I just bought me a home in Kennard, Nebraska (just outside of Omaha) and one of the main selling features was the pool. Well, the owners had moved out and stopped treating the pool for two weeks before I moved in, and now I'm left with a cloudy green mess instead of a sparkling blue oasis!
I am no stranger to owning a pool and keeping it free of debris, but unfortunately my last pool (my cousins) was maintained weekly by a pool person and I never learned even the basics of chemical management. In addition, the previous pool was SWG, and my new one is a standard add your own chemicals pool.
I want to learn how to do all of this properly, but I need some direction to get this thing back to a swimable point before I can take the time to slowly learn the plethora of information required to maintain it properly. I did a bit of reading and it looks like I need to brush, shock, and backflush the heck out of it, but some direction would be greatly appreciated.
For the past week I haven't been able to get a FC reading greater than 0. A few days ago I took a sample to Continental Pool & Spa down in Omaha and based on the results they had me brush it, add 4 lbs of shock (not cal-hypo but I can't remember the specific chemical at the moment) then add about 4 lbs of ph minus, and 32oz of a copper reducer. I did all of that, in the order recommended, and then added two chlorine tablets - and I don't think there's been any improvement.
My most recent test from this evening (forgive me, I only have the 6 way test strips from HTH - I'll get better ones tomorrow) is as follows.
Total Hardness: 100-200ppm (stayed stable since a few days ago)
Free Chlorine: 0 (has been here for days now)
PH: 6.4-6.8 (this has gone down some since a few days ago)
Alkaline: >240 (hasn't moved in days)
CYA: 0-30. (this was in an acceptable range a few days ago, is now low)
I may have made a bit of a boo boo tonight before stumbling on this site. I added another 14 lbs of ph minus trying to get that Dang alkalinity down. That was about 2 hours ago now and my last test still has the alkalinity off the charts above 240.
Some more general information: pool gets direct sunlight form 7AM to 5PM, and we've been averaging an outside temperature of 99-103 every day for the past two weeks.
I would really like to get this pool swimable. This heat is killing us all an we're about to hit our first weekend in the new house with a nasty green pool that we can't swim in!
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer, it's seriously appreciated by the 4.5 (wife is pregnant) of us that live her!
I am no stranger to owning a pool and keeping it free of debris, but unfortunately my last pool (my cousins) was maintained weekly by a pool person and I never learned even the basics of chemical management. In addition, the previous pool was SWG, and my new one is a standard add your own chemicals pool.
I want to learn how to do all of this properly, but I need some direction to get this thing back to a swimable point before I can take the time to slowly learn the plethora of information required to maintain it properly. I did a bit of reading and it looks like I need to brush, shock, and backflush the heck out of it, but some direction would be greatly appreciated.
For the past week I haven't been able to get a FC reading greater than 0. A few days ago I took a sample to Continental Pool & Spa down in Omaha and based on the results they had me brush it, add 4 lbs of shock (not cal-hypo but I can't remember the specific chemical at the moment) then add about 4 lbs of ph minus, and 32oz of a copper reducer. I did all of that, in the order recommended, and then added two chlorine tablets - and I don't think there's been any improvement.
My most recent test from this evening (forgive me, I only have the 6 way test strips from HTH - I'll get better ones tomorrow) is as follows.
Total Hardness: 100-200ppm (stayed stable since a few days ago)
Free Chlorine: 0 (has been here for days now)
PH: 6.4-6.8 (this has gone down some since a few days ago)
Alkaline: >240 (hasn't moved in days)
CYA: 0-30. (this was in an acceptable range a few days ago, is now low)
I may have made a bit of a boo boo tonight before stumbling on this site. I added another 14 lbs of ph minus trying to get that Dang alkalinity down. That was about 2 hours ago now and my last test still has the alkalinity off the charts above 240.
Some more general information: pool gets direct sunlight form 7AM to 5PM, and we've been averaging an outside temperature of 99-103 every day for the past two weeks.
I would really like to get this pool swimable. This heat is killing us all an we're about to hit our first weekend in the new house with a nasty green pool that we can't swim in!
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer, it's seriously appreciated by the 4.5 (wife is pregnant) of us that live her!