Newbie here need help with cloudy/green pool

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M

mgruber

0
Jul 22, 2009
4
Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me as I have been to the Pool Store 7 times now and have spent $450.00 and my pool looks even worse. It is cloudy and has a light green hue. I have 13,500 gallon above ground round pool with a vinyl liner. I just had 2,000 gallons of new water trucked into my pool on Monday. I went back to the Pool store today and these are the test results:

Saturation Index: -2.3
TDS: 2000
CYA: 110
Tot. Chlorine: 2.4
Free Chlorine: 0.6
PH: 6.2
Tot. Alkalinity: 64
Adj. Total Alkalinity: 31
Tot. Hardness: 94
Optimizer+: 61
Green Algae: Extensive

They recommend:
22.5lbs of Balance Pak 100
5lbs. of Balance Pak 300
6 bags of Shock
22oz. of Banish

Thank you in advance for your help.

Thank you,
Michelle
 
You dont need any of that stuff.

Balance pak 100 is plain old baking soda you can buy at Costco or Sams.
Balnce pak 300 is calcium increaser. you dont need it since your pool is vinyl. I have no idea what banish is, you dont need that either.

Your pool is green since you have hardly any free chlorine. Read this:

pool-school/

And then read it again. Lots of good info to get you started. Your pH is low too, but i would read thru pool school first. That will give you an idea of what you need to do. You should also get a good test kit so you can test your own water. Pool store numbers are not that accurate.

http://www.tftestkits.net/

Read through pool school and you should have a bit more info. I could tell you a whole bunch of other stuff, but i dont want to confuse you. If you have the background from pool school, it will make a lot more sense.
 
Your most crucial problem is that your PH is way too low. You want to get PH up to at least 7.0 as soon as possible. The best way to do that is to add borax (20 mule team borax from the grocery store). You can also use soda ash/PH Up/Balance Pak 200 if you have it.

I suggest adding one box of borax (or 2 lbs of soda ash), giving it an hour to mix in, then testing your PH and repeating until your PH is up to 7.0 or higher. My guess is that you will need about 4 or 5 boxes of borax total, but that is approximate.

Your CYA level is also way too high. It is critical that you get CYA down below 100, and preferably down to around 50. The only practical way to lower CYA is to replace water. It is going to be extremely difficult to fight the algae until you get your CYA level down to something more reasonable.
 
I was in your EXACT situation two weeks ago. My water is almost clear. Listen to these guys!! When my husband gets back into town, I'm having him return the 35 bags of burnout extreme that I got bamboozled into buying two weeks ago. That was a $200 value. I have only spent about $20 in bleach so far and have cleaner water than I've had since the pool went up almost 3 years ago! You're in the right place! I must repeat...Listen to everything these smart pool people say!
 
I agree with 8corneflakes, these guys know EXACTLY what they are talking about. My pool was probably worse than yours and in one week was completely sparkling clean. It may sound off the wall, or unusual, but it sure works and like they say, you will spend so much less in supplies than you would at your local pool store. Trust them all and you will be amazed!
 
Thank you for your help. I have added the recommendations that the Pool Calculator gave me. Well I'm adding all of them gradually accept for the bleach I dumped the entire jug in. I still had 3.0 chlorine after adding bleach so I added 2 bags of shock since I had it and didn't feel like running back out for more bleach. The chlronie level is now at 5.0 which is shock level correct? Now some posts say keep at shock level until it clears up and some don't. Which is correct? I have put three boxes of Borax in and it is still 6.2. I will brush bottom and add more tomorrow. I also added 6 lbs. of baking soda, which I will gradually add more tomorrow as well. Should I add bleach daily and if so how much? Thank you again for your help. This site has saved me tons of money already. Pool Store wanted $110, & BBB from Walmart $32. Thank you.

Thanks,
Michelle
13,500 gal.
AG
Sand Filter
 
No, :shock: shock level for a CYA as high as yours is much higher, try 40-45ppm. See the CYA Chlorine Chart.

I would not spend anymore money and time trying to adjust your PH/TA when you need to dump half your water! You need to get your CYA level down, and the only way to do that is to drain about 1/3 out, refill, recirculate, retest, and then repeat this process until the CYA is at the very least down to 60-70 ppm. You will fight a losing battle trying to shock your pool with your CYA that high.

What was in the bags of shock? You need to be careful adding granular chlorine, it can contain CYA or other unwanted additives. Stick with bleach. :wink:

Again, you need a good test kit, and you need to read the articles in Pool School - specifically Defeating Algae, How to Shock your Pool, Recommended Levels, The CYA Chart, How to Chlorinate Your Pool, and Test Kits Compared.

