Algae in water used to fill pool! Help!

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Notsoeasysetpoolmama

0
Jul 5, 2015
4
Okanogan, Wa
Good evening! I am new to the pool family and I need some help. We just got a 12' x 36" easy set intex pool. I live in rural Eastern, Wa where water restrictions are in place. Yesterday we had no choice but to fill our pool up with our fire ditch water (fresh water we have a pump hooked up to & filter as well). Even though there was a filter, it appears some algae, I am assuming, or some sediment still made it into the pool. It's soft & breaks up when the water moves around so Its not sand.
I did an initial test strip once filled my pH:7.8 FC:0 TA:40 CYA:30.
Because I am new to this, have kids & the water was green, I decided to shock the pool with 3oz of bioguards oxysheen.
Appx 1 hour later (8pm) I retested pool. pH:7.2 FC:0 TA:40 CYA: 30.
I understand before adding any chemicals you are supposed to get your TA balanced first, as well as, once you add chlorine and try to adjust the pH it can take 5 days to settle then retest (pool dealer said that), but I was impatient and did not want my kids swimming in green water. I used the pool math calculater and based on pools manual saying it has appx 1800 gallons ( at 80%?) I needed to add 11oz of 6% bleach. This made sense because the oxysheen is chlorine free. Done. Also threw in the kings technology brand flipping frog, covered the pool & called it a night. This morning, water look less green, still had mysterious sediment on the bottom however.
Dip tested pH:7.2 FC:1 TA:40 CYA:0.
Now I am thoroughly confused since the flipping frog has stabilizer in it, how & what is the algae or sediment & how do I get rid of it? What should I do chemical wise as well? I apologize for the long post but I have no pool store anywhere near me to take a water sample to & I don't want to ruin the pool. I especially don't want to harm myself or family by using wrong chemical amounts! Thank you for any advice and help. It is beyond appreciated!
 
Here is a picture I found online. This is essentially what the water looks like in color, except my pool additionally has sediment or algae on the bottom. This water is not well water so I am skeptical to believe it's a mineral issue. Especially since it did not get worse once chemicals were added. Please help!!IMG_0462aa.jpg
 
If you believe the test strips, your pH is okay and the TA is marginal, but since the pool is vinyl, you don't need to worry about etching plaster, so ignore it for now. No matter how much bleach you add, it won't last long without some stabilizer. How many pucks have you added so far? Down at the bottom of poolmath, Effects of Adding Chemicals will tell you how much each 8 oz Trichlor puck will add to your pool, assuming you've entered the volume up above. You need to get CYA up to around 30 quickly, either with the pucks or by adding straight CYA. Then get some bleach in there to kill any algae that may have been pumped in.

The sediment and discoloration will need to be vacuumed up and filtered out. Once you have some FC hanging around and the worst of the stuff is off the floor, then worry about fine tuning pH and TA.

I don't have high hopes if all you have is test strips. I know Taylor kits are overkill for your pool, but there are other drop kits available. Anything is an improvement over the strips.
 
Hi, and welcome to TFP!
well, you have came to the right place for help. Thats for sure.

One thing that you are just going to have to have, is a good test kit. The strips are not reliable at all, and I mean this when I say it, neither are pool store testing.
Their advice is just about as worthless too. They will put you in the poor house and your pool will still not be in good shape.

Please do yourself a favor, and order a TF100 test kit. It will be the best investment in your pool that you could possibly make. Test kits in stores do not include the required FAs-DPD chlorine test, which you are going to need.
they are available at TFTestkits.net and on the west coast, Pool Supplies, Spa Supplies and Parts

Now, with that said.
you are going to need to add bleach as a chlorine source. (by the way, where it says 6% in pool math, you can click that arrow and select different strength). Most bleach these days is concentrated at 8.25

After you get your test kit, and can test properly for CYA, you are going to need some. CYA is also known as Stabilizer and Conditioner.
Walmart usually has best prices on it.
Im worried about that frog adding some CYA (either that or your test strips are wrong), so I would not recomending adding any until you can test for it properly.

the oxysheen stuff you added breaks down chlormaines and other stuff as noted on thier product page. What it does not do, is kill pathogens, germs, and bacteria and it does absolutely nothing in keeping algae away. I recommend not to use any more of it.

