Just Keep Going? My Odyssey...

Jump to latest Follow Reply
C

coachmarino

0
Jun 17, 2013
29
...lived in the city in apartments for 10 years, never had a family pool...

...met a girl, moved to the suburbs, inherited HER pool...

Brief History:
Uncovered pool for over a year, previous filter broke, pool is green, cloudy, full of leaves

May 31 starting point

- me and another first timer put in a sand filtration system. I think it's working...
- we take a ton of leaves out, and she starts pouring 'mega shock' in the thing like it's nobody's business. Or so I thought...
- lots of leaves in the skimmer, we pull out when necessary
- we backwash the pool when we see the water flow slow considerably, I don't think the gauge is working that well, but I don't know
- still pouring shock in the pool periodically, not much change, I mean I guess pool a bit clearer, but certainly green
- she takes some water down to the local pool place they give her the following steps:
---- put three pounds of powdered shock in, wait four hours
---- if it's not blue, put three more pounds of powdered shock in, wait four hours
---- if blue, put superfloc in, there were some instructions in the there for the filter too, wait and then the cloud will form a gel at the bottom of the pool, then vacuum up
- Pool water finally turns blue! I screw up the vaccuum process. Water is green the next day
- We start the process again, I start hearing all sorts of opinions, shocking, baking soda!
- I do some research, find this site and a couple of others
- I decide to try BBB
- First I go nuts on Borax, 8 boxes to get the pH to the 7.0-7.2 range
- Then I start pouring bleach in, but clearly it's not the best bleach for this because the water gets sudsy.
- Pool water starts to clear you can see the steps on the ladder! You can see the big piles of junk on the bottom (well, shadows anyway)
- but pool water is still mostly cloudy, it's aqua blue and cloudy

I think this basically takes us to last Wednesday

I stopped adding chlorine because the readings were so high, I'm thinking I probably shouldn't do that, I had lost the head to the brush/vacuum, so we weren't doing that either

I'm back to using the MegaShock from Ocean State Job lot, it's 12% per gallon, and it's like $3 a bottle, and I can't seem to find great bleach. I got some from KMart (yeah, who knew they were still around), but it was 8% per gallon and $2 per bottle, and still had some suds, assuming from bleach additives

Moved good quantities of leaves over the past couple of days, I don't see the shadows at the bottom of the pool anymore, or, I should say these are a lot smaller

I gave the pool a thorough brushing this morning, I plan on doing that each day

I want to add three more gallons of shock tonight when it's dark?

The pool has never had stabilizer added, so I'm not sure if the readings are accurate? Right now it's saying 100 or so, but it's been lower

Can I assume that the CYA total is going to be warped by the shocking process like the pH?

Do you guys think I'm on the right track?

Current status is aqua blue and cloudy (milky white) I can see some shadows where I'm assuming there are leaves, waste product of some sort, but these are almost gone now. The pool starts to get clearer, but then when I move stuff around it gets cloudy again, I'm assuming that's from algae getting kicked up.

I'm putting more water in right now to get it half way up the skimmer, with all the backwashing and adjustments the water level was in the skimmer, but not that high.

Just looking for general feedback, thoughts, etc.

This is an above ground pool, 15,000 gallons

Thanks!
 
Just looking for general feedback, thoughts, etc.
Click to expand...
I am going to be quite blunt...you are NOT on the right track.

Briefly scanning your post, it appears you are simply tossing stuff into the pool hoping for a positive outcome. That's not what we teach.

You must give us a starting point that tells us where your water chemistry is. That starting point is a set of valid, current test results....

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

If you will get those for us, we can begin to help.
 
FC - 18.5
pH - 8.0
TA - 100
CH - 150
CYA - 100

I don't think I'm simply tossing stuff in anymore...but I'm certainly not being very scientific. I just need to know if I need to reverse any processes.



duraleigh said:
Just looking for general feedback, thoughts, etc.
Click to expand...
I am going to be quite blunt...you are NOT on the right track.

Briefly scanning your post, it appears you are simply tossing stuff into the pool hoping for a positive outcome. That's not what we teach.

You must give us a starting point that tells us where your water chemistry is. That starting point is a set of valid, current test results....

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

If you will get those for us, we can begin to help.
Click to expand...
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!! :wave:

Also looks like your CYA is much too high ... have you been using any trichlor or dichlor?

Are you testing yourself? Which kit?

Try the CYA test using 50/50 mix of tap and pool water to start and then double the result ... this will give you a better idea of how high it really is and thus tell you how much water you should replace to get the CYA to a manageable level.

