First test results

[LasVegasLawyer]

I'm trying to help my dad out with his pool. I got some strips a few weeks ago, and tried to test it myself. It didn't seem to have any chlorine whatsoever in it. I took a sample to Leslie's. The high-school kid behind the counter told me the chlorine levels were so high, it bleached out the rest of the test. As the pool was green, that didn't seem right, so I took it to another Leslie's who did a more *thorough* test, meaning he swished some water around, punched in some numbers, and tried to get me to buy the largest bucket of product du jour. He claimed that my TDS were too high, so I needed to drain it in the off season, and also that my TA levels were wrong, but my chlorine and pH was fine. So, I've been lurking here while I waited for my T-100 to come in. In the mean time, I bought 6 192-oz bottles of chlorox and 26 lbs of baking soda. I estimated the pool at around 50k, and added about 17 lbs of baking soda. I also poured 2 bottles of bleach into the skimmer after dark. I told my sister to check using a strip in the morning, and if she didn't get any discernible chlorine levels, to add two more, and then 2 more in the afternoon. They all got used the next day. Even after adding, them, the test strips showed no chlorine. I was over there a little later, looking at the pool plumbing system, and spotted something I didn't recognize. It was a PVC-looking thing with "turbo cell" on it. Come to find out, it was Dad's SWG. Makes you wonder why the pool guy has been throwing pucks in the floater. Anyway, after poking around the manual, I turned the SWG on. It read salts of 3800. A couple days later, I went back, and it had turned itself off because salts were low: around 1400. My wife thinks I'm crazy for trying to take this project on, but I'd like to help him out so the grandkids (especially my little ones) can so swimming. I hope you guys can help.

Here were my test results from this evening:

FC (FAS-DPD): Not sure about the test results. It never went pink, just cloudy. It never cleared up.
CC: Ditto.
FC (OTO) Between 0.5 and 1.0
pH: 7.8
CYA: 0. The liquid I put into the viewtube was clear, and I never had any trouble seeing the dot.
Salt: 1440

Where should I start? Should I buy stock in The Clorox Company?

 

[frogabog]

Welcome!

Yep, that's a green pool alright. You will need some bleach. Two bottles won't get that size of pool anywhere near shock level. May as well not bother until you can get enough in there to actually do something.

Check out the pool calculator http://www.poolcalculator.com It totally rocks for calculating what to add. Put your current readings in the now column, enter the pool volume at the top and make sure to set goals to TF Pool at the bottom. Then you can enter your target values in the target column and it will calculate everything for you.

When I entered your numbers into the calculator, to reach shock level from 0 you'll need 8 gallons of bleach. An hour later, you may very well need two more gallons. And so on...

So yes. Stock up on bleach. 20 gallons should do it for a few days but you may very well need more.

I would also recommend leaving them your test kit while this is going on if you can't be there to do this yourself. Strips are not helpful, and they can't test at shock levels anyway. Leave very specific instructions based on this site's shocking information in pool school. Write it down, give them a timer and have them test hourly. If it drops below shock, add more bleach to reach shock level and test again in an hour. Bookmark the calculator on their computer and set it up. All they will have to do is enter the current level in the now column and then click compute (or tab, or click outside of the boxes, it computes automatically). Then mouse over the bleach field and you will see converted results in the window at the top (turns ounces into cups/gallons for easy measuring).

You really need to get some CYA into the pool. Check w/the SWG mfr's recommendations for CYA but around here it's recommended to raise CYA to 70-80ppm for SWG systems.

For now, while shocking I would not bother with the SWG unless you are sure of it's ability to produce chlorine and even then it very well could just complicate things. In that case, you should add enough CYA to reach about 30ppm for now. Finish shocking and clearing the pool and then raise CYA to the SWG recommended levels. This will allow you to use far less chlorine while shocking than if you added CYA to SWG levels now.

Pool school, and the information you need is located at the upper right, white button. Read it, and read again. And again. It's a lot to take in, but it will make sense very soon once you start using the method.

Shocking is a process, not a product. Bleach/chlorine is all you need to clear the pool, and maintaining shock level is essential. You can't put bleach in and walk away. Hourly testing at first is required and once you start this you'll see why because chlorine will drop a considerable amount every hour. Then it'll start dropping less, and you can test every couple hours... and so on. Hit the pool hard and consistently, you can't go wrong. It always works!

I find it interesting that CYA is coming out at 0. If pool guy was using pucks, there has to be some in there. Did you base CYA off the strips or from the TF100? If you used strips, know they are pure junk for CYA, and mostly junk for the rest of the levels. You could have 40ppm in there and they still won't say you have more than 0.

It's a little harder to do this when it's not your pool. You have to get those who are doing the work committed to the process. A little pool school for them would not be a bad idea either.

It's a super cute pool they got there, it will be so beautiful when it's sparkling clear. I can see the drain, it's not THAT bad but don't expect it to stay clear while shocking. It will absolutely turn cloudy, and that's good. Cloudy means dead algae, it will take some time to clear all that out.

Run the filter 24/7 while shocking, this too is important.

Good luck, I look forward to seeing your success!

 

[Butterfly]

Welcome

What is CH level?

 

[BadOleRoss]

Great advise from Frogabog! This shocking process is about as bad as the BBB process gets. Once you get past this, staying on top of the pool and keeping it crystal clear is a breeze! Make sure you are cleaning out the filter when needed. With all of the dead algea you are going to have it is going to require some maintenance.

 

[anonapersona]

I would like to see a metals test on this pool. Clear and green is sometimes metals related. But maybe that is because it was covered and not getting much sunlight?

 

[RobbieH]

I suggest not dumping bleach into the skimmer, just dump it straight into the pool near a return.

 

[LasVegasLawyer]

Update: the pool eats chlorine.

This morning, I added 900 ounces of bleach, enough to hit shock levels. Four hours later, the FC level was 0.5. In goes 900 more ounces and, twenty minutes later, two pounds of CYA. Two hours later, FC reads 0.5, CC is 0.5. I didn't test for CYA at that point. In goes another 900 oz.

Before I added the last round, these were my test numbers:

FC: 0.5
CC:0.5
CYA: 0
CH: 1080
PH: 8.0

 

[duraleigh]

Okay, let's hold up for a minute until we explore a possibility. My assumption is you are performing the FAS/DPD test with the powder and counting the drops until the solution turns from pink/red to clear. That means with a .5FC result, the solution should've turned pink/red when you put the powder in (however faint) and the ONE drop of the R-0870 turned it clear.

In the presence of HIGH chlorine levels, the solution will only "flash" pink or red and return almost immediately back to clear. Let's eliminate that possibility before proceeding.

Perform the test again and this time, if one scoop of the powder doesn't turn the solution pink/red or it "flashes" color for a moment, put in a second scoop. If that seems to flash or doesn't turn it red/pink and stay red or pink, put in a third scoop. Stop after three and report your results.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Use the OTO test one more time to make sure you don't have so much FC that you're bleaching out the FAS-DPD, then just keep adding more chlorine.

ETA. The Daves were thinking alike!

 

[LasVegasLawyer]

I'm sure the test was right. Just to make sure, I repeated it. The color went from pink to cloudy white. That confused me for a minute, and I searched the forum on my phone for a possible solution. I learned that "clear" just means "not pink" or "no color," not transparent. The single dropped eliminated the pink completely both times.

An hour after the last round of chlorine, my FC reads 5. Maybe I'm making progress. I'm off to Sams before it closes. I've burned through over twenty gallons of bleach so far.