's basically a combined pump and filter on a base.
There are other chemistry issues that might also prevent your sanitizer from working like copper or phosphates, but they're more rare and regular test strips don't test for them. So if you are still having problems after that, take a sample of your water to a pool store to have it tested and get their professional recommendations. You can order phosphate and copper test kits online, too, but that's the point where I'd say consult an expert.
In regards to Algae, the best thing to do is to prevent it. Our recommendation for pools was always to do regular doses of preventative algaecide. There are also sanitizers that come with algaecide mixed in with it, which I recommend. There is a product I know for sure is sold in Europe called Aquafinesse, which not only acts as an algaecide but also has a special chemical that prevents biofilms from forming and clumps up the minerals in the water so they can be removed by your filter. It makes maintaining a pool much easier because it reduces the amount of sanitizer required, helps remove minerals that will eventually damage your pool and equipment, and also helps keep the pH stable. It's a bit of a premium option, though.
It was the filter!
You should cover your pool from direct sunlight when not in use. It will help a lot with algae.
I'd dump the whole pool.and mechanically clean it. Start over with clean water, that is your best bet. We tried to fight green water last year to some success, but spent way much money then new water would cost us.
This year we started with fresh water after cleaning the pool manually - we leave the water in through the winter letting it do whatever it does - and the pool is clean all the season. We use chlorine though and I don't use float this summer and throw the big tablet to the skimmer. It lasts for just a week but we have enough chlorine in the water and nothing didn't show up yet. We get even 32-33 degrees Celsius water and yet it stays clean.