New! Just tested water! Now what?

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BrookeW

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Jun 2, 2012
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Hi, I'm new here. I've been reading a wealth of information for the last two months. I landed here, and have decided to use the BBB method. We just bought a house and the pool sat stagnant for 1.5 months, no pump running etc. So, as you can imagine, once we got ahold of it it was very green.

I shocked it 4 days in a row, at 4pm, ran the pump 8 hours. It's been 2 days since I have touched it. It needs to be vacuumed (have to get a hose), but I've been brushing it and stirring up the stuff, hoping it would get filtered. I put a chlorine tablet in a floater in it about a week ago as well.

The pool is pretty much clear now, maybe a little cloudy, but you can still see the bottom. When I take water samples it's very see through. I tested with a TF-100 kit. Here are my results

FC = 3
CC = 0
TC = 3

BR = 5
PH = Less than 6.8 (my tester doesn't go below 6.8 - it's pretty yellow)
CYA = 90-100
TA = 0? When I add R-0008 it's supposed to turn green, but it automatically turns red, so I assume this is a 0?
CH = 70 (This also turns light pink, NOT red as the paper suggests - not sure why?)

The supplies I have on hand are : baking soda, borax and bleach. Do I need anything else? When I plugged my numbers into the pool calculator it was saying I needed 11 pounds of Baking soda to get it back up to where it needs to be. Not sure if that is right!

I'm waiting on responses before I touch it tomorrow! Please help :)

Also - how long should I be running the pump? I've been running it 8 hours when I shock, and 4 when I don't...

Thanks!!!
 
Welcome to TFP!

When you have a problem, you need to run the pump 24/7. You also need to stay on the chlorine. Once a day isn't nearly often enough. Once an hour may be required.

Check out Defeating Algae for more information.
 
If I just add chlorine (liquid bleach from now on) will it fix the ph and other problems? I'm totally new, so I'm confused :)

Do I just add chlorine and not worry about baking soda and borax etc?

The TC is 3, isn't that an acceptable number?

I will run the pool 24/7.

How do I know how much liquid bleach to add per hour? Thank you so much?

Do you have anything to say about the other numbers?

From what I can tell the algae is almost gone, if not gone. I had a small layer on the walls and bottom, barely noticeable.
 
There are basically 2 things you need to do
1) Bring the pool into balance in terms of PH, TA, CH
2) Use Chlorine to shock the pool and kill/oxidize all the algae in the pool

These are 2 separate processes. With your TA that low - your PH is going to swing around quite a bit. If you are nervous about adding those chems - feel free to add 1/2 of the baking soda you think you need and then test next day to see the effects. This way you can ease into it and sneak up on the correct numbers.

On the chlorine side - your CYA is very high which will make your chlorine much less effective when you are trying to shock. 3ppm CL with cya in the 90's is just not going to be enough to fully kill ALL the algae and oxidize the bits. Check out the CYA chart in pool school and you'll see your shock level with CYA in the 90's is 35ppm FC - not 3.

The shock process is not something you want to go half way on - because the algae is always growing. I appreciate you are visually seeing a lot of improvement in the pool currently - but you will most likely find that the algae never really goes away until you truly shock the pool.
 
Thank you for your responses.. Now I'm beginning to understand.

Do I need to work on putting liquid bleach into the pool AND bringing up PH at the same time?

I see in pool school that borax raises PH and that baking soda raises TA. So should I be working on all three of these at the same time?

Also - after adding liquid chlorine/bleach, how soon should I test? The "Shocking Your Pool" section says to bring your FC to shock value , not more than once per hour, or less than twice per day. How often should I be adding the bleach and measuring the FC levels? How do I know when I have achieved completion? (Shocking your pool says "chlorine is added to maintain shock level until testing shows that the process is complete.")

I know this is a lot of questions. I feel that if I can get a grasp on this and get started off on the right foot, everything else will follow (Hopefully). I'm anxious about the whole process because I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, even though all the information is infront of me. It's like a big puzzle, and I've never done it before - so I'm kinda getting my feet wet while going blind. Thanks so much for the responses! Keep em coming!
 
Also - when I do get everything balanced eventually -

Will I only be adding a little bit of bleach everyday with testing? Or will I likely need to be adding other things too? This method is supposed to be simple upkeep, and I think I saw a few members saying that they were just adding the bleach in there daily once it was balanced and all was fine. Am I right?
 
Yes, once you're in balance, it's very easy and you'll only be adding bleach once a day.

Until you get to that point, though, it's almost going to feel like a full time job between checking the FC level every hour, monitoring the filter, brushing the pool, etc. Once you get it right though, you can relax and enjoy the pool.

Good luck.
 
To me, your life will be MUCH easier if you drain 1/2 your pool, then start shocking. Your CYA level is WAY to high, and a level around 40 will save you a ton of headaches. Trying to shock a green pool with a CYA level of 90 is going to drive you insane. It's just to much work to try to not only get ahead of it....but stay ahead of it.

Drain enough water to get to 50PPM CYA....then try shocking the water with a new FC level of 16.
 

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Does anyone else think that I should drain half the pool and fill up? We pay for water by the gallon, so it'd be a costly endeavor.

Also - Should I be trying to balance the PH and CYA while I'm shocking the pool with bleach?

If I'm shocking the pool every hour, should I be pouring the whole amount of bleach to get it to shock FC levels, or just a little at a time?

Thanks so much for the replies.
 
Reading through this and finally Leebo mentions the first step ... replace water to get the CYA in range. And stop using tablets that are only making the CYA problem worse.

Then get the pH set and start the shock process.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
pH must be set in the 7s before shocking as the test is not accurate for FC > 10ppm

Then you continue to add bleach to stay ABOVE the shock FC level ... which you realize is up above 30 something with your current CYA.

Replacing your water will make your life so much easier. Everyone pays for water by the gallon. Reverse osmosis treatment is the only other option and if available by you will cost at least $300.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
Thanks guys! We are considering draining half the pool. There is no drain in the pool, what is the best way to do this?

ALSO - If I decided to keep the water and try to work with it (as the water does not look green at all now) how much bleach/baking soda/borax do you think we are talking? Quite a bit?

I'd almost rather wrastle with it, because draining it seems impossible. Thanks!
 
Brooke,

While the answers you have been given are good, there is a lack of cohesiveness in this thread so let's get you started right.

1. Reduce your CYA to around 50ppm by draining and refilling half your pool. Take no other steps until you do this. Don't try to work with your current CYA level....you must drain about 50% of your water to get your CYA to a manageable level.

2. Do this sooner rather than later. Report back when it's complete and we'll help you start the shock process.
 
Submersible pumps can be rented at home depot. They are also cheap at harbor freight.

You could also put a few water hoses over the side as siphons but that will be slower.

Posted with Tapatalk ... sorry if I sound short ... hate typing on phone :)
 
BrookeW said:
Thanks guys! We are considering draining half the pool. There is no drain in the pool, what is the best way to do this?

ALSO - If I decided to keep the water and try to work with it (as the water does not look green at all now) how much bleach/baking soda/borax do you think we are talking? Quite a bit?

I'd almost rather wrastle with it, because draining it seems impossible. Thanks!
Click to expand...
If your filter allows you to vacuum to waste you can lower the water down till the skimmer starts sucking air. Then, if your hose from the skimmer to the pump is long enough, take it off the skimmer and throw it in the pool. Turn the pump back on and continue to vacuum to waste. If the above is not possible you can do it with a garden hose.

Pretend your filling the pool. Put the end of your garden hose so that it's a foot or two under water. Better with two people. Turn the water on. Allow the water to travel through the hose into the pool. Then kink the hose after the faucet. Detach hose from the faucet and move that hose end where you want it to drain. Make sure that kink stays below the hose end in the pool.

You probably will have to crouch to keep the kink low and position the hose. If you have a slope that's lower then the bottom of the pool then you can lower the hose to the bottom of the pool afterwards. If not you can tie it off so that it sits a foot off the bottom. Once you release the kink, it will siphon off the water from your pool
 
Thanks! We will be draining the pool today and filling up tonight! I'm very nervous that the CYA levels will be the same, but that's just a silly fear. What is a normal range for CYA? The testing kit I have says 30-80. Thanks!
 

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