The Bleachening, Day 8: Losing faith -- Help!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
P

poolgoat

0
Jan 19, 2011
16
We purchased a foreclosed home with a swamp of a pool (no frogs, but definite larvae). Dark, dark, dark green, zero visibility. Last fall, we attempted to clean it, but the pool guy's advice was: "Throw a bucket of shock in, run the pump 'til it clears up. Maybe throw in another couple buckets of shock in a few days. It'll clean." Didn't work.

I found TFP and got some excellent advice (read all the FAQs and every post I could find on the subject), and I started the methodical cleaning 8 days ago. Prepped by removing any debris the skimmer could reach. It took three days of constant bleach chugging (about 50 bottles/day, testing every 30-60 minutes) to even hold a shock.

Day 1: The larvae died off, Day 2: A paler shade of green, Day 3: Shock and foam. Day 4 seemed to hold steady, still pretty foamy. Day 5, CYA registered at zero (was 30). I added dichlor, massive foaming ensued. Day 6, the green seemed lighter. The six inches of visibility was "clearer". Day 7, the same. Day 8... still the same.

This is my typical day:
5:30am: My husband is an early riser. He changes the filter.
8:00am: I change the filter. (The sun has not yet hit the pool.)
8-10am: Shock, brush, skim, filter cleaning, testing. Non-stop.
9:40am: Change the filter.
10-1, the baby is awake. The most I can do is a test or two (I somehow squeezed more in the first 3 days), chuck some jugs, and we usually have to run to find another store to clear out of their supply of bleach.
1:00pm: Change the filter. (Have I mentioned how much I hate changing the filter? I am not an unfit person, but this is hard work!)
1-3pm: Shock, brush, skim, filter cleaning, testing. Non-stop.
2:40pm: Change the filter.
3-5, baby is awake. See above.
5:00pm Husband is home, I change the filter.
5-7pm: Test and chlorinate as needed. The family has to eat sometime.
7:00pm: Change the filter.
I shock one more time before going to bed.

One post said that I should be able to see the bottom within 24 hours... Am I missing something here? I have two filter cartridges to lessen the down-time of the filter running (otherwise 24/7). In addition to my brushing, I employ the Kreepy Krawly for part of the day. I don't see the end of the tunnel, and I'm pretty sure that it would have been cheaper to buy a new liner (even though it was only two years old) and refill than to go through this process. (In addition, I occasionally use the 73% shock instead of bleach.) For the past two days (which have been cooler), the color has been more "very cloudy aquamarine" than "light green" in the evening, but in the morning after a good brush, a bunch of nastiness still comes up, and it seems that I'm two days back. The filters do seem "less green" as time goes on... although sometimes it is still full to where no water pushes through by the time I clean it.

I cannot give you any chemical readings right now. I have tested to shocking so frequently that I have run out of the chemical (Taylor K-2006 kit), and none of the local pool stores stock the replacement. (The CYA was 80 yesterday, up from zero after having added 6# of dichlor a few days previous.) What should I do to not lose ground until an online order can come through?

Thank you for any help. Any words of encouragement? I sure could use them!
 
Originally, the CYA was 20, so I was aiming to shock to 15ppm. When it held steady, it (very) mysteriously jumped from 9 to 20+ after only 2 small jugs of bleach. (I didn't test past 20, for fear of running out of reagent... which has happened.) I have been using the Pool Calculator to calculate how much of what I should add. I only added the dichlor the one time.
 
How are you testing the CYA? What jumped from 9 to 20+? The FC or CYA?

You said at day 5, the CYA was 0, but was 20. That cant happen unless you have lots of water replacement.
You also said the pool store had you dump in "buckets of shock". Was that dichlor?

How did you measure a CYA levle of 80?
You need to get a good, reliable number for your CYA level. Once thats accomplished, add enough FC to raise to shock level for your CYA. Add only bleach, no more dichlor or any other "shock" that contains CYA. Hold the FC at that level until your pool is clear and the overnight loss is </=0.5 ppm.
 
