New to pool care, need some help

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NEpoolgirl

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Jul 8, 2015
11
Plattsmouth/Nebraska
Hello, all! Hubby and I inherited pool with new house back in October. Pool was already winterized by previous owner at walk-through, was sparkling clear when we put in offer. By leftover chemicals, he was using Sustain system.

Took cover off in middle of June (Hubby repairing deck and didn't want to get any more debris in the pool cover). Cleaned major debris out of cover, tried pumping some of the yucky water out, got most out. Unfortunately, I lost my side of cover, so yucky stuff now in water which looked to be crystal clear below cover as we removed it. Went to pool store; they gave me algaecide, cal hypo shock and more Sustain system (which as far as I can tell is mostly cal hypo). First bottle of algaecide got all of green out, did one bag of "shock" at night, next day added the stated amount of 3" chlorinating tabs and "Shield Energizer" tabs. Using test strips at the time. Results were pool blue, but cloudy, wasn't writing down test strip results (know better know). Out of town for 5 days, came back to slightly greenish, cloudy pool. So did another bottle of algaecide (yes, both were copper based), shocked again; pool blue, but only about top foot of water clear. Have been vacuuming and brushing every other day. Ran pump on Recirculate, not through filter, during "shock".

Decided to get better test kit, but hadn't found this forum yet, so have Taylor K-1005. "Shocked" pool with 2# of cal hypo shock on Monday (again, hadn't found forum yet; otherwise, would have known better to use the cal hypo).
Filter running 24/7 since 7/2, backwashed 7/3 and 7/8.


Numbers Tuesday morning were:

FC 5+ (kit only goes to 5)
TC 5+ (darker than FC color)
CC Can't tell from test, but could smell the chloramines
pH 7.8
TA 100
CH 650
CYA 40

After reading tons on this forum Tuesday afternoon and yesterday, I'm convinced to go with the liquid chlorine route. Also ordered FAS/DPD kit yesterday.
This morning water is cloudy, clear for about the first foot. This morning's numbers:

FC 2.5
TC 4
CC 1.5
pH 7.5
TA 130
CH 600
CYA 35

Skimmer still has partial chlorine (cal hypo) tab in it.

Sorry for the long post, but thought I should include the history of what's been done so far. I know I probably need to replace like 50% of water to get the CH down, but not sure best way to go about that yet. Will SLAM pool after I can test with the FAS/DPD kit (and get CH down first?)
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated! Maybe I can get this thing clear by the end of summer! ;)
 
I would do a 60% drain and refill to bring CH to 340ppm and work on getting TA down to 70-80ppm after the SLAM is done to help prevent future scaling. I'd do the refill before the SLAM because then you won't be so worried about not having proper chlorine levels in your crystal clear water while you're refilling.
 
I see no reason to rush to replace water. Your CYA level is low enough to successfully SLAM, and 600 CH isn't so bad. My pool hasn't been below that for a couple years. You need to stop using powders and pucks until things get sorted out.

During a SLAM, you'll be backwashing a fair amount. That will reduce the CH level some.

If your pool is 42" deep, replacing 2" of water when backwashing will lower CH to 580. (40*600 +2*160)/42 A couple backwashes will take it down even lower.

If you just keep the pH down in the lower half of the acceptable range and get the TA down to 70 or so, that high CH won't bother anything. You'll be draining down to winterize it in a couple months anyway, just get the green killed off so you can enjoy the pool while you can.
 
Thanks, gentlemen, for the help and input! Appreciated!

Since draining a large amount of water where I live doesn't appear to be a good option, I was figuring I'd do a couple smaller drains.

Water is staying blue but cloudy. CC is down to around 1 with the Taylor kit , so far pH staying stable at 7.5, CH came down to 550 for whatever reason. Hoping the FAS-DPD kit shows up in the mail today so I can get ready to SLAM. TA and CYA are dropping so I will also get those and pH set up to SLAM. Need to go stock up on bleach today, too, and order some more reagents. Will post a pic of sparkling clear water as soon as it gets there!
 
Oops.
CH 4
CYA <30, guessing around 25 (top of tube plus a little rounded test solution at top)

Been shocking to FC 12-13 with the usual ups and downs. Brushing every day, gave filter a good backwash and vacuumed little bit of dirt out early evening on Monday. Pool was finally clear at that time, yay!!! This afternoon's numbers after being going for five hours were:

FC 7
TC 7
CC 0 (double yay!!)

So keeping to shock level and seeing if I can pass the OCLT tonite.
Question about pool steps: They've been out of the pool since starting this process (totally forgot about them), but were in the pool for a few days about three weeks ago (before I found this forum) so I'm guessing they have some algae floating around inside them. They're the Confer Steps for an above-gound pool with a deck, so they have the steps that fill with water. We're not sure if they have any sand in the posts. Haven't found quite the same issue in any of the posts here, so actual question is:
Is there a way to clean them out before I put them back in the pool? Or should I just put them in, see what it does to the chlorine numbers and continue to SLAM if needed?

BTW, this forum is awesome! Soooo much information and helpful people! Just want to say thank you!

- - - Updated - - -

And that was CH of 470. Sorry about my typing skills.
 

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The steps are not in the pool now and haven't been since I started SLAMing the pool. They've been out of the pool since July 1st. Didn't think to put them back in before I started the SLAM so I wouldn't be possibly introducing algae back into the pool now when I put them back in.

I suppose I can just hose them off and scrub off whatever dirt is on the outside of them, put them back into the pool and hope there isn't any lingering algae in them, continuing with my SLAM and see what happens. If I start losing FC quickly again,
I guess that means there was algae inside the steps and I will have to continue the SLAMing process.
 
Ok, checking back in after 9 days of SLAMing (including two days over the weekend I let FC down far enough to swim for an hour). Numbers last nite right after sunset:

FC 9.5
CC 0.5

This morning before sun hit pool:

FC 9
CC 0.5

Yesterday afternoon water had a nice sparkle to it and still does this morning!
So I think it's time for the happy dance, correct? :D

Added 6 oz of stabilizer in a sock in the skimmer last nite to bring CYA up a little.
Will be on vacation for first week of August and am thinking of using puck(s) that week to keep pool in check, so used less than PoolMath suggested.
Need to see if blue bubble pool cover previous owners left us is still good to use for that week.

Atrached a photo (I think) of sparkly clear water from this morning,

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and pH is at 7.6, TA at 120, and CH down to 420.
 

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