If you shocked your pool water and it turned brown you probably have metals. Oxidized iron usually turns a brown or rusty color in the water. Use the No-Drain Metal Stain Eliminator Kit to reduce, sequester, and eliminate the metals to clear up your water and prevent recurrence or staining of your pool surface.
Depending on the type of surface in your pool, you can use a brush to scrap it clean with or without water in it. If the pool has a soft vinyl liner, you will use a rubber or nylon brush to keep it clean. If the pool has a concrete floor and walls, a stiff and course brush will do the trick.
Since brown algae is extremely chlorine-resistant, several other chemicals such as shock and an algaecide specifically designed for mustard algae will help get rid of the infestation. This will often result in cloudy pool water, so use clarifier to correct this problem.
Brush the walls every week during swimming season while the pump is turned off. A vacuum removes the debris that collects on the bottom. Vacuuming requires moving the vacuum head over the debris on the bottom of the pool until the bottom appears clean.
Baking Soda and Green, Blue, or Yellow Algae
You'll need to use an algaecide to kill the algae and superchlorinate your pool to clear the water. After this treatment, test your pH and alkalinity and add baking soda to raise alkalinity to at least 100 ppm and pH to between 7.2 and 7.8.
Green algae, unlike its black counterpart, is a true algae; it isn't resistant to chlorine, so you can control it by shocking the pool. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on expensive pool chemicals, you can shock with household bleach.
Household bleach, Clorox and liquid chlorine can all be used to sanitize a pool. They are all types of chlorine. Household bleaches such as Clorox usually contain about 5-6% available chlorine, about half that of pool liquid chlorine. Household bleaches often have unwanted fragrances and colors.
Just like you run vinegar through your coffee pot to get rid of calcium buildup, white vinegar can wipe away this eyesore in your pool. Mix a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water, dip a sponge or soft cloth into it, and scrub that residue away.
When chlorinating wading pools, use 1/8 cup per 100 gallons of new water. Mix required amount of Clorox® Regular Bleach2 with 2 gallons of water and scatter over surface of pool. Mix uniformly with pool water. Empty small pools daily.
Organic stains, like from foliage or vegetation, react to and are removed with granular chlorine. Metallic stains, like from hard water, are removed with granular Vitamin C. Rust stains reacts to dry acid, sodium bisulfate.
Poor Filtration. If dirt is reappearing at the bottom of your swimming pool after you've vacuumed it your pool's filter may be working poorly. Pool filters often work poorly because they're in need of cleaning. If you have a sand filter for your pool you need to make sure that the sand is sharp and freshened up.
Baking soda can work wonders in a pool. Baking soda can: Help to clear cloudy water and restore the sparkle. Spot-treat algae.
It is possible use use the tablets in your large wading pool. However, this is not economical and it will take a large amount of tablets to clean your pool. Unless you have a major supply of these tablets on hand, I would not suggest using them to clean a pool.
What can you use instead? Bromine — considered a safe substitute for chlorine. Looks for BCDMH tablets, which are typically 66% bromine and 27% chlorine. If unable to find, you can use just bromine but it may leave the water a dull green color.
1. Chlorine is a natural element and an ingredient of bleach, while bleach is a solution and the product of combining chlorine and other chemicals.
Pool water turns green because of algae in the water. Algae can grow rapidly, particularly when it's warm like Summer, which is why it can surprise you overnight. This generally comes down to an imbalance or lack of chlorine in the water.
So if the pool water isn't cloudy and the 'dirt' is clinging to the walls after brushing, the problem is likely be yellow/mustard algae. Yellow/ Mustard algae is very resistant to even high chlorine levels and will grow and thrive in a chemically well-balanced pool.