Recovering from Green Cloudy Pool Water

by Felicia Williams

I’m so close to having a pool in a swimmable condition. Well, it would be if it weren’t for the annoying algae. I’ve got to say, it’s a nice looking green, but who wants to swim in green cloudy water?

I spent some time researching to find out why my pool water was green and cloudy. I found out that my problem is algae. I guess while I was figuring out how to use the Hayward filter and scooping the leaves off the bottom of the pool, I didn’t do the right thing when it came to adding chlorine and the necessary chemicals to sanitize the pool. To give you a hint, my first water reading yielded a chlorine level of zero.

Those zero chlorine level days gave algae all the time it needed to form in the pool (the dirty leaves at the bottom didn’t help either).

Going Toe to Toe with Pool Algae

Just as I took on the Hayward DE filter and the pool dirt, I’m now ready to face this algae problem head-on. From what I’ve read there are a few things I need to do:

Get my pH to an acceptable range (between 7.2 and 7.6). Although I had all of my chemical levels within an acceptable range at one time, they’re not there now. So, I’m back to adding acid to the water in the morning to lower the pH.

Sweep the pool. Algae are not only floating around in the water, its sticking to the pool lining and steps. So, in order to truly eradicate this nuisance, I’ve got to sweep the entire pool to dislodge the algae. Doing so temporarily makes the pool look worse.

Raise the chlorine levels. Chlorine gets rid of the type of algae that’s in my pool. Therefore, I shocked the pool to bring the chlorine level up to the max. My water testing kit confirmed that the chlorine is in the “High” level or level 10.

Run the filter 24 hours a day until I could see the bottom of the pool. This one is tricky because as you know the Hayward EC40 DE filter begins to react when it’s got too much dirt and debris. This means that I have to keep an eye on the filter to regenerate it and clean it out adding fresh DE on an as-needed basis (I’m particularly diligent with the filter between the hours of 6:00 AM and 8: 00 PM). Unfortunately, I might be prolonging the algae clean up process because I’m not about to get up in the night to regenerate the filter so I shut it off overnight. Why run a filter that’s too bogged down with junk that it’s not doing much at all.

Vacuum the pool once everything is clear.

And so the battle begins…The Importance of Pool Water pH

About the Author: Felicia Williams is a wife, mother and grandmother who likes to write about a host of topics.

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Last Modified: 24 March 2020