Not yet open and green and brown algae

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M

maggs

0
May 2, 2016
41
Freehold
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gunite pool 22x44 about 40k gallons SWCG.
took cover off to change lights and pool was green and brown and it was embedded into plaster. Never had it open this bad. Pool guy said he'd drain it to scrub it and basically start over.

Husband decided to drain most of the water and spray and scrub pool down with bleach. He shocked it then with power powder plus. Current CL levels are off the charts, well over 10. PH is 7.2. Water is basically just a few inches over shallow end, hard to get a correct reading... I do have the advanced test kit.

Problem is pool isn't yet open. No filter can run yet as water is so low. Do we fill and hope to clean bottom or what. Some of stains were in pool last year after we paid for a bad acid wash..... overall brownish/orange tinge though is upsetting.

After initial shocking and scrubbing for a few days and removing debris, now the water isn't green nor brown but a cloudy blue color on deep end. Looks clear on shallow end. the sides and bottom though are discolored and there is streaking on bottom. Pictures of pool gunite look whiter than pool actually is, lots of light brown/orange tinge.


Trying to decide do we fill it and start it up or drain it some more and try to acid wash it ourselves?

What is cheapest solutions?

Next to no hardness levels, salt levels deminimis. I didn't test for CYA.

Thanks so much for your help!!
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Lets start with the basics.........you say "I do have the advanced test kit." I am guessing you mean TF-100 or Taylor K2006 BUT want to make sure!


Next can you please put your pool info in your siggy-setting-upper right, edit signature-middle left. Put in pool kind, size, filter size and kind, pump info, etc. and what test kit you have.

Then put your state by your name please.

All of this will help us see your info at a glance.

For right now I would start filling the pool back up. You do not want the plaster exposed to the sun and heat any more than it has to be.

Once it is filled turn your pump on and mix it up good and run a full set of tests and we will go from there.

:hugs: we got ya!

Kim:cat:
 
Welcome to TFP :) +1 on filling and posting up some numbers, check out some of the links in my signature, we will get you going
 
yes k2006 Taylor test kit. I will work on my signature, I need to look up the equipment.
Those stains won't come clean at all... straight bleach on it, tried vitamin c.
I think guy who did acid wash caused some of them.
We did use sequestering agent and culator packets last year and no impact to some of them either.
It was a lot worse on open... algae was like seaweed, we bleached and scrubbed a lot.
So I will add water and not worry about the stains?
Thanks.
 
Due to other health issues sadly with a sick child the pool was finally openned up yesterday. Issue is we are leaving for a week and nobody is going to take care of it now. I want to know what I can do so last minute.... pool company just forgot to open it when they were supposed to, they threw in shock so my levels:
TC=12
FC = 12

My alkalinity was only 40 so I threw about 20 pounds of arm and hammer in about 4 hours ago.
pool is murky light green color. I can see to about 6 feet down.

ph 7.2

got no cya reading.
the calcium hardness only turned light pink so levels are basically extremely low.

What should I do?

I threw 28 40lb bags of salt in the past few days. So even my salt levels are low as it should be at 3500.
 
@kimkats just got back from vacation. Pool was clear but stains on surface still. I oversalted the pool so our salt level is at 4k....
the salt system wasn't working so I had to shock it again.
At the moment:
FAC= 7.5
ph 8
TA 100
CYA 0
Calcium 100

What should I do?
 
I am SO sorry! I have NO idea how I missed this :(

Here we go! Here are the basics of TFP pool care:

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry


Now look at the recommend levels chart..........Compare to your current test results....what do you see? I see high PH, high TA, LOW CYA, and low CH.

Now look at the pool math link. Have you played with this at all? I would work on each level one at a time starting with CYA. Next would be PH, then CH. TA will be the last thing of all once you have every thing else taken care of.

Let me know how this works out for you and feel free to PM to make sure is your answers!

Kim :cat:
 

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thanks. Is there a normal order that you do these in and how quickly you can do each. I know Leslie's used to make us wait a day or 2 sometimes between different chemicals.

Should I get salt level down first? I got it down to 3800 now, just doing 2" of water at a time...

Last question. TA we were told by pool manufacturer to maintain higher closer to 100. My SWCG won't maintain a salt level over 2 and that's at 100% running 12 hours a day so only way I can stick with yours is to add bleach on top of salt system. I've never tried your methods and am willing, I just want to confirm...

I appreciate all your help.
 
2 DAYS??? wow!

PH and FC should be done about 15 mins apart, with the pump running and brushing to make sure they are mixed in.

How old is your pool? Is it still under warranty? Our levels are science based as well as daily use on THOUSANDS of pools so we know our levels work BUT they are just SUGGESTIONS. Some pools like higher levels, some like lower levels. You will have to find what works for YOUR pool. We can help you find your pool's happy spot over time and practice.

I don't know about SWG or salt levels I am sorry to say. That is my weak area. I DO know that I have heard several times that so long as the SWG is happy as in no errors or codes you are good with the levels.

