Probably made a bad situation worse. Opened pool with tough to sweep gray to black difficult to sweep coating on vinyl liner. Swept it over days. Shocked pool with 6 bags pool shock. May 1-24th weather was cool and rainy. Pool tests perfect. Water looked perfect. May 25th sun came out heater up to 80. Pool looked a little cloudy. Shocked three bags Tues night by Thursday no chlorine. Also noticed white slimy stuff around skimmer inlet and return rings. Cleaned those away, scooped with a net. Now know that was white mold. Read some posts on this forum and shocked pool with 12 bags, removed light from niche to get the white mold out of there. The pool went instantly milky white. Here is where I made bad horrible. We had issues one other year and did a "break point" shock of 19 bags which had been successful one other time, so I did it again. Water really milk white now. Prior to all of this Ph 7.1 Alk 100, CC 0.1 TC 0.1 . CYA 40. After two days we drained 1/2 of the water and refilled. Although not as milky remains white, cannot see bottom. Water is only one year old, liner 1 year old, mesh cover in the winter. One other side note. The other time we had issues we found mallard ducks 2 sitting on our winter plastic cover. We have a mating pair of mallards again. Every morning we find them on the solar cover or in the pool. I am beyond sick as the holiday approaches and weather is 87 and family probably not able to come. Help!
Lisa RN
- Thread starter Lisa RN
- Start date
Welcome. You need to visit Pool School and read up on the SLAM process AFTER ordering one of our recommended test kits. "Break Point"is an old pool myth. Scratch whatever magic bags of "shock" you're using and switch to plain jane liquid bleach. Circulate and filter 24/7 and clean your filters every time you have a 25% rise over clean pressure. NO ONE should be in if you can't see bottom! Your posted results are worthless after all the additions you've made and the water you've replaced.
Thanks Woody. I started reading yesterday and realized I need to do some changes. I will go back and research test kits. I have dealt with this pool for 15 years and usually don't have any issues. This is probably the third time I have had what I call opening surprise. Any suggestions on what to do with white milky now other than let filter run and clean it often until the "magic" shock leaves. I hope I killed something other than the liner.
yes. calcium hypoclorite. When you say bleach, store Clorox bleach not pool supply liquid bleach? I was reading about that yesterday. I am more than ready to change my ways,
Bleach can be either plain grocery store bleach which has an 8% concentration or liquid chlorine at 10-12% concentration sold by pool suppliers. It is the exact same thing at different strengths. In many areas plain bleach is less expensive so that is what we recommend. You may want to do some price comparisons in your area to see which is the best deal.
The milky white is most likely coming from the abundance of calcium you put in the pool from those bags of shock.
To take control of your pool you are going to need a good quality test kit. Test strips do not give precise results and are easily affected by humidity and other environmental factors that will decrease their accuracy. I like the TF 100 TFTestkits.net It has the same high quality testing reagents as the Taylor 2006, but it is a larger kit that will allow you to retest longer between refills. It also has the CYA 50ppm practice solution standard so you can learn to read the CYA test more accurately. Being able to perform your own accurate testing is an important investment in the quality of your pool water.
You need to test the calcium level again and report back. Odds are good that you will need to drain more water to dilute the calcium levels in the pool. Too much calcium can cause clouding and may cause scale build up if your pH gets too high.
The milky white is most likely coming from the abundance of calcium you put in the pool from those bags of shock.
To take control of your pool you are going to need a good quality test kit. Test strips do not give precise results and are easily affected by humidity and other environmental factors that will decrease their accuracy. I like the TF 100 TFTestkits.net It has the same high quality testing reagents as the Taylor 2006, but it is a larger kit that will allow you to retest longer between refills. It also has the CYA 50ppm practice solution standard so you can learn to read the CYA test more accurately. Being able to perform your own accurate testing is an important investment in the quality of your pool water.
You need to test the calcium level again and report back. Odds are good that you will need to drain more water to dilute the calcium levels in the pool. Too much calcium can cause clouding and may cause scale build up if your pH gets too high.
