New to pool maintenence-The Great algae monster

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crdameron

0
Jun 12, 2014
43
Wichita Falls Tx
We moved into a house last year. The pool was green-Ill make this story short.

We have done everything we have been told to do by both the pool professional and the pool store. The pro replaced the sand that had apparently never ever been replaced by the former owners and the pool started clearing up a bit. He put some stuff in it and it went from green to blue. It is now cloudy and has been for a week. We were told not to vacuum or stir it up until the pool guy can see the bottom of the pool. Three days ago he put in 70 gallons of chlorine.

I took the water to the pool store to have tested yesterday and here are the results:
18K gallon pool

FAC-0
TAC-0
PH-7.0
TA-30
CYA 40
Salt-2800
Phosphates-0

We were told to add baking soda 16lbs diluted and split into 4 treatments 2 hours apart and then 2 lbs of shock. Which we did. This morning I went out and it is cloudier than ever and I haven't had it tested yet but you can't smell chlorine at all. Pool guy says not to vacuum until I can see the bottom.

I am at a loss. we have been doing this for over a month already. It is Texas we are about to hit weeks on end of high 100's outside and I have 2 kids that would really like to enjoy the pool. We have canceled two pool parties already. We are getting disappointed.


PS-I have read through pool school.
 
Welcome to TFP!

Others will jump in soon and offer some advice but I'm going to go ahead and put this out there..

The main recommendation is going to be to get your own test kit so you can get some numbers you can trust! We have kits that we recommend here that we all use to do our own testing. Pool store testing is unfortunately very unreliable and usually gets people into the exact situation you're in right now. It's another cost but it's nowhere near what the pool store is going to have you throwing into that pool and you *WILL* get the results you're looking for!

I'm not comfortable giving dosing suggestions so I'm sticking with the welcome and the reassurance that this can be done and you can do it and it doesn't have to cost a fortune!

Here's something that shows the kits we recommend compared --> http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/124-pool-test-kits-comparison

I use the TF-100. It costs a little more upfront but you get more of what you need so you don't have to order refills in 5 minutes which would just make the other kits cost the same (or more) anyway.

From your pool store test results it doesn't look too bad except you definitely need to get some chlorine in there asap. I'll let some of the pros handle that suggestion as pool store results can be pretty shady!
 
Welcome! :wave:

Time to fire the pool guy and assume control. It seems like he has the Shock Level part down pat, but the maintain is lacking. $1500 would keep my pool going for 4 or 5 years! Here's something to consider:http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/52092-TFPC-Saved-Me-Over-1-400-in-the-First-Full-Year

You will need to go through the Shock Level And Maintain process. And to do that, you need your own proper test kit. Fortunately, it looks like you may have gotten lucky and the CYA level isn't through the roof. So you might have dodged the "drain 60%" part that so many disgusted new arrivals encounter.

The cloudiness will disappear as soon as you kill all the algae and it stops creating more bleached carcasses to cloud the water. If you add a little DE to the sand filter it should speed the clearing along, but it will load up the filter fast, so hang around and watch the pressure gauge. Don't turn the filter on and take off for work or go to bed and ignore it. You need to be around to backwash.

If you order up the right test kit pssst - http://tftestkits.net/TF-100-Test-Kit-p4.html get the XL option and follow the instructions for Shock Level And Maintain explicitly, your pool should be looking good within a week. And by Fourth of July it will be sparkling and you'll be an old pro at keeping it that way already.
 
Thanks! I am ordering a test kit. There was one at the house when we moved in but we have no idea how old it was and since we found out that they had never changed out the sand in the filter-we don't trust that the test kit is any good! I will read the links ou sent! Thanks!


By 4th of July I better be sitting beside the pool drinking something adult and fruity-I will have earned it with this pool.
 
crdameron said:
It is now cloudy and has been for a week. We were told not to vacuum or stir it up until the pool guy can see the bottom of the pool.
Click to expand...

This doesn't sound right -- you need to get as much junk as possible out of the pool. Only possible explanation I can think of is that only the pool guy backwashes the filter and so he doesn't want it getting clogged up between visits. Are you comfortable backwashing it yourself, and is there a pressure gauge you can look at to see when it's time to clean the filter ?

crdameron said:
Three days ago he put in 70 gallons of chlorine.
Click to expand...

This sounds more like it ;)

+1 for getting your own test kit -- you're in the USA so TF-100 is the way to go

+1 for getting some chlorine in there -- probably not worth SLAM-ing until your kit comes in, but something like a gallon of 8.25% bleach per day for the next few days would stop it from getting worse.

EDIT - Sigh... Richard beat me *again* :(
 
My next question is-should I try to vacuum it even if I can't see the bottom? I know from using the net and trying to bring stuff up there is a thick layer of dead algae at the bottom of the pool. Should I leave this to my filter or try to remove it with a vacuum? I have read that this could clog the pipes?!? I feel like I am in a catch 22 don't vacuum because it isn't clear. Vacuum because it isn't clear.


I will continue to shock it but I am going to do liquid bleach this time. Last night we added 4lbs of shock treatment to it and I am at work now so I can't test it right now but I will have it re-tested today.

