Cloudy in South Jersey

[brueckmann]

So - I just posted an intro on the intro board so I don't want to be too repetitive, but this is my 3rd year in this house which has a 30,000 gallon in-ground pool.

I just installed a brand new Hayward 60 sq ft Pro Series vertical grid DE filter and variable speed pump. The previous owner had also installed an Aqua-Cal heat pump. Won't get into the nitty gritty of the need for the new filter/pump but the pump had electrical issues and right after installing it, after 2.5 days of it working beautifully, it started flaking out and with the few days it took Hayward to thankfully replace it and no water circulation, I had an algae bloom. The pool wasn't looking too good to begin with since I kind of started all of this equipment replacement soon after opening the pool plus, it always looks like the Barnegat Bay when I open it because of the mesh safety cover letting everything in all winter long. So of course, the quick thing to do was have the local pool store test it and dump a bunch of stuff in there. Still not doing well.

So, I have a K-2006 testing kit. I have barely done anything with this pool outside of installing all the new equipment and trying to quickly get rid of the agae bloom...it is milky/cloudy blueish green and before I get going with too many more pool store misfires (did I mention they had me flock it too without much success this weekend?), I want to go the TFP route and actually enjoy the pool this year...so help!

I ran the tests just an hour ago...it seems I have tap water in my pool and nothing else:

.2 FC
.6 CC
7.4 pH
NO CYA - the K-2006 has this black-dot vial test...the water in the tube never turned cloudy and you can see straight down to the dot with the whole vial full.

I understand how to use the Pool Math Calculator but I am unclear as to the order of steps I take. Do I start with the bleach and get the FC up and THEN worry about adding the stabilizer or can I do both at the same time? I have bag of solid/flake-like stabilizer the pool place is telling me to put in the skimmer - I've read on here to put it in a sock and let it dissolve through the sock in the skimmer...is that the correct way to do it? The calculator is also telling me to add 10 pounds of stabilizer...so that's a big darn sock! Do I need to worry about doing anything with the pH since it's pretty decent at 7.4? Or do I forget about normalizing things and because of the visible algae do I go the SLAM route I've been reading up on here? Is that like a dump-truck's worth of bleach?

Any help to get my pool swimmable before my children kill me would be MOST appreciated! Thanks so much to everyone in advance for your help!

 

[BoDarville]

Welcome to TFP!

Your pH is fine - no need to fiddle with that.

I have bag of solid/flake-like stabilizer the pool place is telling me to put in the skimmer - I've read on here to put it in a sock and let it dissolve through the sock in the skimmer...is that the correct way to do it?

Yes, that is the correct product and method to add it. I would bring the CYA up to 30 ppm to start, especially since it sounds like you need to SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain - meaning you will add 120 oz for your pool (it sounds like you were aiming for 40 ppm - hence the 160 oz that PoolMath was calculating). I always tend to go on the light side when dosing CYA simply because it is much easier to add more than it is to reduce it if you overshoot your target. That is a lot to place in a sock, so you can use an old t-shirt or similar. In fact, I'm adding CYA tonight and am using an old t-shirt that is tied off at two ends. You can also divide the dose by the number of skimmers you have. To speed up the process of getting the granules to dissolve, give the shirt(s) an occasional squeeze.

For tonight, add 2 ppm of chlorine using plain unscented liquid bleach without any added thickeners. Beginning 24 hours after you added the CYA, then you can begin the SLAM. Although all of the CYA you added will not register on a test for 5-7 days, after 24 hours of adding it you can assume that it is all in there for the purposes of dosing chlorine.

 

[brueckmann]

Thank you SO much!