Got my kit - need help!

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cardiacmommy

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May 7, 2010
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Got my kit - yea! Here are my numbers

pH 7.2
OTO - was very orange..off the chart.

FC 23.5
CC 1 (turned clear..although a couple minutes later was back pink...was does that mean?)

CYA 45
CH 80
TA 100


I have been filtering all week, vacuuming, brushing. I have randomly added about 7 gallons bleach and 1 packet dichlor through the past week. I have gone from swamp to cloudy mint green, clearer on edges, can almost see to bottom.

I have not added any bleach since yday afternoon. Granted, it's cloudy, overcast and lightly raining. My CYA seems to be good, so I guess I'm not losing much chlorine to sun. But lordy..can't believe my FC is so high! I'm getting a target of 18 so I'm still way past that. What to do now??

I'm guessing vacuum, brush, and keep monitoring FC level and add bleach when it gets below shock.

I'm kinda curious about pH too..I would have expected it to be higher with my FC above 10. When I measured with my basic kit the other day it was more like 7.6 or 7.8 I think. wonder why it's lower?
 
cardiacmommy said:
Got my kit - yea! Here are my numbers

pH 7.2
OTO - was very orange..off the chart.

FC 23.5
CC 1 (turned clear..although a couple minutes later was back pink...was does that mean?)

CYA 45
CH 80
TA 100


I have been filtering all week, vacuuming, brushing. I have randomly added about 7 gallons bleach and 1 packet dichlor through the past week. I have gone from swamp to cloudy mint green, clearer on edges, can almost see to bottom.

I have not added any bleach since yday afternoon. Granted, it's cloudy, overcast and lightly raining. My CYA seems to be good, so I guess I'm not losing much chlorine to sun. But lordy..can't believe my FC is so high! I'm getting a target of 18 so I'm still way past that. What to do now??

I'm guessing vacuum, brush, and keep monitoring FC level and add bleach when it gets below shock.

I'm kinda curious about pH too..I would have expected it to be higher with my FC above 10. When I measured with my basic kit the other day it was more like 7.6 or 7.8 I think. wonder why it's lower?
Click to expand...

I can help with a few things. Your pH test is going to be not really acurate due to the high FC. From what I have read when FC is over 10, the pH test is not acurate. When you added the 7 gallons of bleach, with your gallons, that is why your FC is so high more than likely. Your CYA does look good since you are not using a SWG. If I am correct, the dichlor has CYA in it so I would not use that anmore. Also the CC being above .5 means your possibly have organics in the pool that the FC is combining with. I would also read the pool school and you more than likely need to shock and do the overnight FC loss test.

Some of the stuff you may already be doing, if so just ignore the links below.

Here is the article on how to shock (You seem to be kind of doing this now and understand the concept)

pool-school/shocking_your_pool

Overnight FC loss test

pool-school/overnight_fc_test

This is the table you will use to determine shock level

pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock

Any other questions just ask. Also make sure during this time you are running your pump 24/7.
 
Just repeated the FC/CC test - It was about 30 minutes after the first....

FC 19, CC 1

So it looks like it's coming down - I must have had it WAY up there..can't believe my pool is still green with it that high!!!

Ok I'm gonna recheck it again in 30 minutes. It may be low enough to add more bleach. I just can't get over my FC being so high without adding bleach for like 20 hours... I thought for sure it'd be 0!

Anyone have anything else?
 
cardiacmommy said:
Just repeated the FC/CC test - It was about 30 minutes after the first....

FC 19, CC 1

So it looks like it's coming down - I must have had it WAY up there..can't believe my pool is still green with it that high!!!

Ok I'm gonna recheck it again in 30 minutes. It may be low enough to add more bleach. I just can't get over my FC being so high without adding bleach for like 20 hours... I thought for sure it'd be 0!

Anyone have anything else?
Click to expand...

Have you done the overnight FC loss test yet?
 
Continue to hold the FC around 20ppm. Keep replenishing as needed to maintain that level until your pool water is sparkling. Have you read, "How to Shock your Pool"?

Once your pool water is clear, then you will be ready for an overnight FC loss test. There's no point in doing it when your water isn't clear. YOu will finish the shock process when....

1. Your pool water is sparkling
2. Your CC's are .5ppm or less
3. You can hold your FC overnight without losing more than 1ppm.
 
Just rechecked..got 20 this time. Slightly higher..must have miscounted a drop in there. I figured it might have dropped since the sun is now out bright. Hubby is about to be home and is going to sweep/vacuum some more. I'll just keep checking FC every hour and add bleach when needed.
Maybe at this point I've killed the algae and just need to filter it. The walls had felt slick and now they feel better.
I'm also wondering if a lot of my problem is pollen. My skimmer basket has pollen on the water line. Hubby bought some of those paint socks and we will try that to collect more of the pollen.
 
duraleigh said:
Continue to hold the FC around 20ppm. Keep replenishing as needed to maintain that level until your pool water is sparkling. Have you read, "How to Shock your Pool"?

Once your pool water is clear, then you will be ready for an overnight FC loss test. There's no point in doing it when your water isn't clear. YOu will finish the shock process when....

1. Your pool water is sparkling
2. Your CC's are .5ppm or less
3. You can hold your FC overnight without losing more than 1ppm.
Click to expand...

When I did my overnight FC loss test I was still clearing up my water, so that is why I gave the info.
 

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Just tested again fc 18, cc 0.5.

Seems to be holding pretty good considering it's been sunny this afternoon. We vacuumed some more. We are totally surrounded by very tall woods so I think we are getting oak buds/pollen. I have scooped out these little things that look like wet pellet food for rabbits. I went ahead and backwashed the filter again.

If it doesn't clear up even with holding shock levels should I look into the DE into my sand filter?

We didn't seem to get a whole lot when we vacuumed so I think we finally have most of the leaves out.
 
You can try the DE in the filter, instructions in Pool School.

You are done shocking when:

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.

I believe you have the FAS/DPD test? If yes, then when you compelete A & B, you are done shocking. :)
You will prob need to filter for a while to clear the pool, tho.

Keep us posted. You should see improvement each day with water clarity.
 
Around 7pm I added 64oz bleach thinking I'd get my shock back up to around 22 to be safely over 20. I fell asleep shortly thereafter and just woke up and tested it (it's like having a baby all over again lol) at 3am.

My FC is 27 :shock: and my cc is 0.5. The pool is fairly clear but it's still mint colored. Like as if I added a little drop of green food coloring to regular water.

I guess I'll retest it around 6 right before the sun comes up..don't know if 3am to 6am is enough time for an overnight FC...meant to do it around 10.

I just am not sure if I need to keep shocking or filter only now. The kids are starting to really bug me about swimming in it but I'm scared to let the FC level down and take steps backward.

I don't think I mentioned this before but I'm still having some foaming too..guess this is eating the organics which makes me think I need to still keep at shock level for a bit longer. I haven't added any other chemicals like algaecide or anything so that's not the cause of the foaming.
 
ok tested right after sunrise around 7am. Got FC of 25 and cc of 0.5; technically this means I lost 2fc but I just learned about wiping the tip and I'm not sure I got all full drops when I got fc of 27.

I can see the bottom of the pool if I look in closely..just straight down from where I'm at..can't see the middle bottom. I decided to turn the pump off for a while and let the water settle so maybe I can see better what we need to vacuum. I did pull out a small stick and I saw a few little places with minced looking leaves. So maybe I just still have some debri causing the cloudiness. I'm thinking with the pump off for a bit everything will settle and I can see how it looks.

Considering either some DE or a flocculant... I still think a lot of this is either dead algae or pollen. I have acres of huge trees surrounding my backyard. My front screened porch has a thick layer of pollen on everything. ::sneeze::
 
yea poolmom - we can certainly do that. I'm gonna give it a while today and keep an eye on the FC and let the water all settle and see where we are then get DH to vacuum to waste. I will also do the overnight FC again tonight..hopefully won't sleep though it again :)
Just so hard to have p.o.p...sigh....
But at least there aren't any more frogs and mosquitoes living in it..so we are making progress! It's supposed to rain all weekend and the kids are driving me crazy wondering when the pool will be ready. They keep coming outside in their bikinis!
 
updating my thread to help me keep track...feedback welcome. :wave:

Early am fc 25, cc 0.5. Turned off pump to let water settle to see if that would help. Gone all day, which was good because it would have made me stir crazy to watch the pool just sit all day. Got home, water looked worse. Turned pump back on and a while later checked levels. FC 18.5, cc 0.5. Was very sunny today..could I have lost 6.5 to sun with CYA of 45? :?

Decided to add 32 oz bleach to raise fc to 20.5. Swept pool again and got the barracuda running. The water is clear enough I found about 6 small sticks in the bottom and got those out.
 
before bed levels:
FC 25
CC 0.75

Unsure why my FC is jumping so high with small amount of bleach additions. I added 32 oz...the calculator says that would require 102 oz. Or for my pool to shrink to 2700 gallons.
 
This AM FC 19 CC 0.5

So I went down quite a bit..although I backwashed my filter last night and added some more water so that probably messed up the readings. Anyway, I'm going to keep at shock level over the weekend, hubby is going to give another good vacuum this morning.
We are both working a lot this weekend so I won't get to do another overnight until at least Sunday, maybe the water will have cleared some more by then anyway. I should at least be able to randomly check FC/CC over the weekend and add bleach if needed. We are both off Monday so if it's not any better I may take my lid off my sand filter and see if there is any channeling in there. Haven't got the DE yet either..that's still an option too.
 

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