THEN, you need to follow the Shocking Your Pool PROCESS
 
jblizzle said:
coachmarino said:
toofast said:
What is the CC, as this is a MAJOR KEY....
Click to expand...

Is the CC the Total Chlorine? I think this is 20.

First time with all of this...
Click to expand...

No. TC = FC + CC.

Have you read through Pool School yet?
pool-school/pool_water_chemistry
pool-school/swimming_pool_definitions_abbreviations
Click to expand...

So CC is 1.5. 1.5 (CC) +18.5 (FC) = 20

I've read all that, but to be honest, I've read so much my head hurts.

And like many of you, I do have a full time job!
 
I'm wondering if some of the "goo" you dumped in with your mystery bleach might be contributing to the cloudy water.

It's not really that hard to find plain bleach, so I don't understand why you would not just once, but at least twice dump bleach into the water that was obviously not "just" bleach - are you trying to make the problem worse or is it just not important enough to make sure you buy the right kind?
 
I here ya' Coach. You have given us some data to work with so let's just address the CYA for now. 100 ppm (perhaps higher) is w-a-ay too much to successfully manage your pool water. You need to drain a total of at least 50% of your pool water with the goal being to reduce your CYA down to 50 ppm. Do it in a series of drain/refills of about 1/3 testing CYA each time you refill.

One other project while you are doing this.....when the pool is low, get out all that solid debris that you can....that will help you immensely later when you start to shock correctly.

I would add nothing else to your pool until your CYA is down around 50 ppm.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
duraleigh said:
I would add nothing else to your pool until your CYA is down around 50 ppm.
Click to expand...

Even if the pool turns as green as Mr. Greenie Face!!! :mrgreen: Don't add anything like Dave said. :goodjob:
 
Like Dave says your CYA is way too high, if your pump supports vacuuming to waste then you can vacuum out some of that sludge on the bottom while draining to replace water to get your CYA down. Also do you have one of the suggest test kits yet, being able to measure your exact chlorine level while shocking is very helpful in completing the shock process in a timely and economic manor, other wise your doing a lot of guessing and back sliding ?


Ike

p.s. it is likely that the powdered shock from the pool store was dichlor which raises both FC and CYA
 
I purchased a new kit from hth because I didn't feel the idea of draining the pool!

It's the one where you take the pool water in and then you add the cyanuric acid reagent, mix, and then pour into the tube with the black dot.

This one read 65.

Retested everything else too...

FC - 18.5
CC - 1.5
pH - 8.0
TA - 100
CH - 150
CYA - 65

Thoughts?
 
I feel your pain, I've been where you are... several times.

If your CYA is actually 65 then your Shock value would be around FC 26. The process calls for reaching shock value and maintaining that number until the water clears and you pass an overnight test. Since you still have CC of 1.5, there are still organics that need to be killed off. Keep vacuuming best you can to get rid of the leftover debris in the pool. My experience has shown me that things will move a bit faster when the pool is free of the sludge.

At a CYA of 65, you will need to use more chlorine on a daily basis and a large amount if you need to shock again. It is with that in mind, that a partial drain was recommended. While 65 is much better than 100, it still is a bit high... but that is up to you if you want to drain some to make it more manageable.

I open a swamp every year. It has taken me as little as two weeks and as long as 5 weeks to clear, depending on my diligence to the shock process. I have a brand new pool cover in a box on my front porch for three years now... maybe this will be the year I am smart enough to get it on the pool. :)
 
dattia said:
At a CYA of 65, you will need to use more chlorine on a daily basis and a large amount if you need to shock again. It is with that in mind, that a partial drain was recommended. While 65 is much better than 100, it still is a bit high... but that is up to you if you want to drain some to make it more manageable.
Click to expand...

Actually, on a maintenance basis, the higher CYA results in less loss to the sun, so while the actual required FC level is higher, you end up using less each day. The problem is that the shock process becomes more painful at the higher CYA levels.
 
Thanks for all of the advice, and the patience...

I think despite all the false steps I might be on the right track.

The pool still has leaves and residuals in the bottom. I got the vacuum going tonight the best I've ever had a chance to. There were a ton of leaves in the skimmer and lots of shite moving around, a few clouds picked up.

I have had trouble finding really pure bleach. Best I found was the stuff at KMart, there were suds, but only for a bit, not nearly as many with the Chlorox. The Chlorox was some classic version...oh well.

Can anything cause my CYA to go up more? I'm pi$$ed that the powdered shock we used may have caused that problem. There was literally no stabilizer prior to using that.

For now it's just test levels, add chlorine, to keep that FC level high, and continue to vacuum and brush...

First time through, I have to admit this is hard work. I guess it's only been 2 and a half weeks...
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply