Great resource here! I've read most of the Pool School and all the chemistry info and I'm sold on the BBB method.
Trouble is I literally don't have complete control of my pool yet. Buying a house but won't close till next week. The pool looked fine a few weeks ago but has recently degraded toward swamp. Green, with algae growing on the sides and crawler hose.
I got permission from the owner through the real estate agent chain to start taking care of it myself. Got the test kit the other day and went to work. Cleaned the skimmers and pump filter, backwashed the filter, broke the backwash valve by screwing a new pressure gauge in too hand tight. :grrrr: Bought a new valve for $200. Have not replaced it yet as the leak slowed to a tiny trickle through self pluggage.
Bought some HCl and Bleach and got to testing.
FC - 0
CC or TC - 0
pH - 8.4+
TA - 350
CH - 400+ (Didn't finish the test cause I wasn't too sure I was in a reasonable range and didn't want to use up the reagent on a "down the road" problem)
CYA - 0
Cranked up the dichlor dispenser valve to try and add CYA.
So after reading Green Swamp to Sparkling Oasis thought I would start with pH, added nearly a gallon of Muriatic acid, no noticeable change after a day, added the rest and another gallon, voila 7.2 later that day. A little lucky but the pool calculator is great!
Yesterday, went and bought CYA from the local discount pool store, was going to add the pool calc amount via sock and skimmer and start the bleach process. Planned to spend the rest of the evening on the initial shocking and come back the next morning to continue.
BUT, found that either the current owner or a well meaning neighbor had added a bunch of Calcium shock. The tub was out and little white flecks were floating on the surface.
I was going a bit slow but learning and ready to really hit it.
Can't really blame him it was looking really bad.
Retested:
FC - ? Just did the TC test
CC or TC - 8+
pH - 8.4+
TA - no retest
CH - no retest
CYA - no retest
Added the CYA socks and called it a night. I had chlorine, the CYA was added. I wanted to go back home and lookup the shock effect on pH.
Today, the total chlorine was still over 8, the CYA was still 0 as far as I can tell there is no occlusion of the black dot. The pH had come back to about 7.3. Color had changed to gray.
Questions I have so far:
1. I kind of expected some CYA response with two big tube socks full, one in each of two skimmers. I know it will take a week, but nothing from 0?
2. Just wondering about the pH gyration from the Ca shock?
3. Do I just hope the shock treatment works or at least arrests the algae development and just wait until I have control over what is put in the pool?
4. How do I bypass the intermatic pump controller to allow continuous pumping? I can set the triggers so the pump is off only an hour or so a day.
I'll try and post a picture or two with my next post. I'm sure I can get there once I have control, would just like to have a swimmable pool as soon as possible after moving in! Thanks for all the other informative posts and for any advice.
Trouble is I literally don't have complete control of my pool yet. Buying a house but won't close till next week. The pool looked fine a few weeks ago but has recently degraded toward swamp. Green, with algae growing on the sides and crawler hose.
I got permission from the owner through the real estate agent chain to start taking care of it myself. Got the test kit the other day and went to work. Cleaned the skimmers and pump filter, backwashed the filter, broke the backwash valve by screwing a new pressure gauge in too hand tight. :grrrr: Bought a new valve for $200. Have not replaced it yet as the leak slowed to a tiny trickle through self pluggage.
Bought some HCl and Bleach and got to testing.
FC - 0
CC or TC - 0
pH - 8.4+
TA - 350
CH - 400+ (Didn't finish the test cause I wasn't too sure I was in a reasonable range and didn't want to use up the reagent on a "down the road" problem)
CYA - 0
Cranked up the dichlor dispenser valve to try and add CYA.
So after reading Green Swamp to Sparkling Oasis thought I would start with pH, added nearly a gallon of Muriatic acid, no noticeable change after a day, added the rest and another gallon, voila 7.2 later that day. A little lucky but the pool calculator is great!
Yesterday, went and bought CYA from the local discount pool store, was going to add the pool calc amount via sock and skimmer and start the bleach process. Planned to spend the rest of the evening on the initial shocking and come back the next morning to continue.
BUT, found that either the current owner or a well meaning neighbor had added a bunch of Calcium shock. The tub was out and little white flecks were floating on the surface.
I was going a bit slow but learning and ready to really hit it.
Can't really blame him it was looking really bad. Retested:
FC - ? Just did the TC test
CC or TC - 8+
pH - 8.4+
TA - no retest
CH - no retest
CYA - no retest
Added the CYA socks and called it a night. I had chlorine, the CYA was added. I wanted to go back home and lookup the shock effect on pH.
Today, the total chlorine was still over 8, the CYA was still 0 as far as I can tell there is no occlusion of the black dot. The pH had come back to about 7.3. Color had changed to gray.
Questions I have so far:
1. I kind of expected some CYA response with two big tube socks full, one in each of two skimmers. I know it will take a week, but nothing from 0?
2. Just wondering about the pH gyration from the Ca shock?
3. Do I just hope the shock treatment works or at least arrests the algae development and just wait until I have control over what is put in the pool?
4. How do I bypass the intermatic pump controller to allow continuous pumping? I can set the triggers so the pump is off only an hour or so a day.
I'll try and post a picture or two with my next post. I'm sure I can get there once I have control, would just like to have a swimmable pool as soon as possible after moving in! Thanks for all the other informative posts and for any advice.
In the meantime I'd sure like to figure out what the CYA level will be. 
and could buy more if I want. Told him thanks but no, I'll take it from here. 
, I'll go with patience for now and not test for another 4 days. I'll run out of the CYA reagent if I keep up that testing schedule. Since I am seeing some slight cloudyness in the test now I am going with 5ppm in the pool calculator for shocking purposes. Should I assume my CYA is slowly rising towards 20 for the next few days and increase the shock levels?
