A green pool in Sacramento in July can go from cloudy to opaque in about three days. The heat does most of the damage. Water in the mid eighties burns through chlorine fast, and once free chlorine hits zero, algae has nothing stopping it. The good news is that most green pools are recoverable without draining.
The filter does most of the work, not the chemicals
This is the part people get wrong. Chlorine kills the algae. It does not remove it. Once the algae is dead, the water goes from green to a cloudy grey, and every particle of that has to physically pass through the filter to leave the pool. That means the pump has to run continuously, the filter has to be cleaned repeatedly during the process, and a filter that was already at the end of its life will not finish the job.
If your pump is not working, or the filter is shot, no amount of chemical will clear the water. Fix the circulation first. This is the most common reason a homeowner treatment stalls out at cloudy grey and stays there for a week.
The sequence that works
Get the debris out first.
Leaves and organic matter on the floor consume chlorine faster than you can add it. Net out what you can before dosing anything.
Test and correct pH before shocking.
Chlorine is dramatically less effective at high pH. Shocking a pool sitting at pH 8.2 wastes most of what you put in.
Shock hard enough, and keep it there.
A single dose that gets consumed in six hours accomplishes very little. Green pool recovery needs chlorine held at a high level for a sustained period, which usually means dosing more than once.
Brush the walls and floor.
Algae attached to plaster is protected from the water chemistry. Brushing puts it into suspension where the chlorine can reach it and the filter can catch it.
Run the pump continuously and clean the filter as pressure rises.
A rise of 8 to 10 PSI over the clean starting pressure means it needs cleaning. During a recovery this can happen more than once a day.
Balance once it is clear.
Alkalinity, calcium, conditioner and pH all get corrected at the end, not the beginning.
Why draining is usually the wrong move in this valley
Draining looks like the fast answer. In the Sacramento area it carries a real risk that people underestimate: an empty pool shell has nothing holding it down against the groundwater underneath it. When the water table is high, an empty pool can lift, crack, or in the worst case pop partly out of the ground. That turns a several hundred dollar problem into a structural one.
There are cases where draining is correct, mainly when cyanuric acid is so high that chlorine cannot work at any dose. But it should be the conclusion of a diagnosis, not the opening move.
When to call somebody
Call if the pump is not running, the water is still green after a week of your own treatment, you cannot see the bottom in the shallow end, or the pool has been unattended for more than a season. We do green pool recovery across the Sacramento area on a flat quote, so there is one number before anything starts. Call (916) 313-8754, or text us a photo of the pool.
