A green pool cleanup in East Texas typically takes 3 to 10 days and costs $300 to $800 for a professional green-to-clean visit, with badly blackened pools running $1,000 or more and needing two or three trips. Doing a swamp-green pool yourself runs $100 to $300 in chemicals plus a lot of hours at the equipment pad. Either way, the process is the same: get the debris out, get the chemistry right, shock hard, brush, and run the filter until the water gives up.

November is when we get the most calls about this. Pine needles and oak leaves have been dropping for weeks, the pool got ignored after Labor Day, and a couple of warm spells kept the algae growing into the holidays. If that's your backyard right now, here's what it takes to get your water back — and what it'll cost.

Quick reference: green pool cleanup in East Texas

| Situation | What you're looking at | Typical cost | Typical time | |---|---|---|---| | Light green / cloudy | Algae just getting started, floor still visible | DIY $50–$120 in chemicals, or the low end of a pro visit | 2–4 days | | Swamp green | Can't see the floor, debris on the bottom, filter working hard | Pro green-to-clean $300–$800 | 5–10 days | | Black / thick bloom | Opaque water, heavy debris, algae rooted into the finish | $1,000+ and usually 2–3 visits | 7–10+ days | | Drain and acid wash | Water is beyond saving or finish is badly stained | Priced per job — quoted after we look at the pool and water table | 2–4 days plus refill |

These are ranges, not quotes. The real number depends on how long the pool sat, what's on the bottom, and what shape the filter and pump are in.

Why pools go green in East Texas

Algae is always in the water. A pool stays clear because chlorine kills it faster than it can grow. The pool goes green the moment that stops being true, and here there are five things that tip the balance.

Debris load. The big one on a wooded lot. Every pine needle and oak leaf that sinks is organic material, and organic material eats chlorine. A pool under mature trees can burn through its entire chlorine residual in a day or two during leaf drop. Once chlorine hits zero, algae takes over.

Chlorine demand outrunning the tabs. A couple of tabs in the skimmer is fine in March. In a warm, wet October with leaves on the bottom, it's not close to enough.

Phosphates. Leaves, pollen, fertilizer runoff, and well water all bring phosphates into the pool. Phosphates are algae food — they don't turn a pool green by themselves, but they make every bloom faster and harder to kill.

Low circulation. A short pump timer, a variable-speed pump dialed way down, or a skimmer basket packed with leaves all mean water isn't moving through the filter. Warm water that isn't moving and has plenty to eat is exactly what algae wants.

A neglected filter. A sand or cartridge filter that hasn't been cleaned since summer is barely filtering. Pressure climbs, flow drops, and the pool clouds up even with decent chemistry.

Fall in East Texas isn't cold. We'll get a week in the 50s and then a week in the 80s, and the algae doesn't care what month it is. Meanwhile the pool got skipped because nobody's swimming.

The three shades of green and what each one means

You can tell a lot before you test anything.

Light green or cloudy

You can still see the floor. The water has a tint, the steps feel slick, there's a haze that wasn't there last week. Algae is getting a foothold after a few days of low chlorine. Easiest recovery — often one heavy shock, a brush, and a couple of days of filtering. A homeowner with a test kit can handle this.

Swamp green

Can't see the floor. There's a layer of leaves and muck on the bottom you can feel with the brush but not see. Chlorine reads zero, pH has drifted, filter pressure is already high. This is where most of our green-to-clean calls land. Usually recoverable without draining, but it takes a real plan, multiple rounds of chemistry, and repeated filter cleaning.

Black

Opaque, dark, smells like a pond. Black algae has rooted into the plaster, or a season's worth of debris is decomposing on the floor. Sometimes there are mosquito larvae. This is where we start weighing a drain — and where the finish and equipment have almost certainly taken damage.

Green pool cleanup, step by step

DIY or pro, the recovery follows the same sequence. Skipping steps is how a three-day job becomes a three-week one.

1. Get the debris out first

Net the surface, then scoop the bottom as best you can. Every leaf you remove now is chlorine you don't have to burn later. On a wooded-lot pool this step alone can take an hour or more.

2. Test the water

Real numbers, not a guess: free chlorine, pH, alkalinity, cyanuric acid, and phosphates if you have a kit. Cyanuric acid matters more than people think — if it's very high (common in pools that have run on tabs for years), the chlorine you add won't work efficiently and the pool may need a partial drain first.

3. Correct pH and alkalinity

Get pH into the low 7s before you shock. Chlorine kills algae much faster at lower pH. Shocking a pool sitting at 8.0 wastes product.

4. Shock heavily — and we mean heavily

A normal maintenance shock won't do it. A green pool needs chlorine at several times the normal level, held there for days — on a swamp-green pool, multiple gallons of liquid chlorine or several pounds of cal-hypo, dosed and re-dosed. Dose in the evening so sunlight isn't burning it off. Re-test every morning; if chlorine hit zero overnight, dose again. Add one product at a time, never mix chemicals with each other, and never add acid and chlorine at the same time or in the same spot.

5. Brush everything

Walls, floor, steps, tile line, behind the ladder. Brushing breaks algae loose so chlorine can reach it and the filter can catch it. Once a day during recovery, minimum.

6. Run the filter 24 hours a day

Not on the timer. Not eight hours. Around the clock until the water is clear. This is the step homeowners skip over the electric bill, and it's the step that makes everything else work.

7. Backwash or clean the filter — repeatedly

Dead algae clogs a filter fast. Early on you might backwash a sand or DE filter two or three times a day, or hose a cartridge every few hours. When the gauge reads 8–10 PSI over clean baseline, clean it again.

8. Floc or vacuum to waste

Once the algae is dead, the water often turns a cloudy grey-blue — dead algae in suspension. Either keep filtering and cleaning the filter, or add a flocculant, let it settle overnight, and vacuum straight to waste so it never touches the filter. That drops the water level, so plan to refill.

9. Re-test and repeat

Clear water isn't done water. Bring chlorine back to a normal residual, rebalance pH, alkalinity, and calcium, treat phosphates if high, and confirm chlorine holds overnight. If it doesn't hold, there's still algae in the system.

DIY vs. hiring it out: the honest math

DIY costs for a swamp-green pool typically run $100–$300 in chlorine, pH adjuster, floc, phosphate remover, and test supplies, plus a week of 24-hour pump electricity. Budget an hour or two a day for a week — brushing, dosing, cleaning the filter, testing.

A professional green-to-clean runs $300–$800 as a one-time visit, priced per job, with a blackened pool closer to $1,000+ and two or three visits over 7–10 days — the same numbers in our weekly pool service cost breakdown. You're paying for chemistry that's right the first time, commercial-strength product in the right quantities, and somebody watching filter pressure so the pump doesn't cook.

In our experience, DIY works well on a light green pool and works fine on a swamp-green pool if you're patient and follow the sequence. Where it goes wrong is underdosing — one bag of shock, no change, give up. A green pool needs far more chlorine than most people are comfortable pouring in.

If you're in Crockett or nearby, we do one-time green-to-clean visits on their own — you don't have to be a weekly customer.

When draining and acid washing is the better call

Sometimes the water isn't worth saving. We'll recommend a drain and acid wash when:

The pool is black, has sat for months, and the chemical cost approaches the cost of new water
Cyanuric acid is so high that chlorine is effectively useless
The finish is stained badly enough that a chemical recovery would leave it clear but ugly
There's enough decomposed debris that shoveling beats filtering

A drain and acid wash strips a thin layer off the plaster, removes staining, and gives you a fresh start. It also has real risks, and this is where we'd tell you not to attempt it yourself.

Hydrostatic pressure is the big one. A gunite shell is heavy, but groundwater pushing up from underneath is heavier. In parts of East Texas — low spots, lots near creeks, bottomland with a high water table, especially after a wet fall — draining a pool can let groundwater lift the shell out of the ground. A "popped" pool is a structural failure, not a repair. Before we drain anything, we check the hydrostatic relief valve, look at the site, and consider what the weather's been doing. If we don't like the answer, we don't drain.

Acid wash strips finish. Every acid wash takes plaster with it. On an older, thin finish it can shorten what's left of the surface life or expose gunite. If your pool is near the end of a plaster cycle, that's when we'll talk about whether a renovation and resurface makes more sense than acid-washing something you'll replace in a year or two anyway.

Empty pools in sun crack. Plaster that dries in direct sun for days can craze and crack. Drain, wash, refill — no gaps.

What the algae did to your finish and equipment

Clear water is the visible part. The hidden part is what a month of green water did to everything it touched.

Finish. Algae — especially black algae — roots into plaster and leaves staining, rough patches, and sometimes etching where chemistry drifted acidic. Leaves on the floor leave brown tannin stains that don't brush off. Some of this comes out with treatment; some is permanent until resurfacing.

Filter. A cartridge that's been through a swamp recovery is usually on borrowed time. Sand may need changing. DE grids can tear from repeated backwashing.

Pump. If baskets were clogged and the pump was starving for water, the seal and impeller took the abuse. Noisy or dripping at the shaft afterward usually means the seal is on its way out.

Salt cell and heater. Bad chemistry scales salt cells and corrodes heater exchangers. If pH sat way off for weeks, both are worth a look.

We check all of this during a recovery, and if something needs replacing our equipment repair and installation team handles it — same company, no handoff.

How often should you clean a pool? Weekly, in East Texas.

Nearly every green pool we've recovered has the same backstory: the interval between visits got stretched. Two weeks became three. Three became a month. Then it was November.

The honest answer to "how often should you clean a pool" here is weekly, year-round. Heat, humidity, storms, and debris from pines and oaks move chemistry too fast for a biweekly schedule most of the year. Some lightly used pools with little tree cover can stretch to biweekly in the cooler months, and we'll tell you if yours is one — but a wooded lot in leaf-drop season is not one.

A real weekly pool cleaning visit — skimming, brushing, vacuuming, baskets emptied, full chemistry test and dose, equipment pad checked — keeps a pool from ever reaching step one above. Weekly service runs $150–$300 per month depending on the pool. One green-to-clean visit costs more than a month of service. Two cost more than a season.

Our weekly route runs within roughly a 30-mile radius of Crockett, covering most of Houston County and the closer parts of Trinity, Anderson, Leon, Walker, and Madison counties. Green-to-clean one-time visits are priced per job — call and we'll tell you straight what makes sense for your address.

What to do right now if your pool is green

Turn the pump on and leave it on. Whatever else you do, get water moving.
Net everything you can reach. Surface and bottom.
Figure out which shade of green you have using the guide above.
Decide DIY or pro. Light green: go for it. Swamp green on a wooded lot with a tired filter: usually worth a call.

If you want us to look at it, reach out for a quote — we'll tell you whether it's a chemical recovery or a drain, what it'll run, and how to keep it from happening again.

If you have questions about anything covered here, we're happy to talk pools — call (936) 243-1385 or send a message via the chat in the corner.