We have been backwashing twice a day for weeks now. I was just informed by my husband we need a new pressure gauge for it. We have been backwashing until it runs clear.
 
crdameron said:
My next question is-should I try to vacuum it even if I can't see the bottom? I know from using the net and trying to bring stuff up there is a thick layer of dead algae at the bottom of the pool. Should I leave this to my filter or try to remove it with a vacuum? I have read that this could clog the pipes?!? I feel like I am in a catch 22 don't vacuum because it isn't clear. Vacuum because it isn't clear.


I will continue to shock it but I am going to do liquid bleach this time. Last night we added 4lbs of shock treatment to it and I am at work now so I can't test it right now but I will have it re-tested today.

We have been backwashing twice a day for weeks now. I was just informed by my husband we need a new pressure gauge for it. We have been backwashing until it runs clear.
Click to expand...
You can get a good gauge the same place you order the test kit. http://tftestkits.net

If there's debris on the floor, yes, get rid of it. It uses up chlorine that should be killing algae. If it's too fine to scoop up with a leaf rake picture, you may continue to vacuum and backwash, or raise the water level and then set the multiport valve to "waste" and start vacuuming. Whatever you suck off the bottom will go through the pump and out the backwash port and be gone for good.
 
bridgman said:
Is it fair to say that "if it's big enough to clog your pipes then it's big enough to scoop up with a leaf rake, and if it's too fine to scoop up with a leaf rake then it's too fine to clog your pipes when you vacuum" ?
Click to expand...

Well that makes sense doesn't it! LOL Never thought about it that way! Did I mention I am new to this pool thing? We were just going by what the pool guy said when he told us not to vacuum or stir it up. Since we have been dealing with this for so long and he can't seem to get it all figured out then I think we are going to take this into our own hands and just vacuum it out. At this point it can't hurt-because nothing else is helping :)
 
I'd never thought about it until that post either ;)

My conclusion from it is that you should leaf-rake first and then vacuum what's left.

I learned the importance of doing things in the right sequence from Hagar the Horrible -- "No you fool... first you pillage, THEN you burn !!"
 

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Well we just got a chance to vacuum today. We saw some pretty gross stuff coming up. Will try again tomorrow. We added more chlorine and baking soda as the test strips (yes we are ordering a real kit) said the alkalinity was low. Now the chlorine level is sky high.

It is very cloudy because we stirred it up when vacuuming but hopefully we will see some changes in it if we keep working on it!
 
Maybe I'm missing something. Over the course of a slam you go through a lot of bleach but it's a handful of bottles at a time. Are you sure he added 70 gallons of bleach? All at one time? Maybe it's normal but that seems like either a typo and you meant 7 or a crazy high amount of bleach to add at one time. How would he add that much, did he pour it in 5 gallons at a time? I'm trying to picture it LOL
 
Definitely order the recommended test kit as it will get you through the SLAM to the very end. I would also disregard all other levels since you are starting the SLAM.
 
I don't know exactly how much he put in. He just told me he put 70 gallons of chlorine in. We came home and the pool was foaming and had turned from green to blue and the fumes were almost deadly. It has been blue and cloudy since then-two days later the chlorine from the test at Leslie's said it was at a 0. I shocked it that night with 4 lbs of shock and then I added another 2 gallons of bleach to it today.

The chlorine levels are over the top high-but I expected that as I am slamming it. The alkalinity is spot on right now (according to the test strip) but the ph is kind of low.

We vacuumed it today and now 9 hours later it is still very very cloudy. You can only see to the bottom step.

I am continuing the slam for now and will keep vacuuming until I start to see results. I tried the leaf rake. Nothing was coming up. I also tried the leaf blower bag thing and it caught nothing.
 
If it's at the blue & cloudy phase then you're mostly in "wait for the filter to clean out all the dead algae" mode (although you need to keep SLAM-ing to make sure the algae doesn't grow back).

What kind of filter do you have, and are you comfortable with cleaning/backwashing/whatever it requires (since you're probably going to have to do that a lot) ?
 
I just want to add that one of the criteria the OP mentioned as a reason to not trust his pool guy is that he'd never changed out the sand.
That is something this site does not generally recommended as necessary (Bacqua conversions being usually the only time) I believe? So in that respect the pool guy did right.
Just sayin...
 
Took a sample to the pool supply. Levels are as follows.

10+ Fac
Tac 10+
Ph 7.1
Ta 80
Cya 90

Bought a small Taylor kit while I was there. My test results line up right with the stores.

Pool is cloudy-may be from stirring up the sludge on the bottom after vacuuming.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The pool guy changed out the sand last week. The former owners had told us the sand had been changed last summer. When we started having issues with the filter we called the pool guy. He opened the filter and said the sand looked like it had never been changed out. It was a solid rock and he had to knock it out of the filter. It was apparently the worst sand he had ever seen. So I think in that respect he did the right thing.
I just know that we have followed the rules of the pool guy to the letter. We have don't what the pool supply store said to do. To the letter. It will not clear up. I am continuing the slam for now. I just don't know what else to do.


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