Swamp pool after Vacation

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leahdgm

leahdgm

0
Jul 31, 2015
12
Baltimore, Maryland
To start I have a 22×52 round above ground pool. New this year.
I had the pool perfect after having dealt with iron in my water when I filled the pool. I left for 10 days, some of those the hottest so far this summer, and came home to what looked like a Louisiana Bayou.
First I tested it. All the results were perfect except obviously with 0 fc. I cleaned the filter and turned it on, then added 2 gallons of bleach. After about 6 hours, I went out to check the pool. The color has lightened and I can see the first two ladder steps (with green film). I tested the water and now have ph 8.4, ta 40, and the fc is still 0. According to Pool School Calculator, to get to a 10 fc I needed 208 ounces of bleach, the two gallons I added was a little more than that. I used Dollar General brand plain concentrated bleach.
My question is two parts.
1. Should I fix the ph and ta before adding more bleach, Or did the bleach temporarily change those levels?
2. How much more bleach should I put in?
The kids were devastated to see their oasis looking like this. I knew it would be funky but not like this. Please help!

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pH reading is off if the FC is over 10, and adding bleach will raise pH temporarily. But if your pH reading was the same reading where the FC was 0, then it's accurate, and you could address that before loading it with bleach. 6 hours of sun and a pool of algae, then yes the FC could go to 0. Especially if your CYA is low. What is your CYA? what test kit are you using?
 
30-50 is not accurate enough to know what your FC should be. If you are looking to kill the algae with a sustained shock (SLAM), your FC either needs to be at 12 or 20. That's a big difference. And I suspect that your strips won't test that high of a FC level either.

A one time dump of bleach won't do it. You need to raise the FC level to shock levels and keep them there by testing and adding bleach multiple times a day. See the links in Pool School at the top of the forum.
 
Welcome to TFP!

The first step is to get one of the Recommended Test Kits. I use the TF100 from TFTestkits.net and it is the best value for number of tests.

When you get it give us some test results and get ready to SLAM Your Pool.

Here are some of my fave Pool School articles to check out while you wait for your test kit.
TFPC for Beginners
ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry

Here are the Recommended Levels for your pool.
Here are the Recommended Pool Chemicals and how to add them.
Use PoolMath to figure out how much to add.
 
Ok... Im back with a new test kit. The pool is now looking a little bluer but dark and cloudy. Im sure its because now it needs to be vacuumed and scrubbed. But i want to make sure I'm on the right track with this. The new test kit results are...
Fc 3 (bleach yesterday afternoon)
Ph 7.5
Ta 120
Th 170
Cya 35
I just added another half gallon of bleach trying to get the fc higher. Since the ph and ta aren't too extreme anymore I figured that was ok. Any tips on my next steps?

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Yep, not too bad at all. Numbers are definitely in line for a SLAM. Bluer is good, cloudy not so much. :)

TA is a little high and might cause your PH to rise. If PH does rise to 7.8 just add MA to lower it from 7.8 to 7.2 and keep an eye on it. Doing this repeatedly will slowly lower your TA until your PH and TA reach equilibrium and your PH remains stable.

It is time to start your Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain. Does your new and improved test kit have an FAS/DPD chlorine test? 10ml water, add powder to turn pink and then add drops until it turns clear and multiply the number of drops times 0.5 to get your FC number?

Also note that the PH test is not valid when FC is above 10, so no need to test during a SLAM.

Please add your pool info to your signature as shown here, Pool School - Getting Started
 
Ok... I added the other half gallon of bleach yesterday to bring the fc up to 12. This morning...
Fc 11
Ph 7.2
Ta 110
Th 200
Cya 30
How much bleach should I add if fc is only one ppm too low? I know I can't really add too much, But I would like to keep everything as close to perfect as possible. Also I read adding baking soda can sometimes clear the water if ph or ta aren't too high, so I added 2 cups. It did lighten the water and I can see better the green on the bottom which I scrubbed. The tests were the exact same after I added it so I guess it was ok. When can I add more? Or should I not be doing that?
 

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Is this looking normal? All levels are good. The exact same as last post. I have kept adding bleach to maintain fc of at least 12. At this moment it is 15 after adding bleach this morning before thunderstorm. Just want to be sure I am still doing it right. Or is there something else I could or should be doing? The kids are going insane waiting to swim.
 
Have you tried linking your photos from Photobucket? That's what many of us do here on TFP. Upload your pics to Photobucket (free), then copy & paste the IMG code for that pic from Photobucket to your TFP post. Works great.

Still cloudy? Continue with the SLAM. Algae will begin to change color and even have a whitish appearance before it gets filtered. Stay with it and maybe soon you'll be close to doing an overnight chlorine loss test.
 
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