New Homeowner - CLEAN POOL [back to shocking.]

[RockstarSD]

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!

 

[jblizzle]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Welcome to TFP!

That low pH is is not good at all. You need to get it back up in the 7s using either borax or soda ash. But, please realize that test strips are notoriously inaccurate ... and testing at pool stores seems to be only slightly better.

Lowering TA takes time and it is very low on the priority list.

Start reading Pool School a few times and order yourself a proper recommended test kit ... see my signature for links.

Once you get the test kit, you need to go through the shock process as described in Pool School, but getting your pH in line is top priority.

Feel free to ask questions about anything you read that you do not understand.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

I referenced that I added 14 lbs of ph minus - that's the product name for the "came with the house" Sodium Bisulfate. I'm going to do some more reading now that I know what all my chemicals are. Maybe I'll have this all figured out by the time someone reads this and instead of a "please tell me what to do" kind of post it'll turn into a "am I doing this right" kind of post.

These are the chemicals I have on hand:

(no idea how old these are, they came with the house)
1 Gal: 15% available chlorine, 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite, 87.5% other
~1 Gal: Muriatic Acid (20 Baume Hydrochloric Acid 31.45%)
~7 lbs: Sodium Bisulfate 92%
2 lbs: Cal Hypo 52%, Other 48%

(and I just spent $350 bucks the other day at a pool store for these)
20 lbs: Sodium Dichlor 63.05%, Copper Citrate .73%, Other 36.22%
95 tablets: Trichloro-s-Triazinetrione 93.5%, Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate 1.5%, Inert 5%

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Posted my last reply before I saw yours, JB. I will certainly get on ordering a test kit (looks like I'm going to go with a TF100) , but the earliest I can have that is probably Tuesday, and I'd REALLY like to get my pregnant wife in the pool by Sunday, even if it means I have to spend all day tomorrow (today?) brushing, back flushing and adding various chemicals. I realize that I may be pipe dreaming, but I have to give it a shot.

Thanks for the response. I'll go back over pool school a few more times to start getting the material committed to memory.

 

[257WbyMag]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Welcome to TFP!

A good test kit is in order for sure. The TF-100 from tftestkits.net is an excellent kit that will serve you well.

Is there any way that you might be able to return the newly purchased tablets and such? We don't recommend anything that has copper in it since copper can stain surfaces and cause hair to take on a greenish tint. There are tablets and bags of dichlor that don't have copper. Both of these are stabilized forms of chlorine too and we would need to know if you need any stabilizer at this point before adding any more.

 

[jblizzle]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

I agree. Please try to take those products back. Unfortunately, the pool store may not be very open to that. You should stick with liquid chlorine / bleach until you know what your true CYA level is. Maybe they would at least give you store credit that you could use for something you actually need.

We call this being pool-stored ... but don't feel bad, we have ALL been there.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Was DEFINITELY pool stored. Oi. I miss my pool guy and SWG already and I haven't even been here for a week! I may be able to take 12 of the 24 1lb bags of "shock" back, but I already used 5 of the 100 tablet bucket so don't think that'll work.

At this point it looks like I'm going to picking up some borax. Oh boy... A boatload of borax. The pool calculator says that I need to add nearly 40 lbs of borax to get the PH back up to 7.5! That seems like a whole lot to me... Though I suppose I didn't scoff at just tossing in 28 lbs of ph minus over the past few days.

Alright, we'll do that first. If I'm reading pool school correctly, I should disolve the borax in water and pour it very slowly in front of one of the returns - perhaps 5-10 minutes for that amount? And I'll probably do it in 1/2 or 1/3 batches and wait an hour in between to let it disperse.

Thoughts?

 

[jblizzle]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

I might recommend using soda ash / washing soda instead. Adding that much borax and thus borates to your pool might not be a good idea as it makes TA adjustment hard ... and you are not to that step yet.

And be sure to test the pH accompanied hour after each adjustment to be sure you do not overshoot the other way. 7.2 or above is fine.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Pool School tells me that I can use aeration to increase pH without raising TA. I think I'll give that a shot overnight to see if it helps at all - may help cut down on the amount of borax or soda ash (if I can find it) that I need to add.

So if I read this correctly - I'm going to be buying a bunch of pH+ (whatever i decide on, preferably soda ash) and about a barrel of bleach. Then tomorrow is going to be spent adding various chemicals and scrubbing the heck out of the pool.

After that I'll work on lowering TA. Yes?

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Oh, and then there's the whole thing about my CYA testing as 0... Should I be picking up some stabilizer tomorrow in addition to the borax/soda ash, bleach, and pvc to make an aerator?

 

[kimkats]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Just buy bleach right now. Bleach is your friend. I wish I could find the picture of the rows of bleach someone had to go through. BUT it worked!

Do not add any thing other than bleach to your pool until you get your test kit.

You should be able to sell your tablets on Craigs list.

It can be done. Just read, read, read pool school.