Day 1, the CYA was 20. Day 5, it had dropped to zero. I added 6# dichlor (mainly b/c I had run out of bleach and found it in a 'pool opening kit'). Day 7, the CYA had raised to 80. I am measuring with the Taylor K2006 kit, which has a black dot that disappears.

On day 3, the FC jumped from 9 to 20 in two hours, after two small jugs of bleach. I have yet to understand how that happened.

The buckets I was instructed to dump in the fall was just plain shock. Money thrown for nothing. :-(
 
Yes, I have been following the 'turn your swamp into an oasis' rules as thoroughly as possible, only adding dichlor once... but now I am even unable to test. Any advice on what to do until I can get a new shipment of reagent? Use the pool calculator to aim for shock every hour? If I lose ground, all this work will once again be for nothing, but every day this is expensive business.
Thank you!
 
I believe that the buckets of shock said 40-something% chlorine, but that was 8 months ago. The water got ever-so-slightly lighter for a few days, and then it went back to black. Then "winter" set in, and I gave up 'til the spring.
I have no idea why the CYA changed so drastically, either. I'm just looking at the little black dot. Day 5, I couldn't get it to disappear. Day 7, it disappeared quickly. I tested it twice to make sure.
 
I'm concerned about the number of times per day you're having to change/clean the filter. Are you doing that because the pressure is rising that fast or because the return flow is getting weak? It's to be expected for the first few days but after this length of time it should be about once a day. When you're vacuuming are your still picking up lot's of trash off the bottom?

I think one of the problems is that your CYA is a lot higher than you think it is and you're not keeping the FC high enough.

Do you have an OTO chlorine test?

It took two weeks to clear my sisters pool and I know they were shocking correctly.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I change the filter so often b/c I don't trust the gauge. Advice is to do it when it registers +8psi, and even when it loses flow it's not +8psi. I assume that it doesn't work, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. The first few days it was very gunky, lots of dead larvae. It hasn't actually lost flow more than a few times (5?), even when it was covered in gunk. Mostly, it's only slightly green now. Today, I need to take a break from it and will only do it 3x. The vacuum doesn't seem to pick up any trash (neither does the skimmer), but when I brush in the morning (I can't reach the middle and hope that the Krawler takes care of that), some gunk comes to the surface.

If my CYA is 80, what should I do until I can get new reagent? Shock to 30 every hour sounds expensive and extreme. Since I don't know what an OTO test is, I assume that I don't have one. (I have never dealt with pools before.)
 
The OTO test usually has the ph test in the same block. And usually has red drops and yellow drops. I was going to tell you how to guestimate the amount of chlorine you have until you could get reagents. Where did you order the reagents from?

Scooping all the solids out is what you should strive for even if you have to work blind and don't get something but every few tries. You also want to check your ladder legs if they're hollow or contain voids where algae could be hiding.
 
I checked the garage, and I *did* happen to buy an OTO test, before being advised on the Taylor kit (on amazon). I just completed the test with all 5 drops, but even one drop of the reagent turns the water bright orange past the yellow chart (max 5ppm). CYA measured 70-80 again, and PH was 7.5. The ladder has not been put in the pool yet. Really, there is no "place" for the algae to hide, aside from the lining itself. I flushed out the filter hoses before refilling to the skimmer, even...
 
Good, since you have it, and you need to understand that what I'm about to tell you is just a stopgap until you get your reagents in because it's so imprecise.
Take a sample of pool water and a sample of chlorine free water (i.e. bottled water) and mix 2 parts of the chlorine free water with one part pool water an then fill your OTO test block and add the 5 drops. Take the reading you get and multiply it by three.

That gets you a number you can use to keep the shock at the proper level.
 
Oh, thank you! That is *very* helpful! Using that method, the sample is easily a deeper yellow than the maximum reading (5), so ca 15ppm.
I am feeling a tad more confident: perhaps it is just the sunlight, but the color has become much more 'cloudy aquamarine' than a hue with a specific implication of 'green' since the morning brushing. I just brushed again, and the change from re-churning whatever has settled is not as stark.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply