Want to make sure I am doing my shock right.

[Guest]

13500 gallon pool, green swamp,

CYA 0

Adding enough CYA to get to 30 ppm

Keeping FC at 10, turning from green to bluish green after about 6 hours but still only about 3 inches of visability. I know it takes days to see any real results but wanted to make sure my FC is right.

 

[woodyp]

It depends when and if you've already added the CYA to get to 30. Make your shock level 12 or better if you added it. Won't hurt a thing. KEEPING it there is the key.

 

[Poolschoolgrad]

Burnsy

If you have recently added the CYA to increase to 30 ppm, then adjust your chlorine shock level like it is already at 30.
Shock target should be 12 to 13 with a CYA of 30. You need to add Chlorine Hourly. Chlorine level will probably drop to 5 or 6 within an hour. Add more chlorine.

Color will change from a dark green to a dark blue/green.
You should start to see less green and more dark blue as the shock process continues.
Don't worry about visability at this stage, your mission is to wipe out the algae and you need to maintain the chlorine level to accomplish your goal.

Brush every inch of the pool that comes in contact with the water. Brush the light fixture, steps, ladder, returns, skimmers, etc.
Brushing will expose the algae to the chlorine.

Keep us posted on your progress.
Oh, and we like pictures.

 

[Guest]

The one thing I am missing for this process is a pool brush, will pick one up on Monday, will keep the FC on target in the mean time though.

This Morning.
http://imgur.com/H0JCq

Now.
http://imgur.com/sSsxQ

 

[Poolschoolgrad]

You are off to a good start

If you see any dead algae (green clumps with grey around the edges) floating to the top, try to scoop it out. Everything you can manually remove will speed the removal time of the filter.

Thanks for the pics :lol:

 

[poolmomma]

That looks how mine used to look! Keep at it! It takes a while, but you will get there! I am at milky light blue and almost gave up and drained.

 

[Guest]

Not much change today, pool is still mostly blue, still small hint of green but not much. Visability has extened to about 8 inches I would guess. Still holding shock level of 13. How long does this usually take? Not asking due to chem cost (wife is a couponer and got 48 96oz bottles for $8.00), asking because I am impatient

 

[JasonLion]

How long it takes to completely clear the water depends on several things. One big one is what kind of filter you have. Sand filters take a while to clear up the water, DE is very fast, cartridge is somewhere in-between. As long as there is a visible improvement each day things are going well.

 

[Guest]

Cart filter. Two things I have been pondering as well:

1: the over night loss test. I hate getting up on time for work no less before the sun. When it comes time, what is wrong with testing after sun down and then collecting a gallon of the pool's water, bring it inside and covering it from light and then testing that water in the morning? Lazy, I know.

2: When I do the FC test my tf-100 test kit says to fill to the 10ml mark. Is there anything wrong with filling to 5, using up half the drops and doubling my result?

 

[JasonLion]

1) The results won't be the same. Algae won't be uniformly distributed through the pool, so the results will vary depending on where the water comes from. Also, you lose chlorine more quickly from a smaller quantity of water.

2) You can't do it exactly that way, you would need half drops, but yes, you can do that. However, you lose precision. Using a smaller sample size is not precise enough for the overnight FC loss test, but could be used for day to day testing when you don't expect any problems.

 

[Poolschoolgrad]

48 of the 96 oz bottles for $8 ?
That is what I call a professional couponer :bowdown:

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Ya, no kidding... i missed that one the first time! WOW!

 

[Guest]

1) The results won't be the same. Algae won't be uniformly distributed through the pool, so the results will vary depending on where the water comes from. Also, you lose chlorine more quickly from a smaller quantity of water.

2) You can't do it exactly that way, you would need half drops, but yes, you can do that. However, you lose precision. Using a smaller sample size is not precise enough for the overnight FC loss test, but could be used for day to day testing when you don't expect any problems.

Well.....darn. I need to teach my wife how to FC test then

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Yes, you do.

 

[Guest]

48 of the 96 oz bottles for $8 ?
That is what I call a professional couponer :bowdown:

Lol yeah, she found it on sale with a rebate then bought mass coupons for additional money off on ebay. We get 11 copies of the sunday paper, she spends about 4 hours a day clipping and matching to sales, we have a stock room etc. I think she needs an intervention.

 

[Guest]

Another question. Firstly my wife is out shopping and is going to return with a pool brush so I can start brushing everything. My question though is should I be vacuuming? I found an auto cleaner in the garage, looks like a lady bug. I also found a manual triangle shaped head but it doesn't seem to fit my poles, the connection on the manual head is too small so she might also return with another manual vacuum head. The problem is, I can't see the bottom yet, so I don't know if I should be just randomly shoveing a manual vac around and hopeing for the best or if I should just hook up and drop in the lady bug auto one and tell it good luck or if I should just wait until I can see the bottom. Thoughts?

 

[mynewpool]

Not sure if it has been said in here already unless I missed it, but keep pump running 24X7 until it is nice and sparkly blue.

 

[Guest]

Yeah it's been running since I started. Bump for my previous question.

 

[JasonLion]

Vacuuming is important if you have reason to believe there is a lot of debris on the floor. If there isn't any reason to expect debris, you can just brush the pool instead.

 

[Guest]

Ok I think I need some help here.

1: My pool is not clearing. I started with a PH of 6.8 (no corrected before I started to shock, my fault). FC of 0 and CYA of 0. I added enough that should have gotten me to 30 CYA last saturday. Cannot test to verify it until tomarrow. So I have been shocking for 6 days now. First day I kept my shock level at 10. From then on I have checked it 2-3 times a day and have adjusted as needed to keep it at 13 per the calculator. I have some debris at the bottom so I have manually vacuumed once and used an auto vac the following day. when I did this I went from blueish green back to a swamp and back to cleaning my filter every half hour due to a rise in pressure. I did not vac yesterday because it was low 40's and raining all day but of course kept the shock level up. It started to go back blue yesterday. I checked the FC last night after sundown and found it at 12.5. I adjusted it to a little above 13. This morning I woke up to a very sunny day and just checked it again. Found a green swamp and a FC of 9. I adjusted to just over 13 again but I seem to be getting nowhere.

Tomorrow will be a week of adjusting to shock level 2-3 times a day and the pool has not improved beyond the first day. I could vac more but the problem is, I can't see the bottom so I don't know if it's clean or if there is more down there. If there is, I have no idea where to vac. Am I doing something wrong or should I just keep shocking and waiting?

2: I am running out of R-0871. The TF-100 kit says it has all I need for a year but all this testing to hold shock level is burning through it, down to about 1/4 bottle. Can I get more from somewhere?