New to TFP

[ronschuster]

I went on vacation for a week with no one to look after my pool. Not surprisingly I came home to very cloudy water. However, I see this episode as a blessing in disguise. Discouraged by the high expense of chemicals and poor results I was getting following the advice from the pool store, I started searching the internet for help a couple days ago and found troublefreepool.com! I wish I had known about this place years ago!

I ordered a good test kit and just received it in the mail today so here's my first set of results.

FC 5.5
CC 3.0
pH 7.4
TA 150
CH 290
CYA 20

When I got home from vacation this past Sunday the water was very cloudy. During the week I have gotten the water to clear up quite a bit but it is still just a little bit cloudy. I used up the 3 bags of powdered "shock" I had left. Since then I've just been running the SWG 24/7. FC is gradually coming up and CC gradually going down.

Ever since opening in the spring I've had trouble keeping the CYA up. With the SWG I'm targeting 80. Based on the pool store tests it was only at 80 once. Every other time I had it tested it was low. Today my wife took in a sample and they got 60 for CYA. As you can see I only got about 20. I hope I'm doing it right. I did it twice.

The other problem I'm having is foamy water. Whenever air enters through the filter or swimmers splash around in the water it foams up. It's pretty much been that way since I opened this spring.

Any advice you can give me at this point would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Casey]

Believe your test kit.

You need to add CYA via the sock and return to 30ppm for now and SLAM the pool. We've had some rain and I've lost some of my CYA so I'm not all that surprised you're is low as you're in Ohio. You have 3CC and you need to get rid of it with chlorine.

As for your foamy water, are you or have you been using an algaecide?

 

[ronschuster]

When I opened in the spring I used the algaecide that came with the start-up kit I bought. Then when I came home to the cloudy pool I added some then.

 

[tim5055]

When I opened in the spring I used the algaecide that came with the start-up kit I bought. Then when I came home to the cloudy pool I added some then.

algaecide can be useful at times as a preventative measure, but really does not work once the little buggers have taken hold of the pool. But with that being said, the pool stores love to sell the stuff, even if it can make the pool look like a freshly opened can of Bud.

With a CC of 3.0 your chlorine is trying to oxidize a lot of organics. Casey is right, a SLAM is in order.

Resist a vist to the pool store. What you need is at the grocery store or Walmart - bleach. OK, if the pool store sells the hi test stuff at 10 or 12% go there for that as long as it is a reasonable price.

There is a link for Pool School above. Start reading and you will quickly find the informTion for a SLAM. We could give you all the details, but you really need to learn it yourself.

Don't think you are alone, everyone here is willing to answer questions and point you in the right direction.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to the forum

Algaecide is a preventative not a cure. I learned that the hard way being told to put it in and then put more in because it's still green. Chlorine is the algae killer and if you follow the method used here you don't need an algae preventative because the normal level of chlorine will be all you need to keep algae away.

The CYA test is a difficult one at first as you are constantly second guessing yourself. Nice thing is you can poor the fluid back into the mixing bottle and shake it a little and use the same sample to retest and retest until you feel you are hitting a consistent result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxaqoW-_MCs

Looking at your numbers you'll likely need to get that CYA up around 70-80. You can get CYA or stabilizer at walmart or Homedepot ... use Pool Math http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html to figure out how much you'll need and you might not want to do it all at once. It's safer to do it in two or three steps as it's so much easier to add CYA then to dump water to lower it if you have too much. Easiest way is to put it in a sock and put the sock in a skimmer. When you think of it or are out there squeeze it like a wash cloth to help the stuff dissolve. It's pretty slow and can take a number of days if you just let it sit in the skimmer. It can take an additional week from the time it fully dissolves to showing up on your test so don't waste a test the first few days after adding CYA.

Cut and paste from TFP:
CYA can be raised with cyanuric acid. Cyanuric acid is sold under a variety of names, including Stabilizer, Conditioner, Instant Pool Water Conditioner, Stabilizer 100, Stabilizer & Conditioner, etc. Instant Pool Water Conditioner is a liquid product which is significantly more expensive than the other forms.

Solid cyanuric acid should be placed in a sock, and the sock put in the skimmer basket. After adding solid cyanuric acid you should leave the pump running for 24 hours and not backwash/clean the filter for a week. Solid cyanuric acid can take up to a week to fully register on the test, so it is best not to test the CYA level until one week after adding some.

 

[lees252]

Welcome to TFPC!!! +1 to what they said.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Welcome to the forum Lees.

 

[ronschuster]

So I should be trying to raise CYA at the same time I'm trying to SLAM? What CYA should I be aiming for right now? Casey said "30ppm for now" and kiss4afrog said "around 70-80".

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

You have a SWG so you will want to get into the 70-80 range after you are done with your SLAM and you turn the SWG back on. If you raised it now you'd only cause yourself trouble as you'd need more chlorine to do the same work.
30, or whatever level you are at now is just fine until you're donn with the SLAM.