You lift the cover and the pool looks like pea soup. Take a breath — almost every green pool is recoverable, usually within days, without draining. But the order you do things matters enormously. Here's our process.
Step 1: Find out why it went green
Chlorine doesn't just vanish. The usual suspects: a failed chlorinator cell, a pump timer that stopped, a dead pump, or a fortnight of storms diluting everything. If you treat the water without fixing the cause, it goes green again in a week. Check the equipment first — or bring a photo of your setup in and we'll help you spot it.
Step 2: Test before you dose
Dumping in chlorine blind is how people waste $200 on chemicals. A green pool can have crazy pH and zero stabiliser, which burns off chlorine in hours. Bring a sample in for a free computerised test — we'll give you exact quantities for your pool size.
Step 3: The recovery routine
- Brush everything. Walls, floor, steps — break the algae's grip so chemicals can kill it.
- Balance pH first (target 7.2–7.4) so the shock works at full strength.
- Shock hard with the calculated chlorine dose — usually late afternoon so the sun doesn't burn it off.
- Run the filter 24–48 hours, backwashing or rinsing the cartridge as pressure rises.
- Add clarifier once the green turns cloudy-blue to clump the dead algae for your filter.
- Vacuum to waste if there's a heavy layer of dead algae on the floor.
Warning: if your pool has a cartridge filter, a bad green pool can clog it within hours. Check and rinse it frequently, or call us — recovery with the wrong filtration setup can damage the filter.
When to call us instead
Call if you can't see the bottom at all, if the pool's been green for months, or if you'd simply rather not spend your weekend on it. Our green pool recovery service handles the whole process — chemicals, equipment checks and follow-up visits — and we guarantee the result. Most pools are swim-ready within a week.
