Can anyone help? We have recently had a swimming pool built but for the last 2/3 weeks have had terrible trouble with green water. We have tried the remedies for algae (shocking with chlorine) but although the improvement seemed to be happening, as soon as we cleaned the pool it went green again. Very frustrating. Does anyone know a pool expert who can come and analyse the water/problem and tell us what to do or better still, do it for us.
I would be very grateful for any help or suggestions. We live near Orthez (64).
Thanks for the advice re flocculant. We found out just in time not to use it as we have a zeolite filter and it would have upset it. Woke up this morning to a SLIGHTLY less green pool so think it is going the right way. Will keep trying. Many thanks to everyone for the excellent advice unlike the so called “help” we had from the installers!
Tried an eddddddit but the gremlins are active round midnight.
I should add that I run a salt pool with very low Chlorine …about 1.5 with a sand filter which I had back flushed a day before, I added the jollop with the pump running and to stop any claims I naturally followed the instructions on the bidon!!
After checking the Ph and Chlorine levels last year i had the same trouble, Added ‘anti-algue’ from the local hypermarche and I watched the water clear!!!, dosed with floculant to remove the dead bodies vacuumed, and roberts your close relation…simples!!!
Hi there, regarding what John wrote about adding ‘Floculant’… you can only use this product if you are running a sand-filter. Any other type of filtration system may well be compromised by using it. If it is a sand filter great, use the ‘floc’ and then turn the system off after allowing the water to circulate the floc, leave it over night which will then allow the particulate to sink to the bottom and ‘clump’ then vacuum GENTLY and SLOWLY. You may have to do this a couple of times however after a couple of days it will be fine and dandy.
Thank you everyone for your advice. I think possibly we did not persevere long enough. However, we are now biting the bullet and leaving it to run 24/7. Just hope the electricity bill is worth it!!
We just left the filter running 24/24 for a week and we can see the bottom now!!
It is recommended to do a backwash daily to clear the sand (if you have a sand filter that is. Or if you have the cassette type, clean it daily.
As John says, it is also important to get the chlorine levels back up and the Ph correct. Mine is still a bit low so I 'll have to sort that. With Ph plus.
I find this usually works. After making sure the skimmers / filters are clean: 1. Get the Ph factor right. 2. Get the Chlor factor right. 3. Put a ‘flocante’ in the skimmer to get some of the particles in the water to drop to the bottom of the pool. 4. Clean the bottom of the pool with whatever means you use. 5. Add a quantity of Hydrogen Peroxide to the water depending on the volume of the pool. Our French pool expert called this ‘oxygene’ which confused me at first - but it is Hydrogen Peroxide. I use a product from Apic-O called Azureo TOP. Be very careful using this product. You must wear gloves and be careful not to get splashes on the skin. It burns like mad! If you do then wash in plenty of cold water. I’m not an expert but have had to find out the hard way.
I think everyone I know has had trouble this year. Not that I know many people, sniff.
Seriously, we’ve had the same problem and James is spot on. We’ve been running ours for a week now and it’s finally clearing up. If anything I added too much product and the algae disappeared but the products left the water cloudy. Don’t over do it.
Although with this weather it looks like being a short poll season.
I will let you know definitely but not until the rain stops! We are actually in Baigts de Bearn - just outside Orthez. May see you at a Fete this summer.
Empty all the skimmers of crap.
Empty and/or clean any inline filters you have in the system.
Add the appropriate amount of chlorine shock treatment for the volume of water.
Put one chlorine tablet in each skimmer basket.
Make sure the jets are working and the skimmers sucking. (There could be air in the system requiring a purge first)
Use the brush attachment to get all the green stuff of the bottom/sides
Brush it around again when it settles. (It will always look worse after a brush at this stage, you have to get ot off the bottom though so that it can pass through the filter)
Run the pump/filter 24hrs a day until it’s clean.
Disclaimer! I am no expert, I am just speaking from having done a couple, if in doubt contact a professional.
This guy may be able to help, you can mention my name if you like. Boutin daniel