I posted several days ago that I over shocked pool, based on break point. Since then read pool school, learned math, ordered test kit. Drained half pool swept calcium residual cleaning filter daily to remove white residue from shock. Until kit gets here had pool retailer test water as my basic test strip showed low chlorine. Results below. Thought I was ready to handle this but not sure with all the results. F
FC 0.6
TC 0.7
CC 0.2
ph 7.4
ca 210
cya 30 (was 40 prior to shock)?
TA 71 (was 80 prior to shock)
Regular bleach purchased ready to change. I am ok with adding the bleach. Can I do in daylight? The alkalinity cya ph make me nervous. Help
FC 0.6
TC 0.7
CC 0.2
ph 7.4
ca 210
cya 30 (was 40 prior to shock)?
TA 71 (was 80 prior to shock)
Regular bleach purchased ready to change. I am ok with adding the bleach. Can I do in daylight? The alkalinity cya ph make me nervous. Help
The white stuff was most likely dead algae.
You are ready for the SLAM and yes it can be done in the daytime. I suggest starting it one day when you are home all day, because at first the FC is going to drop like a rock.
From here on out, you only need to measure FC during the SLAM process.
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
You are ready for the SLAM and yes it can be done in the daytime. I suggest starting it one day when you are home all day, because at first the FC is going to drop like a rock.
From here on out, you only need to measure FC during the SLAM process.
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
I had added 19-21 bags of cal hypochlorite Thursday. What about low cya, low alkalinity? only 4 days post cal hypo massive shock and water replenish. I thought slam was to be done at CC of 0.5?
Cal-hypo adds calcium hardness, so I recommend not adding anymore of that.
CYA of 30 is perfect for performing the SLAM process.
TA (alkalinity) of 71 is not low. I wish mine were at 71.
You STOP SLAM when CC is .5 or lower. Anything above and you are not finished. Back to school for a refresher!
(seriously though, we are here to help!)
CYA of 30 is perfect for performing the SLAM process.
TA (alkalinity) of 71 is not low. I wish mine were at 71.
You STOP SLAM when CC is .5 or lower. Anything above and you are not finished. Back to school for a refresher!
(seriously though, we are here to help!)I am listening and will go to school again, Have been revisiting. My cc is 0.2 so why the slam? Due to low TC? According to school I thought TA was to be 80-120. I have been running this pool for 15 years. I didn't mention that I believe or have been told I had white mold. Slimy white, tissue paper stuff light niche, around skimmer square, and return port rings. Could this be why things are a disaster this year?
If you are not sure whether or not you need to SLAM, try the overnight chlorine loss test.
Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)
Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)
If you see that slimy white mold in your pool you definitely need to SLAM to get rid of it.
CC is burned of in the sun, so sometimes it will test lower than 0.5 even when you have organics (white mold, algae, etc.) growing in your pool.
TA is basically a buffer for pH. If it's below 40 or so, you may notice pH start to swing eraticly. The higher your TA is, the faster your pH will rise naturally (and the more muriatic acid you will need to use to keep pH low enough). If your pH is stable, there is no need to adjust TA. Some people like keeping TA as low as 50, so there is no need for you to worry about a TA of 70.
CC is burned of in the sun, so sometimes it will test lower than 0.5 even when you have organics (white mold, algae, etc.) growing in your pool.
TA is basically a buffer for pH. If it's below 40 or so, you may notice pH start to swing eraticly. The higher your TA is, the faster your pH will rise naturally (and the more muriatic acid you will need to use to keep pH low enough). If your pH is stable, there is no need to adjust TA. Some people like keeping TA as low as 50, so there is no need for you to worry about a TA of 70.
I'm just going to interject yet again why we don't trust pool store testing. Remember the formula is: FC + CC = TC..right?
Soooo how does your pool store come up with 0.6 + 0.2 = 0.7 ???
LOL, sorry, I couldn't resist
Soooo how does your pool store come up with 0.6 + 0.2 = 0.7 ???
LOL, sorry, I couldn't resist
