Day 2 of Pool ownership and I am crying uncle!!!!!

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hyder710

0
May 15, 2012
18
CDA, ID
Well not really 2 days.

We bought a repo house that has a 33k galon vinyl lined inground pool. The local company that built it in 2005 said that it is good qualityand should last some time. The pool hasnt been opened in 2 years and the company came out and opened it yesterday. Yesterday it was a green swamp. Today it is a turquoise cloud of water. They put approximately 12 pounds of chlorine @12.5%(?) called turbo shock in. It has been clearing up but is no longer making progress. The pool has no visible algae left as deep as I can see and no longer has any green hue. I took a water sample into our pool company whomgave me the following results:


Current/Ideal
Saturation Index: -0.9/-.3-+.3
TDS: 250/<2500
CYA: 11/30-200
Tot. Chlorine: 3/1-3
Free Chlorine: 0/1-3
pH: 7.1/7.4-7.6
Tot. Alkalinity: 50/
Adj. Total Alk: 47/125-150
Tot. Hardness: 175/175-225
Green Algae: Light

Everything else was none or not tested.

The recomendations were 54.5 lbs of total alkalinity increaser, 6.25 lbs of lo n' Slo, 7lbs of stabalizer, 20 lbs of burn out3...............they lost me at 54.5 lbs.

The salesman told me to buy some more powdered chlorine to help shock the pool and I bought 12lbs of "turbo shock". He recomended using 6lbs and testing for free chlorine in 10 hours and to add ore if i needed it. 1 hour later i had no free chlorine left and now im turning to this website.

I have read numerous articles including pool school but I am still overwhelmed/confused. There are so many products on the shelf at the store that I dont know if Im buying something I need or buying the equivalent of Slick50 for my pool.

Any advice on how to proceed? It would be greatly appreciated!

Also can I buy Liquid bleach from a grocery store instead of the powdered chlorine? Can I buy Baking soda instead of the total alkalinity increaser?

Thank you so much in advance!
 
:wave: Welcome :wave:

Now take a breath and relax ... it is a pool and supposed to be fun :-D

Read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry and Recommended Pool Chemicals to get a decent understanding of what is going on in your pool. Read them a few times.

Did they put in powder or liquid chlorine (what is turbo shock)?

The most important thing to initially understand in the CYA (stabilizer) / FC (free chlorine) relationship. All you need to clear your pool of algae and keep it clear is chlorine ... ideally liquid either 10% or 12.5% or just regular old 6% bleach.

Your CYA looks a little low, but we do not know if the company put in a form of chlorine (powder) that may raise it.

Most of the other levels are nothing to worry about right now as they are mostly in range ... just focus on CYA and FC.

To really understand what your pool NEEDS and not what the pool store wants to sell you, you would be best served to buy your own good test kit (see the link in my sig to recommended kits).

Are you still paying the pool company to open the pool? I would recommend not paying them any more and committing to taking care of it yourself with the help of this forum. You can do it :goodjob:
 
You. And to the right place. I am guessing the value on the left is what you have and right is the recommended range? The thing that jumped out at me was cya 30-200. Do not let them sell you cya to get to the 80-200 range you'll have to change water to bring it down.

The first thing I would do is order a TFT-100 test kit right now to get it on its way. It will be the best money you ever spend on your pool. If you pass WalMart pick up a mess of regular bleach you will need it to do some shocking to get the pool in shape. One of the regulars will be around shortly to guide you through the process. You are in good hands with these guys. While you are waiting read up on the shocking process and the OCLT.
 
Thanks For replying so fast guys. I have been reading a ton but I am being cautious. I normally read just enough to get an Idea about something then go all out a screw it up. This would be an expensive screw up.

Yes they used Poollife Turbo Shock as did I.

Will that raise the CYA?

I will order a test kit tonight. Though it as fun to argue with the pool guy about my free chlorine level. He insisted it was fine and I informed him that it wasn't (how could those fancy strips you just sold me be wrong). I won, that at least made me feel good.
 
OK, I found that Turbo Shock is 78% cal-hypo. So it will NOT add CYA but it will add calcium hardness (CH). The good news is that your hardness does not appear to be too high according to the tests, so hopefully no harm done. Stick to liquid ... it is just safer (meaning it will only add FC and not anything else that could mess you up) especially for someone new to pools.

Order a kit (if you order from tftestkits, you will likely have it by the weekend ... and if you become a member here you can save $10 on the TF100 ... or order the K-2006 which will work, but the amount of reagents is smaller).

While waiting, just keep reading here.

These describe the shock process which you will need to go through to clear your pool: Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis and Shocking Your Pool

EDIT: BTW, you can get almost everything you will need to care for you pool outside of a pool store. Bleach/Baking Soda/Borax are a grocery stores, Muratic acid is at hardware stores, Cyanuric Acid might be found at Walmart (but you may need to go to a pool store for this). If you don't go to the pool store, they can not try to talk you into buying overpriced chems. My wife laughs at me when we go to a pool store for toys/etc as I have to bite my lip from disagreeing with everything they are telling people.
 
Hi welcome to TFP! Poollife turbo shock is calcium hypochlorite and does not have CYA. It does however contain calcium and with a vinyl liner your calcium level is fine. I see in your signature you have a frog system. The frog system adds minerals and metals to the water that your pool does not need. Over time it will lead to stains on the liner that are unsightly and difficult to remove, so I would discontinue using it by pulling the mineral cartridge out of the cartridge cylinder and just let the water pass through.

You can use your current test results and plug them into the pool calculator to see how much bleach and CYA you will need, and what your shock level should be.

Also, you will want to get a high quality test kit such as the tf 100 that can test chlorine levels up to 50 ppm. You will need to be able to test chlorine levels greater than 5 ppm in order to complete the shock process.

I know this is a little overwhelming to start. Anything you are unsure about do not hesitate to ask and someone will give you an answer. We were all in your shoes at one point or another so we can relate!
 
Wow you guys reply fast. Thank you all so much. So you are recommending discontinuing the frog system? If I remove the mineral system can I still use the chlorine dispenser? I am going to work on CYA and FC right now. I will order the test kit as well. Are there any recomendations as to the best delivery method/product for bringing up CYA?
 
The chlorine dispenser can also lead to problems. The tablets used are generally tri-chlor and add CYA with every one. IF you are not careful, the CYA can get sky high to the point where it is very difficult to keep enough FC in the pool. Again the safest way to add FC is liquid chlorine/bleach. And the safest way to add CYA is cyanuric acid in solid or liquid form. Re-read Recommended Pool Chemicals

{I should not say this since you are new to pools, but using the pucks in the chlorinator initially would allow you to add FC and CYA if you already have some. If you do not already have tablets, I would recommend you NOT buy any}
 
There is a lot of good advice given so far, now let me tell you what they pool store did:

They saw a swamp like pool, made a wild guess as to how much chlorine it would take to clear it, dumped it all in at once potentially raising your FC level sky high, this has the potential to bleach out and shorten the life of your liner, then they walked away. Thankfully their guess appear to have been well short of the actual amount needed to clear the pool, and hopefully did not do too much damage to your liner. The correct way to open a pool in this condition is to raise the water to shock level and keep it there until the pool is clear, brushing and vacuuming as you go, retesting the water every few hours and adding more chlorine as needed, this way you can maintain algae killing shock level, but not risk those sky high chlorine levels that will bleach and damage your liner. Of course the correct way takes longer, and is a bit more work. Just remember the pool store is there to sell you chemicals, not do what is best for you or your pool, they are not your friend.
 
We paid $120 for the mineral part on the frog and $100 for the chlorine bacpac:/

I got the cya stuff down but now you bring me to a different question. Could I leave the frog thing going and slowly bring my cya levels while using liquid bleach for my initial shock?

What you said is funny baca use when I asked the guy how much chlorine he was using to shock my pool he said he just makes an educated guess from experience!

If I have no visible contaminants (outside of cloudy water) do I still need to vacuum everyday and if so is it important to be doing it on waste?
 

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Well, I am a little confuse what equipment you actually have. Is the chlorinator part of the Frog system? You could remove the mineral part and keep a chlorine part? Posting a picture of your pad could help us understand.

Like I said before you "can" use the pucks, but your CYA level will be constantly changing and therefore your shock target is changing as well. It is "safer" to dose things separately to have a better feel for levels.

If there is nothing on the bottom of the pool, there is not reason to vacuum. You should be running your pump 24/7, backwashing when the filter pressure goes up by 20-25% of the clean pressure, and brushing your pool while at shock levels.

While the shocking may not start till you get your kit, a lot of the algae is dead based on the cloudy water, so you can be trying to filter it out now. Sand filters can take a long time to clear a pool, but it will do it eventually.
 
I would not use the frog mineral pack, but you can use the chlorinator with the trichlor pucks if you want until you get your CYA level up to the desired point, it does complicate things though as you will then have an ever sliding scale point for your optimum CYA / Chlorine ratio, and you will need to keep track of how many pucks you use to calculate your running CYA total, since CYA testing is not that precise and there can be a lag for it to show up on the test of up to a week depending on how it goes into the water.

You only need to vacuum when there is clearly something to pick up, you may need to backwash your filter though best to keep track of it with a pressure gauge, backwash, then check the pressure, when pressure goes up 10 psi or so back wash again. Once you get everything balanced your water should not be cloudy. Hang in there we will get you there, we all know the feeling of wasted money with pool stores.

Ike
 
Isaac-1 said:
when pressure goes up 10 psi or so back wash again.
Click to expand...

This is kind of an older recommendation as a 10psi rise over a clean 10psi reading is a LOT different than over a 20psi reading. A better rule of thumb seems to be backwashing when the pressure goes up 20-25% of the clean pressure to maintain good circulation through the filter.
 
hyder710 said:
Thank you all again. I am currently buying a ton of liquid bleach. The generic kind. From my calculations it is much cheaper than chlorine from the pool store.
Click to expand...

Usually is. The only concern is if you buy from a dollar store, the bleach could be pretty old and have lost some of its strength. Many people use the Walmart brand or buy in bulk from Sams Club or Costco.
 
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