Kim

 

[jblizzle]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

ideally you want the CYA up around 30ppm for the shock process to protect the FC from the sun. But there is the question of what level you are really starting with and you would not want up overshoot.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

I know that I'm kind of flying blind here because I only have the HTH Test Strips. They are still reading 0 FC, even after adding 6 192oz bottles of 6% bleach.

I brushed the heebejeebies out of it and have to go back out anyway, so I'm going to pick up several more bottles so I can stay on it.

My TFT Kit won't be here until sometime mid week, is there another kit I can pick up locally (preferably at a wal mart) that will give me move accurate results on FC until then?

Also, my pool is going to be in direct sunlight for another 6 hours today. The HTH 6 Way Strips have my CYA at basically 0 - the local wal mart didn't have CYA or anything labeled stabalizer - but should I even worry about that for now, or just keep going with lots of bleach until I get some kind of read the HTH strips?

 

[linen]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

My TFT Kit won't be here until sometime mid week, is there another kit I can pick up locally (preferably at a wal mart) that will give me move accurate results on FC until then?

This will limp you by: http://www.walmart.com/ip/HTH-6-Way-Test-Kit/17043668, but it won't do FC only TC up to 5 ppm.

Also, my pool is going to be in direct sunlight for another 6 hours today. The HTH 6 Way Strips have my CYA at basically 0 - the local wal mart didn't have CYA or anything labeled stabalizer - but should I even worry about that for now, or just keep going with lots of bleach until I get some kind of read the HTH strips?

Don't trust the strips for cya. Have used trichlor pucks or dichlor granules in the past? They both add cya to the water.

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

so after 10 192oz bottles of 6% bleach, 1 gallon of 15% "shock", two lbs of cal hypo "shock", two lbs of dichlor "shock", and 5 trichlor tablets in the skimmer, I'm up to above 5 chlorine on the 3 way hth test. the pool is no longer green, so that's good. I'm going to wait and test now throughout the day, and keep brushing. hopefully the filter will do its job and get rid of all my dead algae.

after we are clearish again I will add a bunch of soda ash (could only find it as ph plus from hth but it was cheaper than borax so) and then work on the acid/aeration process to bring the alkalinity down.

and hopefully before I do too much else my TFT kit will get here.

I'll keep updating as I progress. thanks everyone for your help!!!

 

[kimkats]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

Keep adding bleach. You are not done with the shocking PROCESS.

Shocking:
Measure the FC level
Add enough chlorine to bring FC up to shock level (or a little higher)
Repeat steps 1 and 2 as frequently as practical, but not more than once per hour, and not less than twice a day, until:
CC is 0.5 or lower;
An overnight FC loss test shows a loss of 1.0 ppm or less;
And the water is clear.

You can do it! Let us know your progress!

Kim

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

I can't test for fc currently, just cc until my TFT test gets here. i monitoring the levels as best I can with test strips and a three way hth kit.

I'm starting to wonder about my filter though. it's on 24/7 currently but isn't increasing in pressure (to indicate its time for a backwash) and the water is still very cloudy white.

gonna see if I can find anything about how much sand/gravel should be in it and make sure it's where it should be.

 

[Swampwoman]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

In my experience with a swamp, a sand filter will take a couple of days to clear particulate/dead algae in the water, depending on how murky it is...even a week. So your filter *may* be working properly...you should see daily increased clarity, for example, but not really hourly per se.

 

[RockstarSD]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

The water stayed cloudy white/blue overnight and TC dropped from 5 or above to somewhere in the 1 department. I've added more bleach to compensate and will be checking the levels again here shortly. I'm concerned that I'm not going to have enough because my CYA still shows as 0 on the oh so wonderful :: sarcasm :: strip tests and my pool is in direct sunlight for 8-10 hours a day. We're also expecting another almost triple digits day, so I'm just going to have to stay on it.

I was able to see deeper into the pool as I was brushing this morning, so I think that the filter is working properly, if slowly.

TFT Kit should be shipping today, hopefully I'll see it sooner rather than later, but until then I can keep going with the 3 way hth kit that linen recommended. I also have to go into town today, maybe I'll stop by a Leslies and see if I can get the FAS-DPD kit to hold me over a little better than the 3 way.

 

[UnderWaterVanya]

Re: New Homeowner - Green Pool

TFT Kit should be shipping today, hopefully I'll see it sooner rather than later, but until then I can keep going with the 3 way hth kit that linen recommended. I also have to go into town today, maybe I'll stop by a Leslies and see if I can get the FAS-DPD kit to hold me over a little better than the 3 way.

You cannot typically buy the FAS-DPD kit at Leslie's. They sell a K-2005 rebranded kit which as a DPD test but not a FAS-DPD test don't get confused by that.

If you have to have something any old OTO drop based Chlorine/PH block will work with distilled water dillution. You can dilute 2:1, 3:1, 4:1 or whatever and use the colors to get a basic approximation. This isn't very accurate - but it can keep you in the ballpark for now.