new to the site and just opening my pool. Help please!

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prozacjoe

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May 10, 2009
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Hey everyone, just want to say the site is great, heard about it from a friend and am hoping it will help make my life easier as a pool owner. I am new to the pool game and hope i can master it at some point cuz i'm confuzled at the moment. well here are some numbers I have, just want verification that i'm on the right track. Thanks in advance to anyone who chimes in, you are greatly appreciated!

the pool is 15,000 gallons and ranges in depth from 3 feet to 6 ft.
numbers are as follows.

fc 1.6
cc 2.6
ph 8.0
ta 30
ch 70
cya 30
numbers derived from leslie test kit

the pool is a green mess. pump is working, filter material used is sand. Although I have had to backflush a couple of times because of high pressure spikes. I looked at the pool calc and it says my shock value should be at 10 for fc. cya is on the low side of 30 to 50. ch, ta need to rise pretty significantly, and ph needs to drop a bit. its the first day of opening and to get to 10 seems to require alot of clorox. like 7 96 ounce bottles. sound right? after putting some chlorox in about 3 so far to get my numbers so far, im just wondering if i'm on the right track. algae is horrible. can i expect alot of backflushing? do I focus on all my numbers or are there some i should concentrate more on? Pump should be on skimmer, main drain, or combo of both? any thing else i should do? any advice will be greatly appreciated. I hope I'm on the right track
 
prozacjoe said:
Hey everyone, just want to say the site is great, heard about it from a friend and am hoping it will help make my life easier as a pool owner. I am new to the pool game and hope i can master it at some point cuz i'm confuzled at the moment. well here are some numbers I have, just want verification that i'm on the right track. Thanks in advance to anyone who chimes in, you are greatly appreciated!

the pool is 15,000 gallons and ranges in depth from 3 feet to 6 ft.
numbers are as follows.

fc 1.6
cc 2.6
ph 8.0
ta 30
ch 70
cya 30
numbers derived from leslie test kit

the pool is a green mess. pump is working, filter material used is sand. Although I have had to backflush a couple of times because of high pressure spikes. I looked at the pool calc and it says my shock value should be at 10 for fc. cya is on the low side of 30 to 50. ch, ta need to rise pretty significantly, and ph needs to drop a bit. its the first day of opening and to get to 10 seems to require alot of clorox. like 7 96 ounce bottles. sound right? after putting some chlorox in about 3 so far to get my numbers so far, im just wondering if i'm on the right track. algae is horrible. can i expect alot of backflushing? do I focus on all my numbers or are there some i should concentrate more on? Pump should be on skimmer, main drain, or combo of both? any thing else i should do? any advice will be greatly appreciated. I hope I'm on the right track
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You don't mention what kind of pool surface you have....is it a vinyl liner or plaster, or FG? This will determine if you need more calcium - and if you do it can wait until your water is clear.

The leslie kit you mention - does it have the FAS-DPD test - this is test that uses powder, to test for FC?

You can put your equipment specs in your signature - go to User Control Panel, then Profile, then Edit Signature. Use mine as an example of the info we need. This way you don't have to repeat it when you post.

You are on the right track - defeating algae takes ALOT of chlorine, and probably more than 7 small jugs- so I suggest get the big jugs or look for a source of the stronger stuff - 10-12.5% - which means less jugs to haul around. :wink:

Before you add more bleach, get some Muratic Acid from the hardware store and lower your PH to 7.2. Then continue with the shocking process.

Yes, you can expect a lot of backwashing of your filter, which means pretty soon your CYA level will drop from the water replacement, so you'll end up needing to buy some CYA to boost your level back into range after it drops. I would have the filtering set to 50/50 for the best circulation. Remember to brush frequently!

Read about Defeating Algae and How to Shock your Pool, these 2 articles for starters - they are in Pool School. Then if you still have any questions not answered by the articles, post them here.

Hope this helps. :goodjob:
 
Welcome to TFP!

Don't start shocking the pool until you are ready to add massive amounts of chlorine over a couple of hours. Adding three bottles and then waiting a while just gives the algae a small hiccup and the then it grows back.

I would start by lowering your PH to around 7.2 and then raising your TA level to at least 70.

Then get everything setup to attack the algae all at once. There is a very through discussion of fighting algae in Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparking Oasis.

With CYA at 30, the FC shock level is 12 to 13.
 
update, lowered ph to 7.2, total alkalinity up to 80, cya has held at 30, fc is up to 14, and cc is 2.4. Green is turning to grey but I seem to have foam appearing on the surface, light across most of pool, but heavy build up in the skimmer. Is this normal, am I seeing the additives in the clorox? Could it be because my returns are causing to much aeration of sorts, i adjusted them so no surface water breaking from them now. I don't know, any ideas. have I done something wrong, too much bleach. or is my ocd kicking in and need to take a prozac and show some POP? :hammer:
 
Usually when I've seen the foam, it's because there is some residual 'linear quat' algaecide in the water, no big deal, it clears in a day or two :)

Pop a can of POP and keep your cl level up! (that cc level is WAY high!! mayhaps you should be adding more bleach on a more regular basis 8) )

(Prozac would be OK, but I prefer Valium :lol: )

Right now it's basically down to: maintain cl and patience, the pool WILL clear. Remember to clean the filter as it clogs with the dead algae and brushing the walls and floor also helps speed up the process :cheers:
 
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