Hi, This year a week after opening our pool (intex 16’x48″ 5700gal) our pump/filter (krystal clear 1500gpm) broke. After about a week and a half of tons of rain and bad weather the new pump came in, but the pool had already turned into a gross green swamp!(my 8yo son swears he saw tadpoles) I hooked up the filter and added algaecide and shocked the pool along with the chlorine float. The water turned milky white! I then drained 1/3 of the pool water and refilled. Now it is just skim milk!! I only have one of those pool tests with the chlorine and phenol red drops that compares color. First I tested the chlorine and it is orange (5.0 should be a nice lemon yellow) the kit says that the ph test isn’t accurate unless the chlorine levels are less then 5.0, but decided to try the test anyway, and the test came back about 8.2 but I don’t know how accurate that is. I don’t know what to do, besides completely drain the pool and start over which I am trying to avoid. PLEASE HELP!!

Question:

Hi, This year a week after opening our pool (intex 16’x48" 5700gal) our pump/filter (krystal clear 1500gpm) broke. After about a week and a half of tons of rain and bad weather the new pump came in, but the pool had already turned into a gross green swamp!(my 8yo son swears he saw tadpoles) I hooked up the filter and added algaecide and shocked the pool along with the chlorine float. The water turned milky white! I then drained 1/3 of the pool water and refilled. Now it is just skim milk!! I only have one of those pool tests with the chlorine and phenol red drops that compares color. First I tested the chlorine and it is orange (5.0 should be a nice lemon yellow) the kit says that the ph test isn’t accurate unless the chlorine levels are less then 5.0, but decided to try the test anyway, and the test came back about 8.2 but I don’t know how accurate that is. I don’t know what to do, besides completely drain the pool and start over which I am trying to avoid. PLEASE HELP!!

Answer:

You are probably still low in the "free available chlorine". Unfortunately, the test kit that you have only measures total chlorine, so the chlorine the you have in the water could very well be used up by all of the organics that were present in the water from the peroid of inactivity. Get a test that can measure the free chlorine and see if you have any. If not, add chlorine until you do. The free chlorine is the good chlorine you need to sanitize and disinfect. The combined chlorine is the chlorine that is used up and together the make up the total chlorine reading, which is what your kit measures. Therefore, it is impossible to distinguish between the good and bad chlorine. When the free chlorine is in the appropriate range, a clarifier may also help to clear up the water by getting some of the particulate to filter out. Your filter will need to be cleaned or backwashed (depending on the type of filter you have) after your mess is cleaned up. It may need to be cleaned now and be hindering your recovery process.