I also am on my first year of Salt. Not having a good year. upgraded my filter system to 2500 from 1500. Like it alot better. Anyway, Fri started to notice some green. got in and swept it, but Sat it was alot worse. Took water to pool store and tested it. Results- FC 0, TC-0, CC-0, ph-7.9, Hardness-160, Alk-129, CYan-5, copper-0, Iron-0. Told me to add muriatic acid, 1qt1pt. I did this but it is much worse this morn. I have read alot of post and notice you are saying use liquid bleach. How much should I use? It also says my sanitizer is low and to add 1large tablet of GLB. I do not understand what I am supposed to get. I read about the stocking hanging in the pool. Can I get this somewhere besides a pool store as they are all closed? Or should I get in and sweep really good today, then add the bleach? Will that be a problem with my muriatic acid? It was added over 12 hrs ago. My 5yr old grandaughter is coming to visit in a week and all she has been talking about is swimming in my pool. Help please. Thanks
Fri started to notice some green
- Thread starter Pegarcoop51
- Start date
Welcome to the forum 
You need to read POOL SCHOOL upper right of the screen.
Start with: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool
You can purchase stabilizer at Wal-mart.
You need to read POOL SCHOOL upper right of the screen.
Start with: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool
You can purchase stabilizer at Wal-mart.
elwood58
LifeTime Supporter
You need to get some chlorine and CYA in your pool. The CYA is available at Walmart (Purple Top) and likely called stabilizer. Put it in a sock and hang it in front of the water return. The Muriatic Acid has long since mixed in, so do not worry about that. Go to Poolcalculator.com and put in the particulars of your pool. It will tell you how much to add. Pool school (Link at top of every page) will tell you how to go about the shock process, which you certainly need to do.
You say you are running salt, so i assume you have a SWCG, and need to figure out why that is not producing chlorine, or not enough anyway.
You say you are running salt, so i assume you have a SWCG, and need to figure out why that is not producing chlorine, or not enough anyway.
It would be helpful to get a better grasp of the basics before shocking your pool. read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School
Don't trust pool store number you need to have your own test kit. Tf100 from tftestkits.com is the best deal
With out a fas/dpd test wong be able to get rid of the green and keep it away
Good test kit
Pool school
Pool calculator
All the tools needed to clear a pool
With out a fas/dpd test wong be able to get rid of the green and keep it away
Good test kit
Pool school
Pool calculator
All the tools needed to clear a pool
Good advice listen to the pool wizards here and you will have sparkly blue water.
The tf100 test kit is a must to properly balance and maintain your soon to be sparkly blue pool
The tf100 test kit is a must to properly balance and maintain your soon to be sparkly blue pool
thank you all. I have read pool school several times now and even was going to copy pages to have outside, but of course ran out of black ink. Not my day. Anyway I keep trying to use the pool calculator to figure out how much bleach and I guess I am just stupid cause it only tells me 0. It does tell me stabilizer tho., So I need to go buy bleach and shock it first, correct? It is an 18 x 48 vinyl with round top. says 5455 gal. Do I need to get in and sweep it first again? I was told using salt water I would not have to do all this. When I got the first swg it would not work correctly, so I had to wait 1 wk on a new one, then temps were over 100, and I then upgraded to bigger pump. I will be using this site constantly. Thank you but if someone knows how much bleach I need I would appreciate the help.
147 oz of 6% bleach will take you to 13 FC. That's a gallon and 2 cups. Remember, that's just the first dose. You'll need to add more, depending on the level, in as little as an hour. As soon as you dump that in, you can measure out 22 ox of cranular stabilizer in a sock, tie it up, and hang it in front of the return jet.
You're really going to have a battle without your own proper test kit. It would be like trying to follow a recipe without owning a measuring cup. Or painting with a blindfold on.
You're really going to have a battle without your own proper test kit. It would be like trying to follow a recipe without owning a measuring cup. Or painting with a blindfold on.
I just went to wm and bought 4 gal of bleach. I also bought the better than average test kit there. It will have to work for now. I also bought stabilizer. I guess what is confusing me is can I use the same things like stabilizer for chorine pool and saltwater pool. Guess I thought I would have to buy different. I am going out to do it now. Thanks for your help. I understand I need to wait about 4 hrs, retest water and then do it again. Correct?
