Shocking pool, Question?

[paigekorn]

After fighting the ph/MA battle, the SWG quitting, and trying to convert to chlorine, our pool turned a rather lovely color of green. Started the shock treatment yesterday and now the water is more of a murky gray/blue than green. The directions mention that I need to brush the pool at this stage, but I was wondering if it was safe for me to get in the pool with the high chlorine to brush it, or am I supposed to just do it the best I can from the outside? Also there is zero shade around our pool, so the water is very warm, is that going to make the process longer??

 

[Bama Rambler]

Just brush the best you can from the outside. It's not that it's unsafe because of the FC level, it's that it's unsafe because of the cloudiness and the condition of the water.

 

[paigekorn]

So I've put 10 containers of bleach in my pool I the past 24 hours. I think the people at the store think I'm making meth or something at this point lol. I still can't keep the FC levels up ad they drop when I check every hour. I hooked up the vacuum and started going over the bottom of the pool to stir things up and my sand filter isn't catching neary all the junk. my vacuum keeps picking up this insanely red/brown stuff and the water out of the return just runs red. I rigged a sock over the return to help catch the stuff, but after five minutes its solid red and I have to stop to rinse. Is the red algae? I can't see it on the bottom because my water is too cloudy. I'm just aware of it when the return water changes. My pool water without vacuuming is gray/blue an murky.

 

[duraleigh]

I think you may be overloading your filter. At the first sign of it returning dirt to the pool, it needs to be backwashed thoroughly. You may have to do this every fifteen minutes at first but it's that's how you keep it out of the pool.

Alternatively, you may be able to vacuum to "waste" which will bypass the filter and get rid of the junk. You will need to replace the water you lose.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Red an indication of iron in the water. Do you know if you have metals in your water?

As Dave said, vacuuming to waste a few times may be a good idea.

 

[paigekorn]

Oh yes we have iron. We have a well and when we initially filled our pool it was a gross brown color. I've been back washing too.

 

[paigekorn]

Here is the once white sock

 

[Bama Rambler]

The good news is that the shock level is droping a lot of it out and it's being filtered out of the pool.

 

[paigekorn]

I've thought about vacuuming on waste, but I would have to replace the water lost so I'd just be putting more well water back into the pool.

 

[paigekorn]

Here is the pool today. Not much change from yesterday. Went to vacuum the walls and brushed up lots of clumps of algae. Mid vacuuming I also realized that my hose had came loose and I was just brushing. oh well. Better than nothing. Going to be over 100 today so I'm back to checking every hour just to make sure the sun isn't zapping too much chlorine.

 

[paigekorn]

Also wondering if some clarifier would help clump the iron deposited together so they would get sucked up by the filter. I tried vacuuming them again today and as soon as I hit an area of it the return water ran red. I stopped backwashed, not much came out, then tried again and still the same. I've read that iron is harder to remove though.

 

[Bama Rambler]

I normally don't recommend clarifier, but in your case it may help a tiny bit.

 

[paigekorn]

About 1 1/2 hours after clarifier addition and beushing the sides again like crazy. Also took the ladder out. It was pretty gross.

Sorry if this is just taking up space on the forum, but it might be of use to someone some day.

 

[Bama Rambler]

We all reading. When and if we think you need help we'll jump in. And you're right, it will help someone in the future. Don't ever feel like you're just taking up space.

 

[paigekorn]

Went and picke up some DE today to add to my sand filter to help it out. The pool isn't green at all just cloudy. I'm a little nervous to use the DE since it could be a skin irritant ect. Also all I could find was a 25lb bag. A lifetime supply I think.

 

[paigekorn]

Oops just realized I adde the wrong photo. I think all the chemicals are getting to me lol.

 

[Bama Rambler]

It looks a little better. I think it need more time to fitler out. How often are you having to clean the filter?

 

[paigekorn]

I backwash daily. today I've done it once this morning and once just now. THis morning was pretty gross since that was from all night, but just now wasn't anything to write home about.

 

[Smykowski]

Lifetime supply is right. I bought the same size box a year ago and haven't even put a dent in it yet.

As for the safety, don't worry about it. It's going to be a tiny amount in the grand scheme of things.

 

[paigekorn]

Where has this DE stuff been all my life??? I can't tell much for the overall clarity of the pool, but I ran the vacuum, and could see red water running into the pump and it wasn't red coming out of the return. I'm considering that a small victory. I backwashed and nothing much came out again, but I'm actually hopeful about the water clearing which is a first. My husban and I were both ready to give up and drain it.