My recommendation, is as mentioned before, get that test kit on order.
Next, is considering your pool is 1800 gallons, Use pool math, select the correct % of bleach you are using, and use 2 ppm as your Target for FC.
Add enough bleach to get that 2 ppm. Do this every day until your test kit arrives, and then we can get you fixed up.

As for sediment on the bottom, use a pool vacuum to vacuum it up.
If you dont have one, then hopefully someone who knows about above ground pool vacs will come along and help you out. I really dont know anything about them personally

I hope this helps for now
 
The flippin frog's mineral cartridge adds calcium which can cause scaling when too high, and silver chloride which can cause black staining. The chlorine cartridge is Trichlor which does add FC and CYA.

The instructions say to "Shock the pool as needed to maintain water clarity". Funny how they anticipate you needing to add additional chlorine to your pool to keep it clear.

I recommend selling the frog on Craigslist or a FB buy/sell group, you don't need it anymore.
 
DanielP said:
The flippin frog's mineral cartridge adds calcium which can cause scaling when too high, and silver chloride which can cause black staining. The chlorine cartridge is Trichlor which does add FC and CYA.
Click to expand...

Not calcium, copper. The mineral pac adds copper and silver, which are algaecidal but copper can cause staining on the liner and green hair on blondes. On top of that the bac pacs contain about $7 worth of trichlor, so they are way over priced. I am very much not a fan of the Frog system, the lies and scare tactics on their website make my blood boil. You made the right choice getting one of the recommended test kits, you should also consider either removing the frog or at least pulling the mineral and bac pacs from it.

It is funny, the pool had one when I bought my house. Cost me $100 for the new mineral pac every year when I opened the pool. Now that I use the TFPC methods to manage my pool I spend less than that over the first 2 months I have the pool open. Money talks, the fact that my pool water looks better, smells better, and feels better is just a bonus ;)
 
Notsoeasysetpoolmama said:
Thank you both for the info on the frog. I will go & take that out tonight. Would you recommend replacing it with chlorine tabs once the pool gets balanced out?
Click to expand...

ONLY if you need the extra CYA(stabilizer) that comes with those tabs. :(

Most of us here don't, or use them only at times such as a vacation understanding that they'll add that CYA. Some folks routinely keep their CYA a bit low just so they can use them when leaving town.

Got any plain old household bleach?
 

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Hi from Texas! I just wanted to recommended this handy pool vacuum Aqua Ez! BMy husband bought it from Lowe's and I love it! It was about 20.00. I put a knee high before the leaf bag to hold in the fine items. Very easy to use and it does a great job!
4e5ac1b34b7ebd809b3539bf47a85c3d.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
DanielP said:
The MSDS for the mineral cartridge listed silver chloride and calcium carbonate. Does silver chloride contain copper?
Click to expand...
Looks like you are right. Not sure if they have changed things or if I have been quoting that wrong the whole time but I will keep it in mind. Still the right thing to remove the system though. Silver has some benefits but can still cause staining. Everything I said above, except for the copper, are still good reasons to remove it. You won't regret that move one bit!

From my HTC One via Tapatalk
 
Notsoeasysetpoolmama said:
Thank you both for the info on the frog. I will go & take that out tonight. Would you recommend replacing it with chlorine tabs once the pool gets balanced out?
Click to expand...

TFPC teaches not to add anything to your pool without knowing what it will do first. Use Pool Math estimates to determine what an 8 oz Trichlor puck will add to your pool before using it and verify the changes will not put your other balances out of range.
 
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