There ain't no difference between a chlorine pool and a saltwater pool - they use the same chemical to sanitize. One has it made at a factory somewhere where it gets bottled up. One does it next to your pool.Pegarcoop51 said:
ok, I have been reading and copying for 3hrs now plus working on my pool. One thing I dont understand is it says bring your pool up to shock level. How do I know what my shock level is? Does that just mean above the recommended numbers? Getting ready to test my pool again. Also a dumb question. Of course I cannot get in the water with all this bleach so I guess it is ok to brush with a long handled brush from the outside, right?
ok, just tested my water. My ph is 6.8, clorine only goes to 5 but is over that. alkalinity tested 95. Do I shock again tonight?
ok I looked up my Cya level when it was tested and looked on chart. My number is not even on the chart. It was a 5. I have shocked 2xs. Left for work, did not shock again. How do I know if I have shocked enough. My readings are above from the last time. Please help.
Hi Pegarcoop51 and welcome to TFP! 
Here's the scoop in a nutshell,
First having a proper testing kit is mandatory in my opinion. (TF-100 is the most preferred and if you have a green ugly pool get the XL option)
This would be the Snap-On tool of this trade to fix, maintain and prevent any pool water problem you will have and not have.
There are many posts here for a lot of struggling people that try to get away with a cheaper test kit that does not have the FAS-DPD chlorine test in the kit. This type of kit uses powder and drops to determine chlorine levels in ppm. This type of tester can test up to 50 ppm, that's right I said 50 ppm!
Your standard drop based testing kits only go up to 5 ppm.
Read up here about test kits:
pool-school/pool_test_kit_comparison
Order online here:
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html
Or here:
http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/poolsupp ... TF-100.htm
Once you have your kit, follow these instructions here:
what-we-need-to-know-to-answer-your-questions-t10341.html
We all have been in your shoes when we first got here!
I know it can be overwhelming at first, but with the help here and learning it will be very elementary soon.
Read, read and read here and get a free college education!
Pool School here:
pool-school/
Read up on other postings too, if you find a mod you like, go and read all of their posts! Big lessons to big had doing it that way!
My pool is perfect now all the time
and screams at us every minute of the day to come swimming! 
Chuck
Here's the scoop in a nutshell,
First having a proper testing kit is mandatory in my opinion. (TF-100 is the most preferred and if you have a green ugly pool get the XL option)
This would be the Snap-On tool of this trade to fix, maintain and prevent any pool water problem you will have and not have.
There are many posts here for a lot of struggling people that try to get away with a cheaper test kit that does not have the FAS-DPD chlorine test in the kit. This type of kit uses powder and drops to determine chlorine levels in ppm. This type of tester can test up to 50 ppm, that's right I said 50 ppm!
Your standard drop based testing kits only go up to 5 ppm.
Read up here about test kits:
pool-school/pool_test_kit_comparison
Order online here:
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html
Or here:
http://www.poolsupplyworld.com/poolsupp ... TF-100.htm
Once you have your kit, follow these instructions here:
what-we-need-to-know-to-answer-your-questions-t10341.html
We all have been in your shoes when we first got here!
I know it can be overwhelming at first, but with the help here and learning it will be very elementary soon.
Read, read and read here and get a free college education!
Pool School here:
pool-school/
Read up on other postings too, if you find a mod you like, go and read all of their posts! Big lessons to big had doing it that way!
My pool is perfect now all the time
and screams at us every minute of the day to come swimming! Chuck
supertune said:
As a pool noobie, I can attest to this (just to reinforce the point). I am sooooo glad I was told to read this site and not get into bad habits early on, especially using the dichlor and trichlor and buying supplies at a pool store (unless you have no other option). I would have NEVER thought to just use household products to maintain our pool unless I read this site. The experts here have ironed out all the wrinkles and made pool maintenance as easy as possible, so read up and trust the process they outline.
My wife's is doing physical therapy right now and her therapist said "your pool is going to be green with all the rain we're having" and my wife told him "nope, it's crystal clear". Thought that was funny.
thank you for taking the time to answer. I am giving up and ordering the test kit. I bought one at WM but it is just not good enough. Wasted my money. I dont mean to be dense, but I have vertigo and sometimes what I read just goes up against a brick wall. After reading again, please tell me if I am correct. So far I have used approx 2 1/2 gal bleach. I have hung the stabilizer over the pool return in a sock. I am testing but since it does not go over 5 ppm that does not get me very far. So from reading I take it I should shock again and then wait til I get my kit. I guess I am afraid I will over shock. Is that possible?
Yes, it's possible. It will bleach out your liner.Pegarcoop51 said:
But you do need to maintain high FC or the bleach you've poured in already was for nothing. And you have a deadline to meet with the granddaughter coming. You'll probably be safe putting a quart in every 4 hours. Don't forget to brush the green stuff - it grows a protective film and you want the chlorine to penetrate that.
ok, but I can only brush from the outside, right? Dont want to disappear in there. LOL Also, I have not put in any bleach since last night, so I need to start again with a qt every 4 hrs. Right?