New Pool owner needing advice

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Stag77

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Jul 14, 2015
12
West islip, NY
Quick background on my pool.

My pool before I purchased home was covered during the winter of 2012/2013 with a terrible pool cover surrounded by trees. Pool was opened (just for inspection in April of 2013 and cover thrown out) and left unattended while we closed on house which did not complete until late August of 2013. No time to start pool before winter, so purchased new pool cover and covered pool as is. Now summer of 2014 comes and I begin my battle (as a first time pool owner). Many hours shocking, back-washing, cleaning filter, adding DE, and skimming the million leafs from overhead trees. Just had it almost clear and left for a wedding in Hawaii for 10 days, came back to a green pool from leafs. Almost get it back again and old pump goes, takes a couple of weeks to buy a new variable speed and getting connected and green again. Lose another pump, but there are points last summer that it was clear even with all the headaches.

Open pool this year and looks much better than last. I have all the trees taken down in the spring, but still in two months can't get pool clear. I've added a ton of chlorine (before I found this forum), I guess mostly Dichlor (Leslie brand, blue seal, chlorox - not bleach) and green out from Leslie's. Found this site, tested my chlorine and PH (only tester I have at the moment) both non existent. So got borax and brought my PH up (7.8) took my water to local store to get tested (wanted to see CYA so I can check the CYA/Chlorine chart). They say numbers look good but chlorine (0.9), but I see that my CYA is 162 and ask if that is a problem (they don't think so)

1st question: CYA is extremely too high correct...............I need to drain at least half my pool?
2nd question: This old DE filter of mine has me concerned (can't buy a new filter now), but it says 8 scoops on the side. Everything I read says one scoop/10 Sqft on the internet. This is 35 SqFt so I think 3.5 scoops should be enough?

Thanks in advance
 
Step 1 before answering any questions is to get a good test kit for home testing. It's more accurate than the pool store. You will not get advice here without a recommended test kit: Pool School - Test Kits Compared The TF-100 from tftestkits.net is the best value but the Taylor K-2006 is also serviceable.

Only when you get your test kit will you know what your actual CYA level is or your actual FC (free chlorine) level is. Pool stores testing is worth exactly what you pay for it. Nothing. It's just a way to get in you in the door and sell you what you probably don't need.

Get a test kit ordered and until it arrives, add up to a gallon of bleach per day and keep it circulating and read some articles in Pool School, starting with ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry.

Welcome to TFP! :wave:
 
Amazon kits might be fine but do yourself a favor, get the best kit available, at the best price with the BEST customer service you can get and get the TF-100 from tftestkits.net.

You will need lots of chlorine to bring the pool up to shock levels and based on what you find out about CYA, you might be best served draining the pool to bring down the CYA. But that CYA number from the pool store is about as good as a guess.

Perhaps someone with more experience with DE filters will drop in on that question.
 
Do you have a model number for your filter? We can go from there.

The 10 gals of bleach will be just a START with your CYA high like that. It would not be worth it. If you really want to you can drain your pool by 25% and see where that gets you. BUT the pool store testing of CYA is the worst we have seen in most places.

Where is West islip? My google search says NY. If that is correct can you please add that? THANKS!

Kim
 
I cannot find any info in the three searches I did :( oh how much DE to add.

I think you should start a new thread just for this questions so the DE owner/users can see it and help you out.

BUT saying that.............my gut says.........it says 8 cups on the side for a reason???

Kim
 
So here it is, tested CYA and it is 80/90.....probably closer to 90. So high but not high enough to drain? So by my calculation I need about 6 gallons of bleach (12.5%). About my filter I actually use the old coffee can.....so we think I should use 8 scoops?
 

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So CYA was 80, and I added 6 gallons of bleach (12.5%) and 8 Scoops of my DE on Saturday evening, Sunday morning my pool went from gross green to a cloudy blue/turquoise. Sunday and Monday I had no time to test pool, but filter has been running 24/7 and still no change to clear. Should I assume that the algae is dead and now I can aim for target FC of 9 or do I need to SLAMM again? I should be able to test tonight, but want to make sure I have enough bleach on hand if I need to hit it hard again? Thanks
 
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