Newbie - Need Help (after going to Leslie's - Twice)

[Cdayton01]

Opened my pool, which looked like a swamp, for the first time 2 weekends ago and unfortunately went to Leslie's to get the water tested / advice / chemicals. I ended up doing 3lbs of Power Powder Plus every 12 hours for 36hrs (9lbs in all) followed by 1/2 a bottle of Pool First Aid. After which the pool looked better, but still green and cloudy. So, I ended up doing another complete round of 9lbs of shock. After which, I hopped online, found TFP and just received my TF-100 kit today. So, pool still green and cloudy...

In ground
Vinyl
SWG
18,330 gallons
Framingham, MA (waters about ~60 degrees)
FC - 42.5
TC - 1
PH - 8.2+
TA - 150
CH - 500
CYA - 20
SALT - Currently 2870. Jandy is saying I want 4,000, so after doing some reading it looks like I'd want to be 4,200 - 4,400.

Where should I start (CYA, Salt, Algae, TA...?)?
What order should I go in?
Can I just get the salt & CYA up then slam?
Wait for the FC to drop to get an accurate PH reading (possibly risk the algae getting worse?)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! Unfortunately the first thing you should do is drain some water to lower the CH. With a CH of 500 you are at risk of developing scale. All that power powder plus is the likely culprit since it is cal-hypo and adds calcium to the water. You would need to drain about 1/2 the volume of the pool to lower the CH. If you choose not to drain you can decrease the potential for scale by keeping the TA and pH lower. You can adjust those levels after the SLAM process
is completed.

Bring the CYA to 30 ppm. Your slam level is 12 so allow the FC to drop to 12 and try to keep it there as much as possible while you complete the slam process. After the slam is complete bring up the salt, raise the CYA to 70 ppm, and adjust pH as needed. If your CH is over 350 lower the TA to 70 and keep the pH around 7.2.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

42 FC Yowza! Shut that SWG off!

You're sort of stuck with the pH until FC comes down, but it would be a step backwards to let FC dip below 10 just to look at it. My opinion? Shut off the SWG. Let FC drop some, but maintain it above 10 until you pass the three SLAM criteria. Then let FC drop below 10, adjust pH, adjust CYA. maintain FC using bleach until you're sure everything looks good, then add salt and resume SWG. There's nothing wrong with zea's approach, either, I'm just wary of boosting CYA based on your first test.

So now you have two opinions. But we both agree, I'm sure, stay out of Leslies!

 

[Cdayton01]

Thanks Rich and Zea. I think I'll try and balancing everything out without draining and never return to Leslies