Digital Jedi

[DigitalJedi]

Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking and learning from you all for weeks now. My new house has my very first pool ever. I'm a complete newbie, but very eager to do this the right way!
My memories of pools were always red-eyes and smelly clothes, and i'm determined to keep that from happening here.

I had one of the local (and well respected) pool companies open the pool, and it was BLACK (I'll post pics when i can dig them up). From there I added 4 gallons of 10.7% liquid chlorine, based on their recommendation. It wasn't enough to clear the pool in the 4 days since, but it's significantly better, but obviously stopped improving over the past 2 days. It's still cloudy and i can't see the bottom.
FYI, the pump has been running full time since then and I've kept all the filters clean.

While the local pool place seem well recommended, I need to have a good understanding what's going on myself, so here i am!

All I have are test strips right now (k2006 has been ordered)
based on the test strip here is where i am:
FAC: 0
TCL: 1
Alk: 120
Ph: 8ish
TH: 0
CYA: is low, may be 0 but certainly below 30.

So I think i need to address the PH level first (the pool calculator tells me how much to add), but do i then need to address CYA before SLAMing? I think i do, but I'm hoping for some expert advise.

Cheers guys, and thank you!

 

[woodyp]

Yes, fix your Ph first. We like to SLAM at CYA level of 30. Poolmath will tell you how much to add. Find a good bleach sale before your kit arrives. Read up on how to SLAM that rascal. We'll get you well on your way our young Padawan!

 

[JVTrain]

Welcome to TFP!

So glad that you've found us. Can't do much until your test kit arrives. Strips aren't worth the paper their printed on. You're on the right track with what you need to do if your K-2006 confirms any of those results. It's all in the SLAM procedure in Pool School. You'll want to perform all the tests and post the results here once your kit arrives. Testing your fill water source for TA and CH is helpful as well. In a pool that far gone, you may have an ammonia issue to deal with but we can get to that once you post first test results. No need to stock up on anything other than bleach (unscented, normal bleach or a liquid chlorine at a higher %) and a gallon of muriatic acid. You will likely need CYA so having 5 pounds of that would be a good idea too.

 

[Richard320]

A black pool with no CYA makes me worry that you have an ammonia problem. When conditions are right, CYA breaks down into ammonia. Neutralizing ammonia uses bleach at an amazing rate, about as fast as you can pour it in. And to worsen things, if you add CYA before you've killed off whatever microbe does the conversion, you're just feeding it, creating more chlorine demand.

You might need to just keep dumping bleach in until you've passed the ammonia stage - you'll know that when the pool retains FC for more than a few minutes at a time - and then you can proceed with adding some CYA and performing the regular SLAM process. Post back when you have your test kit and we can guide you through the ammonia test. If you don;t have ammonia, you'll only have wasted an hour's time but no bleach, because the bleach you've added has all gone to killing algae.

While you impatiently await the kit, keep brushing, vacuuming, and filtering. About ¾ of a jug of standard household bleach every day should keep things from deteriorating until then.

 

[DigitalJedi]

Wow, thanks for all the great advise... and so quickly!

Here is a current pic of the beast.

It did pass through the black stage about a day after opening, so maybe i'm in the clear for ammonia?
I'll get some Muratic acid today and get the PH under control while i work on cleaning and feeding it bleach to keep it under control.