helping a friend... how many gallons?

[esim13]

Hello all,
I'm trying to help a friend convert to the BBB method. She plans on ordering her test kit tonight so for today we used mine to get starting numbers.
FC 6.5
CC 1
ph 7.5
TA 130
CH 20
CYA 60

Her pool is kidney shaped with a deep end for diving. How to I determine pool size and/or gallons? I roughly figure it to be about 12' wide by 24' long. It's 3' in the shallow end and she said the deep end is 12'. I'm wondering if the deep end footage is correct tho. Seems it might be closer to 8'. When I swam in it a few years ago I don't remember it being 12'. That's the only thing I'm unsure of.

Right now it's bluish green and definitly not clear so I know we need to shock but I need gallons first. Also, it's an older pool so I'm not so sure if it's plaster or gunite. It's been painted over year after year. So not quite sure how to handle TA and CH. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Isaac-1]

Figuring out the size of irregular shaped pools is hard, particularly with being uncertain on depth, but I would guess around 7,000 gallons +/- a couple of thousand, but that is a ballpark figure

 

[zea3]

If the pool had a diving board at any time then it may be 12 feet deep, otherwise I would assume 8 feet unless there is some sort of documentation available. If the results are off after you dose the pool you can determine if it is too much or too little.

Doesn't matter if it is plaster or gunite as far as recommended levels are concerned. Any type of masonry finish is considered plaster for testing purposes. Don't worry about TA, but re-test the CH and confirm the results. If it really is that low you need to raise it to 250 ppm

 

[jblizzle]

Sounds like 10,000 gallons +/- 2,000 gallons ... you need better measurements ... 12' is awfully deep.

I would treat that as a plaster pool ... because it is, just with some paint on it.
TA is not very critical ... I would think the low CH would not be good for the plaster/paint though.

And the CC is a bit high couple with the cloudy, so you know you need the shock process.

 

[esim13]

It did have a diving board at one time. If I go with 12' by 24' by 8' ((12+3) /2) rectangle the pool calc says 17,200 gallons. Using oval it says 15,400.
The 12' by 24' was a quick measurement using my feet today. Tomorrow I will pull out the tape measure and do a real measurement. For now, am I on the right track? Would you use rectangle or oval? I know neither are exact but I'd like to pick one and stick with it. Then I'll be able to see how off I am once we add bleach. I'll check for a more accurate depth tomorrow too.

CH was initially light purple. After 1st drop it was light blue. I did 2nd drop just to make sure. I'll retest again tomorrow too. It seemed crazy low to me too.

Thanks all!

 

[esim13]

So I measure the pool today and it is 16' x 30', give or take kidney shape with a 12' deep end and a 3' shallow end. Plugging that in to pool calc and we get 25,400 gallons. Crazy thing is yesterday I went off of 26,000 gallons and added 4 small jugs of Walmart bleach at about 10am. I was shooting for 18 and when I tested it was nearly 26. I'm baffled by that one but guessing it was the 8.25% instead of 6% that I forgot to figure in... more over since I had to leave I asked friend to add another small jug before she went to bed. I knew she wouldn't have the kit to test but I wanted to keep the chlorine going in. This pool started a very dark blueish green so at the least, she did need chlorine. Most of what happened yesterday went against my better judgement but I wasn't sure what else to do. I went over there at 8:30 this morning.. FC was 27. She added 2 jugs last night instead of one. When I left at 1:30 FC was only down to 23 and this was after she backwashed and vaccummed to waste, with a water hose refill to raise water back up a bit. Does any of this sound off? I would have thought she would have lost more chlorine bc of the condition and color of water. She did say she ordered a kit last night. In the meantime, I think she has more of a problem then she first thought. It seems her main drain doesn't work, and her skimmer is barely working. She thinks something may be clogging the skimmer line. She is supposed to work on clearing this evening or tomorrow. So I guess my main question is... if she ever gets the pool to clear will she be able to maintain it with a barely working skimmer and a non existent main drain? I know she doesn't have the funds to have the lines properly fixed. In fact, a few years back she closed the original return lines and ran new ones that come over the cement decking. I did notice air in the pump basket too. I'm hoping she can get by with everything like this... I know it's going to be a tougher battle but it's way better than it used to be...