New Homeowner - CLEAN POOL [back to shocking.]

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Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

My TF Test Kit order was received, but didn't ship out yesterday for whatever reason. They assured me it would ship today, so hopefully I'll have it before the week is out. I found a local supplier (yourpoolhq.com) who had everything I need to fix the pump head that I cracked :/ AND 12.5% liquid chlorine for about 3.50 a gallon. I will be stopping by there today to pick all the stuff up, but am going to have to wait until I get the kit to start shocking again.

:( Hopefully I'll be able to swim by this weekend!
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Realize that the shock process can take awhile to complete. Killing the algae can be pretty fast, but the clearing of the pool sometimes takes awhile depending on your filter setup.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short ;)
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Test kit shipped yesterday and should be here Thursday. That can't get here soon enough because I'm afraid to keep pouring bleach in when I cant get valid levels and when my pool has been blue but cloudy for 3 days now.

Once I'm able to properly test, is there anything that I can do to help speed along the clearing process? Clarifier, perhaps? Something that will bind to the smaller algae particles and help bulk them up some so the sand filter can grab them easier?

I'm worried about keeping my pool at shock level for two weeks until it's clear (if it takes that long) without adding anything else because if my CYA levels are as low as I think they are, I'm going to lose a boadload of chlorine, and I worry about the pH being super low at the moment too.

I'll post a full set of levels with the TFT100 on Thursday, but really trying to step up my plan of attack for after that. I just bought 32 gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine today, so hopefully between being able to properly test and shock, I'll be back to a crystal clear pool sooner rather than later!
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Once you get the kit. Do a full set and then adjust the CYA to at least 30ppm. Then continue the shock process.

You could try putting as little DE in your filter to grab stuff a little more quickly.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short ;)
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Posting this mostly as a curiosity, and because I can't test for real until my kit comes tomorrow. And then at dusk - SHOCK PROCESS TIME!

I just ran the two test in an HTH 3 way kit with 3:1 tap water:pool water.

TC = .5 x 4 = 2
FC = 1 x 4 = 4 (this is a MAJOR estimate based on the fact that the test block was in the 1-2 range for 10-15 seconds and then dropped down into the .5 range after it stabilized.)
pH = 7.2 (not sure how/if it's possible to calculate this out for the dilution?)

On its own, tap water shows 0 chlorine and a pH of about 7 - we're on well water, which explains the lack of chlorine.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Try the test without dilution, since 4 is in range.

TC cannot be less than FC... ever.
In theory if you let the test block sit for several minutes you get TC but I haven't tried this and if it works the color will get darker not lighter. (it could also stay the same)
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

YAY! TEST KIT IS HERE! Little upset that the Taylor block kit is basically the same thing I already have - but now I have two sets of the reagents for the "spot" tests for CC and pH, so I guess I'll live. Also just bought a 50lb bag of DE to help supplement my sand filter. Before I do anything below I'm going to dump a cup at a time (give or take) into the skimmer basket and wait several minutes for the pump to stabilize, until my psi reads one lb higher than it did before DE. This sand filter is SLOW and I really would like this pool to clear before the weekend. In other news, after all that swirling I think I will definitely be looking into getting some kind of automatic swirler.

Full panel results:

pH 7.2 - 7.5 With the taylor kit.
fc 1
cc 3
ta 320-400 At 320 the sample turned a definite pink and stayed that way. At 360 it was a nice HOT pink, and then there was no detectable change between 360 and 400 so I stopped there.
ch 310-330. It turned what I think was blue (vs. purple/grey) at 310 and then didn't change again at 330 so i stopped.
cya 15-20. I don't THINK i could see the dot at 20 and I definitely couldn't at 15, so yeah.

So. CYA is a little low for normal use, but I think it'll serve me just fine for the shocking process. Based on chlorine/cya chart and the pool calc, here's what I plan to do.

Since I can't tell if i had 15 or 20 cya, I'm going to assume 20 since that's going to be mean more chlorine to be safe. So we'll estimate that I'm starting with 1fc, 20cya, and have a non-swg pool.

Shock fc of 10 means I need to add 206 oz of 12.5% bleach. I think that to be extra safe and because I'm lazy and don't want to measure bleach, I'm going to just dump two gallons in for the start of this process - which will bring me to a shock level of JUST over 12 fc. Then I will brush, spend 20 minutes putting together my wifes new computer desk, and then go back out and test again. At this point the pool is well out of direct sunlight, so I should be good to start.

If at time of the second testing I've dropped any FC levels, I'll use the pool calc again to determine the correct amount of bleach to add, add it, and brush again.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Sounds like a good plan.

For the color changing tests, you add until a drop does not continue to change the color and then that drop does not count.
So, based on your description TA = 360, CH = 310
TA is pretty high, but nothing to worry about right now, it will tend to make the pH rise though.

It also would not hurt to raise the CYA up to about 30ppm to help protect the FC from the sun ... then raise it a little more if you like after completing the shock process.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Alright. Added DE and liquid chlorine. Took about 4 cups of DE by volume to raise the filter pressure on my TR60 by 1psi. Added 2 gallons of 12.5% chlorine, so my fc level should be about 12 at this point. I then brushed as much of the devil out of it as I could what with not being able to see very far into the deep end, and I just set a timer for 30 minutes to go to the fc/cc test again.

As for adding CYA, I really would like to not have to take a trip to the pool store again tomorrow - it's about 30 minutes away and it's kind of a pain to get there. I have several 3" trichlor pucks. I remember reading here somewher that the trichlor adds cya. I'll see if I can find that again and do some maths to figure out how many to add to get to a good level of 30-50 to protect me from the sun tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for all your help! I will make sure to post updates as the night progresses!
 

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Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

You can use poolcalculator to determine how much FC and CYA the tablets will add. They are trichlor and each puck is 7-8 oz. So each puck is ~2.4ppm FC and ~1.4ppm CYA

That is a slow way to add CYA, but it will also help keep the FC up. Make sure they are not in the pool when doing the OCLT though.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

Excellent, thanks for the tip and the warning Jason. I was just going to toss them in after the next about to take place right meow. I will wait until I pass the OCLT before I start adding the trichlor pucks.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

I hope you were not literally going to throw them in ... to be clear, the best place for the pucks is a floating basket of in-line chlorinator. Skimmer is not usually a good idea and throwing them in will bleach the liner.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

lol Jason, no, I was not going to just throw them in, sorry, should have clarified. was going to put then in the skimmer basket.

i don't have a floater dealie, is there another method you'd recommend instead of the skimmer until I can pick up a floater? perhaps an old sock strung on a line in the middleish of the pool?
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

You just do not want them near your liner (in fact if a floater gets stuck it can fade the liner also). It is best not to use the skimmer, but ... if you leave the pump on 24/7 while they are in there, you will lessen the likelihood of problems.

The major problems happen when the very acidic pucks are sitting in that little basket of water with the pump off ... the FC get HIGH and the pH gets LOW and then when the pump comes on you suck that very acidic water right through all the equipment.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

Ahh, all good things to know. I currently don't know any other method of pump operation apart from the 24/7 method, and probably won't until I either 1) get a timer or 2) at least put a switch on the little bugger so I don't have to plug/unplug every time.

I realize that this is likely a waste of electricity, but that's pretty cheap as the averages go out here and we're used to San Diego prices, so a couple extra dollars a month to run the pump 24/7 during pool season isn't a big deal. I'll see what I can do about picking up a floater, but I think I'll stick with the pucks in the skimmer for now since I do use the pump 24/7 and according to conservative estimates with a 60GPM pump/filter, I should be turning over the pool water 4 times in a 24 hour period to make sure that it's all getting moved around and etc.

In other news, I just finished brushing and skimming for the second time in the shock process, and decided I should check and empty the skimmer and pump baskets too. Skimmer basket went off without a hitch, but the pump basket is protected by this guy, so that'll have to wait until he's dead and gone or it's too dirty for me to leave it be.

Edit: I swear I posted my second set of test results, but I guess not. These are the results just before the brushing/skimming/spidering above.

fc was 5
cc was 11.5

I added another gallon of 12.5% to get just over my shock level of 10 and will test again in 5 or 10 minutes at this point. You all weren't kidding, this IS a process. But I find that I'm enjoying it a lot.
 

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Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

I'm sure he's harmless, but I don't do spiders that are big enough to make squishy sounds when I squish them. NOPE NOPE NOPE! :shock: :shock: :shock:
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

test 3:

fc: 6
cc: 12

Question: When I'm running the fc test, I add the powder and then swirl to mix, then add the reagent until it turns clear. Now - how long do I wait to verify "clear?" My sample this time turned clear after about 3 drops, but about 5 seconds later was pink again. I didn't get it to stay clear for more than 5 seconds until after 12 drops. Thoughts on this? I ask this question because I've seen a few posts that indicate that the sample may turn pink again if it's left for a few minutes, but I figured that clear to pink in 5 seconds wasn't long enough to justify stopping.

CC was clear for 30 seconds after 24 drops.

I'm going to go add another gallon of 12.5% and brush.
 
Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool [shocking process in progress

I added DE to my sand filter today when PSI was 12. DE brought it up to 13 after about 2 minutes and it stayed there. I'm reading that I should backwash when my PSI increases by 25-30%. Current pressure is about 16 - If I follow the 30% rule, that would mean I need to backwash at 16.9 or 17. Back washing is okay in the shocking process, yes?
 

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