Just opened up the pool today.. Need help

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senniss

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Jun 22, 2008
9
Ok.. last year we had trouble with our readings (trying to go at it alone) so this time I want to start it off right..

We JUST took the cover off the pool.. 24' round above ground pool with vinyl liner, 48" deep (13,000 gallons).

We have greeness.. algae, and some dead algae on the bottom..

Before I do anything to it at all, I want you guys to help me with what to put in it.. We are going to go ahead and vacuum the bottom to waste, just because there is so much down there..

So, our test shows:

Hardness: 250
Total Chlorine: 0
Free Chlorine: 0
PH: 7.2
Alkalinity: 75
Stabilizer: 0
Bromine: 0

I am doing the BBB method.. just need to know what I should dump in there to get us started..

TIA!!
 
All you need for now is 4lbs of stabilizer...should get your CYA around 40ppm and enough 6% bleach to get you to shock level and hold it there until you lose less than 1ppm FC overnight...totherwise your numbers look fine for a vinyl lined pool

No need to as Baking soda, Calcium Chloride or Borax...you can adjust PH (7.2 is fine) and TA later...Your CH is fine and is not really important in a vinyl pool, unless of course it gets over 300-400ppm...it would just promote scalling...good luck shocking
 
108 oz of bleach (6%)
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To emphasize what dman is saying, you will need a lot more bleach.

Bleach is a consumable item in your pool and needs constant replenishment. To properly shock your pool, I suggest purchasing 10-15 (at least) of the largest jugs of Clorox (182 oz ea) and be prepared to use them all to hold your FC level up around 15ppm until your pool clears. Read "How to shock your pool" up in Pool School.
 
ok.. got it.. and will start the process tomorrow.. Thank you!

One last question that wasn't answered in the "How to shock your pool"

How long does it normally take to keep shock levels up? I'm sure it's different in every situation, but is there a guesstimate?

Thank you for all the advice.. glad I asked or I would have overdone it with the other stuff!!
 
from the how to "Shocking":
1)Measure the FC level

2)Add enough chlorine to bring FC up to shock level

3)Repeat steps 1 and 2 as frequently as practical, as often as once per hour, and not less than twice a day, You need to keep doing this to keep it at shock level until the conditions below are metuntil:


a)CC is 0.5 or lower;

b)An overnight FC loss test shows a loss of 1.0 ppm or less;

C)And, if you don't have a FAS-DPD test kit, the water is clear.
 
Please pardon me if I take that a little sarcastically.. since I'm new to the forum and still learning..

I read, and understand all that..

What I was asking is how many days, normally, would it possibly take? As in, should I be concerned if I have to do this like 5 or 6 days in a row?
 
ahh...got it...no pardon needed. Unfortunately it depends, each situation is different...I have seen 2-4days, but if you have ammonia or other issues, it could take over a week. Hope this helps
 
also...do you know if you had CYA in your water last year? If you did and you did not refill your pool...there is a good chance you could have some ammonia given your CYA level of zero...I'm not a chemist, but for some reason sometimes CYA has a habit of dissapearing and converting to ammonia (chem geek can explain the chemistry side :goodjob: ), but it take a lot of shocking to get rid of it...again just FYI
 
dmanb2b said:
also...do you know if you had CYA in your water last year? If you did and you did not refill your pool...there is a good chance you could have some ammonia given your CYA level of zero...I'm not a chemist, but for some reason sometimes CYA has a habit of dissapearing and converting to ammonia (chem geek can explain the chemistry side :goodjob: ), but it take a lot of shocking to get rid of it...again just FYI
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Good catch dman! I was thinking the same thing when I saw those numbers indicating stabilizer as 0 and FC as 0.

senniss, the main thing with expediting your shock to clear your water is how good you are at keeping the FC at shock level. The better the job you do of maintaining a shock level along with brushing the walls and circulating the water, the sooner your pool will be clear. We can't give you a very good estimate of how long because so many different variables come into play. If you stay on it strong, it may be only a few days.

dman mentioned the potential for ammonia being present in your pool. When one allows the FC to drop to zero, there exists a process that is reported where ammonia can form from the stabilizer (CYA) in the pool as it undergoes a chemical change of sorts. Ammonia isn't an insurmountable problem and we can't say for sure that you have any in there, but if you do, this will require more bleach and much more time to be spent on your part to clear the water of organics and ammonia. Ammonia can be tested for with an inexpensive test kit available at a aquarium supply store, but your own test results will also tell the tale because in the presence of ammonia, you will have difficulty bringing your pool to shock level and keeping it there. Bottom line is that this can be a long process and you probably won't be swim ready on the 4th.
 

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If I'm not mistaken, we let the CYA drop with everything else before closing, we've always had better results that way..

Either way, we did have to add about 1 foot of fresh water in the pool after the cover was removed and a few hours before the tests were done.. So i think we should be ok and not have much if any ammonia present..

I will keep a post up of our progress.. I know in another forum (which is shut down now), it was a good deal of help for us when people followed up on their problems even the smallest ones, and even if it's the 2500th time it's been gone over.. never know when a newbie (such as me with the BBB method) will pop in.. :)

Is it ok to post photos? Just so people know how bad it was, how long it took and what it turned out like?

Thanks again!!!
 
senniss said:
Ohh.. one more thing.. I think I read somewhere.. The pump should be on 24/7 while shocking, correct??
Click to expand...

Yep, run the pump the whole time.

And yes, report back to the thread on progress and questions. We DO love photos too. :mrgreen:
 
Very cool... We ran out and decided to get the CYA up tonight, so stabilizer is in the pool...

two photos.. Really not as bad as it looks, this is after brushing and vacuuming with no Chlorine, CYA, etc.

Pea soup anyone? lol
 

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Hi senniss,

I agree, you've gotten great advice :goodjob:

It would be helpful if you added your pool and equipment specs to your sig.

Go to User Control Panel (upper left under TFP logo), select Profile, then select Edit Sig. :wink:

Welcome to the forum :wave:
 
Thank you for the welcomes :)

I will add the pool info to my signature today :)

In the meantime, here is a shot of the pool 4 hours in 40 CYA and a tad over 20FC all other numbers are still in good range, including PH which is steady holding at 7.2

You can already see the shadow in the middle of the pool, which we are getting ready to go vacuum and brush the sides again.. so it's definitely looking good.. Thank you again for all the great advice..
 

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If your FC is currently 20, then I suspect your PH is really lower than 7.2

The next time the FC drops below 10, can you retest the PH? It probably needs to be increased with more Borax. High FC makes the PH read false-high.
 
No problem :)

Fully intend on testing and retesting until we are all set to get everything in line...and will post results if they change, etc.

Thank you for letting me know that the Ph might be a false reading tho.. will remember that for the future when in "shock" mode :)
 
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