Very interesting about your SWG not putting out more than 2%-hummmm I wonder why? Have you tried pulling water right in front of the return just to see if it is producing more than that?

I will put a call out to our SWG/salt people.

Kim:cat:
 
If your CYA is 0, you're not going to hold chlorine at all. Can you please add a full set of test results and look at the ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry in Pool School.
 
Pool is 4 years old. When we first got it, the chlorine levels were .5- 1 using swcg and the manufacturer said it was normal and fine, we ran it 15 hours at 100%.... pool was crystal clear, then again I'm not very happy with the manufacturer. Since I'm taking out a lot of water and adding new water trying to get salt levels in line (sadly I rushed when I was leaving and we used back of bags that suggested 20 bags of salt which sounds like it was a few too many, I'm thinking we are not a 42k gallon pool as manufacturer claimed, more like 35k and I expected that in past they were overclaiming to us).

that's why I'm not doing much with chemical levels as the salt is way too high. So it doesn't matter what levels get adjusted first then? I read all the links and printed them out. I didn't see anything about what order you adjust chemicals or if any shouldn't go in at same time.

Can I put muriatic acid, CYA and hardness in all at same time if needed? If I get to 3500 salt level today, I will test and put a whole new set of readings. CYA I have a gallon of liquid and the rest I'll put into socks into 3 skimmer baskets as I recall that it takes forever to evaporate. I also recall that I need to backwash prior to CYA as you can't backwash for days (another issue with this pool is we only have the option to backwash, there is no trivalve).

Seems I won't have a pool for Memorial Day weekend : (
 
Lets do this one at a time:

-Get your salt where you want it.

-Put CYA in shooting for only about 40. The only way to take it out is drain so we do not want to over shoot. For the powder CYA you can squeeze the socks to get the CYA into the pool faster OR you can just let them hand in front of the returns. Once you add the CYA use the level you are shooting for in Pool Math. You can be working on CYA while you are working on the others.

-Next work on your PH. Make sure the pump is running while you add MA and brush the pool to make sure it is mixed in. After about 15 mins you can move on to the next thing to be worked on.

-Next work on your CH. The link I gave you says you can spread it across the top of the water in the deep end. Again make sure the pump is running and brush the pool to help mix it in.

Backwashing-if you put the CYA in socks or use the liquid gold CYA you can back wash as needed. It is only if you dump it in the filter (NOT a good idea for many reasons) that you cannot backwash. Yes you will lose some when you back wash but you do what you need to do to keep your filter working.

What does your water look like now?

Kim:cat:
 
If you're in a hurry, you can use the expensive, liquid cya...use Pool Math to get your cya to 80 if you want swg alone to be adequate...that will help. With the rest you have, if you squeeze the sock frequently it will dissolve faster...we've been testing and its actually pretty quick.

But 2 ppm production s still lower than TFP recommended levels of 3-5 ppm for swg, so in your shoes I'd boost run time and add a bit of bleach/liquid chlorine after high use to help the swg out.

Next time you need a new cell, upgrade if you can because over sizing cell helps a lot...eg for my 23k gallon pool I'm using a 40,000 gal t-15 cell.
 
pool is clear but the plaster is still all grey stained splotchy streaky... I have culator packs in it so it's not metals, I also tried vitamin c tablets and it didn't do a thing. the guy who cleaned it with muriatic acid, basically didn't do a great job on deep end..... when I scrubbed shallow area with muriatic acid, came right out but it's all deep end streaked.

I already have the largest swg cell they had supposedly.
 
Hayward makes an SWG rated for 40k gallons and Pentair makes one for 40k and one for 60k. You could upgrade to one of those. Or you can keep what you have and supplement the FC level with bleach or liquid chlorine to maintain target level FC for your CYA, Chlorine CYA Chart
 
Let's see how well you are able to maintain FC once you get your CYA where is needs to be (70). CYA protects your FC from being oxidized too quickly.

I fear that your SWG is way undersized for the size of your pool. We recommend that your SWG 1.5 to 3 times bigger than the size of your pool.

You really have a few options based on the size of your pool, Pentair IC60, CircuPool or a two cells from a another brand.
 
Hi again...notwithstanding the other issues, re this question:
pool is clear but the plaster is still all grey stained splotchy streaky... I have culator packs in it so it's not metals, I also tried vitamin c tablets and it didn't do a thing. the guy who cleaned it with muriatic acid, basically didn't do a great job on deep end..... when I scrubbed shallow area with muriatic acid, came right out but it's all deep end streaked.
Click to expand...

Using a culator in my opinion does not necessarily equal not having metals...on the contrary it suggests the presence of metals ;) and IME culator will not eradicate same. However, if metals are in fact present, maintenance of a sequestrant is important, such as Jacks Purple, which is formulated for Swg use.

If MA works (eg. whether copper or scale or both) and you want to tackle the deep end yourself, we've had a recent poster who had success with one of these: Amazon.com: Purity Pool UAW Underwater Acid Wash Set: Patio, Lawn Garden

Hope that helps!
 

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