If you need clarification on anything just holler :wave:
 
If your CYA is truly 110 then your shock level is NOT 5 . Shock level for a pool with 100 CYA is 12 ,yours is going to be above that.
I would be careful using powdered shock because chances are its going to raise your CYA even more.

Read our Pool School section in the forum. There is information there to help you get your pool cleared up.

Also if you dont have one, get yourself a reliable test kit (see my signature) to test your own water.
 
with CYA at 110, shock level is above 40, and routine day to day FC levels are 8 to 14.

Shocking isn't going to be effective until you get your PH up and your CYA level down.

What are you using to measure PH? The most common PH test only goes down to 6.8. If 6.2 is the lower limit of your test, the actual PH might be much lower.

Don't add any more baking soda. Your TA level is going to go up as your PH comes up. Wait till the PH is between 7.2 and 7.8 before making any further adjustments to TA.
 

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Can you tell us what the pool store had you put in that cost $450 & lowered your pH so much.

You say you just had 2000 gals. trucked in, why? You should have had 7000 gals added maybe more.

Where are you located?

What is the name of the pool store that did this to you?

Listen to the mods, your shock level is 40+.

Do you have a salt water generator?

Bob
 
TizMe said:
If your CYA is truly 110 then your shock level is NOT 5 . Shock level for a pool with 100 CYA is 12 ,yours is going to be above that.
I would be careful using powdered shock because chances are its going to raise your CYA even more.

Read our Pool School section in the forum. There is information there to help you get your pool cleared up.

Also if you dont have one, get yourself a reliable test kit (see my signature) to test your own water.
Click to expand...


FPM thanks for bringing my error to my attention.......

My post should have read your shock level is going to be 40+

I think while is was typing and flipping back and forth between web pages i got confused !! :shock:
My apologies to the poster ....
 
Bob_Funk said:
Can you tell us what the pool store had you put in that cost $450 & lowered your pH so much. Well I have purchased since opening in June Balance Pak 100, Balance Pak 200, burn out extreme tons of it, Banish, Optimizer plus, Algae inhibitor, Sparkle up, & 2 trips of water at 2000 gal. each.

You say you just had 2000 gals. trucked in, why? You should have had 7000 gals added maybe more.
Well I didn't find this site until after I had the water trucked in!! The pool was low is why I had water trucked in. I just emptied it below the skimmer and had them refill it from there.

Where are you located? I'm located in Virginia

What is the name of the pool store that did this to you? The Pool Company

Listen to the mods, your shock level is 40+.

Do you have a salt water generator? no I don't

Bob
Click to expand...


My pool has cleared up some. I only have the Bio test kit from the pool store, but I have been taking my water to them to test since opening my pool in June. I went back to the pool store yesterday and these are the latest readings.

CYA-80
TC- 3.9
FC-0.5
PH- 6.9
TA-176
Optimizer+- 46

I came home yesterday with instructions to add 0.25lbs. of Balance Pak 200, so I added 2 more boxes of Borax and the levels were up to 7.5. I was also told to add 9 bags of burnout extreme. So I added 3-96oz. bottles of bleach. The levels were satisfactory when I went to bed last night. Well this morning the chlorine is back down again to 1.3 and the PH to 6.9? The pool store also told me I may need to powerfloc it and vacuum to waste? Should I do this? My CYA levels are down to 80 now, so I'm going in the right direction. Thank you all for the help you have been giving.
 
You are not using anywhere near enough chlorine. With CYA around 80, you need to get the FC level up to around 30, and hold it there, to fight algae. That would be six and a half gallons of 6% bleach (starting from a FC level of zero).

I would add another two boxes of borax. Remember, only test the PH when FC levels are fairly low (not at shock level). I think you are doing the right, but wanted to remind you.
 
Is there a test for FC I can buy locally?

Merged for history. Butterfly

Is there a recommended FC test I can buy here locally. I plan on buying the kit soon, but need something now to help test. I'm not sure as what to get. My pool is green and cloudy and I keep getting it clearer but then it just goes right back to where I started. . I have a Aqua-Chem kit from Walmart but the Chlorine test only goes up to 5. I was told because of my CYA level of 80 I need to keep it at shock level which is 35 and keep it there for 3 days. Is there a kit I can buy locally to test for this?
 
Heck of it is, the FAS-DPD kit at Leslie's is kind of expensive. I'd get a TF100 kit on order and do the best you can with what you have until it arrives. If you put the amount in to bring your level up and use the dilution method for testing, you can still make a lot of progress.
 
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