Need help with green pool

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odonekanobe

0
Aug 30, 2011
62
Tacoma, WA
Ok, just replaced spider gasket in filter. Was really bad and was losing lots of water. Seems to have fixed that issue. Test water and here's what I get:

FC-0
CC-0
TC-0
pH-8.5
T/A-120
CH-150
CYA-40
Temp-58*

I added 112 ounces of 6% bleach, and 45 ounces of muriatic acid. No real improvement after 24 hours. Test chlorine again, basically 0 again. Add another 112 ounces of bleach. No improvement. I believe the filter is functioning correctly, but could the spider gasket not be working correctly? Water seems to be flowing as it should, and I am not losing water anymore.

The pool calculator says to also add 293 ounces of calcium chloride. I did not. Is this why I am not seeing any improvement?

Thanks to everyone on here. This site has been a huge help.
 
You can't just add chlorine and wait. You need to be testing and adding more about once an hour until it starts holding. Check out Pool School for some good articles on algae combat.
 
odonekanobe,

Following up a little on the advice from JohnT, you need to learn the function of chlorine and how to shock your pool. You will need A LOT more chlorine than you have been adding and the shock process may take you several days. ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and How to Shock YOur Pool are the two articles I would start with up in Pool School. Post back more questions and we'll help you get the pool clear.

CH is irrelevant to your issue so ignore it for now.
 
Ok thanks everyone. I'm sorry that I posted without reading more into things. I went to the pool school and did read up on shocking. I just went out and added more bleach, and will test the water in an hour. I have enough bleach for another dose, then I will run out and get more. Just to make sure I am on the same page as everyone, the process of shocking is testing water, adding bleach, then testing and adding again in a short period such as an hour? Repeat until FC levels start to rise? The part that confuses me somewhat is that the article says shock until FC levels rise, and CC levels get to 0.5 or less. My CC levels are testing out at 0 right now.
 
1. Let your FC content go down below 10ppm before you add any more chlorine.......you need test your pH again and it won't be accurate when FC levels are higher than 10ppm.

2. Retest that pH and post the result. What test did you use to get 8.5? that's VERY high.

3. Let's get your pH down to around 7.4 or so and then we'll dose heavily enough with FC to start the shock process.
 
odonekanobe said:
Ok so I added 35 ounces of muriatic acid to bring the pH down. That's the way to bring it down, correct?
Click to expand...

Yes that is the way to lower pH. Let it mix for about an hour and retest. Keep adding MA until you get the pH to 7.4. This might take a few applications due to not knowing what level the pH is truly at. Once you get your pH under control then you can start hitting the algae with the chlorine. Just post back and let the pros guide you. Also, keep reading other posts and Pool School to make things easier on yourself.

You will have finished shocking your pool once your water holds FC overnight, your CC is .5 or less, AND your water is clear. All three things must be met before your pool is considered to be organically clean. Many pools have algae with their CC's less than 1ppm, but do lose too much FC overnight.
 

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Ok I thought I understood what to do, but after adding the bleach and testing at both 30 minutes, one hour, and one hour and 30 minutes my FC is WAY too high. I added what I understood to be the right amount of bleach to bring my pool up to a shock level of 15. After just testing it again 1:30 after the bleach, I just got an FC of 38! Obviously I added too much bleach, but what do I do now. I'm sorry everyone, I thought I understood what to do.
 
odonekanobe said:
Ok I thought I understood what to do, but after adding the bleach and testing at both 30 minutes, one hour, and one hour and 30 minutes my FC is WAY too high. I added what I understood to be the right amount of bleach to bring my pool up to a shock level of 15. After just testing it again 1:30 after the bleach, I just got an FC of 38! Obviously I added too much bleach, but what do I do now. I'm sorry everyone, I thought I understood what to do.
Click to expand...
Are you, by chance, using 12.5% chlorine to shock, and have 6% chlorox as your source in the Pool Calculator?

What to do: nothing. You have a plaster pool, so there's no vinyl liner to mess up. If the pool's green, that FC will come down soon enough. Don't forget to brush.
 
Richard320 said:
odonekanobe said:
Ok I thought I understood what to do, but after adding the bleach and testing at both 30 minutes, one hour, and one hour and 30 minutes my FC is WAY too high. I added what I understood to be the right amount of bleach to bring my pool up to a shock level of 15. After just testing it again 1:30 after the bleach, I just got an FC of 38! Obviously I added too much bleach, but what do I do now. I'm sorry everyone, I thought I understood what to do.
Click to expand...
Are you, by chance, using 12.5% chlorine to shock, and have 6% chlorox as your source in the Pool Calculator?

What to do: nothing. You have a plaster pool, so there's no vinyl liner to mess up. If the pool's green, that FC will come down soon enough. Don't forget to brush.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's 6%. I usually check, because I would love to find the 12% bleach to not have to buy as many. I have been brushing, it's just so green it's hard to see what I am hitting. Thank you for your reply.
 
odonekanobe said:
Is it possible that the FC would keep going up? Brushed the pool multiple times and just tested it. Swear it's closer to 40 now.
Click to expand...
You may not be mixing well enough. Very common problem when you start getting up into more than 10 drops. That's why I love my speedstir.

You don't by chance have a tablet feeder or a salt water chlorine generator going at the same time do you?
 
I would shut the thing off for a couple reasons:
1) It adds CYA. The higher the CYA, the higher the shock level becomes.
2) You can't run the overnight free chlorine loss test if you're constantly adding more chlorine.

That being said, how are you progressing? Does it look any better yet?
 
odonekanobe said:
Is it possible that the FC would keep going up? Brushed the pool multiple times and just tested it. Swear it's closer to 40 now.
Click to expand...

How much bleach did you put in? Using the Pool Calculator I get that you should have added 560oz. of 6% bleach which is just a tad over 3 182oz jugs.

If you did put that amount in, did you use 10ml or 25ml of water in your FC test? If you used 25ml your number of drops would be multiplied by .2 instead of .5 for 10ml sample of water. This would get you back in the range that you should have seen.
 

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