4 Months Until Swim Season

[seeclearly]

We've had our pool about 6 years and have suffered through a few algae outbreaks over winter when we forgot all about the pool. Last year opened to crystal water and I want to do that again!
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Discovered that the pucks had run out around turkey day when we were heading out for a 2 week vaca. Refilled the chlorinator and cranked it up to max, plus added 4 gallons of bleach (chlorox outdoor - I presume 6%). Figured it couldn't hurt anything. Also vacuumed out crud, brushed and backwashed before we left, and made sure permeable cover was well secured.

Got the TF-100 around Christmas, so was only making guesses about chlorine at the time.

The water is slightly greenish now, with plenty of productive backwash (done every two weeks). Can easily see the bottom, where there are less little dust piles than before but still some. I ordered some biodiesel filter bags to make my own slime bag for the eyeball return.

I turned the chlorinator down to 1 two weeks ago. Here are yesterdays numbers. Only big change in the last two weeks is FC went from 15 to 20, so I nudged it down to .5 yesterday. Newly this time the water is slightly prone to foaming or bubbles when agitated.

FC 20, CC 0, TC 20, pH 7.5, TA 120, CYA 40, temp 46 deg F, Borate 15

Pressure is up to 35, which is new. We changed the sand late last summer and put in ground glass medium, and I think a bag of DE? It isn't a DE filter though.

I just read the instruction for getting the sample to room temp for the CYA test so that may be wrong. We get a lot of rain so there is quite a bit or water turnover (whether we like it or not) that keeps CYA low even though we use pucks. Not a lot of sun, though, except in August.

Should I just keep the chlorine cranked until the green is gone?

 

[George N]

You need to keep the FC level up until you pass the overnight FC loss test:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/overnight_fc_test

Also read: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool

 

[duraleigh]

seeclearly,

A psi of 35 would indicate your filter is almost completely blocked or there is another type blockage somewhere on the pressure side. The first thing to check is the validity of your guage.....does it drop to zero when you turn the pump off? If it does then you need to clear t5hat blockage. I would start with a correct back wash. Why did you put in the DE? How big of a bag was it? You must exercise some caution when making changes to your system when you are not sure of the outcome. Let's take it one step at a time (first check the gauge) but you have to get you system unplugged.

PS - off the current subject but do not use outdoor clorox....it has ingredients you don't want in your pool and may be contributing to the foaming issue.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Just a note. If you still have the bag attached to the return it will add head to the system and cause the gauge to read higher than just the filter will especially when it's catching stuff.

 

[seeclearly]

I read the Chlorine/CYA chart and seems like I'm ok at 15-20 to shock.

I read the shocking your pool page again. FC is not at 0, CC is at 0 so the main thing is the continued presence of algae. The sandy piles on the bottom indicate the filter isn't doing a great job (little piles, can't be vacuumed with my present vac bag anyway).

Regarding the pressure, I have changed the original valve once, two years ago. The pressure does drop when I turn the pump off but I can't remember if it goes all the way to zero. Prior to this the pressure was generally at 12 - 18.

So the thing to do in addition to maintaining high levels of FC is get better filtration and better flow. How do I do a "correct back wash"? I backwashed saturday for about five minutes. Water was plenty greenish brown, then clear by the time I shut it off. I didn't use the rinse setting because I've never been told to do that.

To get better flow, do I possibly need to replace the media again? If so, do you recommend the glass, or just sand? I am suspicious of being sold the glass. I also had the same place test the water until just recently when I bought my kit.


Thanks much for your assistance.


RE: the kit. I love the little spinning thing. That makes testing a lot easier.

 

[seeclearly]

Forgot to tell you status of filter sand.

We replaced the original sand with one bag of glass in 2010. Turns out it was supposed to have been 4 or 5 bags of sand, so the pool store made a big error. Their own repair guy figured it out when the heater began groaning due to slow flow July or August, 2011. So 4 or 5 new bags of the glass went in at that time. Old media was discarded and the arms were cleaned. I am not sure but I think a bag of DE went in too. I can find out by calling the pool store tomorrow.

The bag is not on the return as of yet. I just ordered it.

 

[seeclearly]

Re: 4 Months Until Swim Season : now only a few weeks!

Changed the pressure gauge and that cured our over pressure problem. That was easy!

Chlorine is still running SUPER high with chlorinator set at .5
I can't do the daily check an adjust because it would be a one hour errand every day, so we do use a puck chlorinator. I assume my new Taylor kit has good reagents so the test is accurate, but I should take a sample to the pool store. The water temp is now up to 64 - balmy!

We did run a bottle of degreaser through the sand last week in case that was causing pressure to build up. Still haven't put on the biodiesel filter sack so that isn't contributing to anything.

Do I just need to get a new chlorinator? Should I switch to salt instead? I am about out of pucks now too, so it wouldn't be a bad time. Our last bucket lasted four years.

Current readings: pH 7.3, FC 22, CC 0.5, TC 22.5, TA 70 (needs to go up), CYA 33, Borates 15, Pressure 12


Any advice appreciated - thanks!

 

[Bama Rambler]

I'd vote for salt, but if you only used a bucket of tablets in 4 years I don't know that I'd change. You know the dangers of CYA using pucks so you're informed and can make good choices if need be.

 

[seeclearly]

That was my thought re: salt.

I read in one of the posts that ammonia can cause the chlorine to read high. Is there a test for ammonia? Ammonia was a result of bacteria. We did have the algae issue in December and the chlorinator nearly turned off to try to get the chlorine rate down -- maybe we have the opposite problem.

How do you test for ammonia or bacteria?

 

[Bama Rambler]

If you have ammonia you will not have any FC. Ammonia immediately uses up any chlorine. It takes a lot of chlorine to rid the pool of ammonia. If you're maintaining any fc in your pool you don't have ammonia

 

[seeclearly]

Good to hear.

Therefore, the high chlorine rate must be due to faulty chlorinator.

What do you think of the inline liquid chlorine dispensers?
http://www.poolchlorinator.com/2010/02/ ... ing-pools/