I'm a newbie to this site and a relative newbie to pool ownership... so please bear with me. This is our 4th summer and it has not been a trouble free experience. I've had some bad experiences with pool stores (that's another post) and was happy to find your site. I do have the TF 100 test kit. The pool was doing great (crystal clear) til I had to go out of town (elderly parents live 4 hours away). After the first long weekend that I was gone, I came back to just a cloudy pool (despite my husband's protests that he did everything that I told him to and kept the chlorine up). With due diligence, that cleared up in about 4 days. I had to go out of town again for 4 days and returned on Monday to a cloudy pool (again my husband said that he kept the chlorine up... I had asked him to keep it up to 5 ppm.) Unfortunately, I didn't trust myself and went to the pool store to get their ph decreaser. Test results Monday afternoon were (my test kit readings first):
FC 2.5 (pool store said 3.4)
CC 0 (pool store said .4)
CYA 40 (Pool store said 73) I have tested and retested and each time come out the same (test strips are closer to my result)
CH 250 (pool store said 200)
PH 7.8 (pool store said 7.9)
TA 150 (pool store said 124) They wanted me to add 20 lb of their Balance Pak 100.
By the time I got home from the pool store, the pool had a tinge of green. I added 8 lbs of dry acid (not all at once) and then 3 gallons of 10% bleach. To my dismay the pool was blue green when I got up yesterday morning. My chemical additions yesterday are a bit of a blur because we were entertaining a large group last night and I didn't have time to SLAM (it was so lovely having a green pool) I did try to keep it above 10 ppm yesterday. The ph came down to 7.5 but I'm not sure how accurate that was with high chlorine.
This morning the pool was greener. So I began the SLAM process. With the CYA at 40, I got the FC up to 16 and kept it there (1/2 hour checks at first and then 1 hour checks til it was remaining at shock levels.) I brushed the pool during my wait between readings. There were 0 CC's on most readings but a couple with .5 CC's I started at 7 a.m. and continued til 2 p.m. when I had to leave. I returned home at 7:00 pm to a greener pool. I am at my wit's end. My husband is pushing me to go to the store and get "Algae Shock". I can't believe that it's getting greener with that much chlorine in it. Do I just need more patience or am I doing something wrong? Please help.
38K plaster in-ground, 1 1/2 hp Pentair pump, sand filter (not sure of the size but I have been assured that it's plenty big enough.) Hayward Tiger Shark cleaner
FC 2.5 (pool store said 3.4)
CC 0 (pool store said .4)
CYA 40 (Pool store said 73) I have tested and retested and each time come out the same (test strips are closer to my result)
CH 250 (pool store said 200)
PH 7.8 (pool store said 7.9)
TA 150 (pool store said 124) They wanted me to add 20 lb of their Balance Pak 100.
By the time I got home from the pool store, the pool had a tinge of green. I added 8 lbs of dry acid (not all at once) and then 3 gallons of 10% bleach. To my dismay the pool was blue green when I got up yesterday morning. My chemical additions yesterday are a bit of a blur because we were entertaining a large group last night and I didn't have time to SLAM (it was so lovely having a green pool) I did try to keep it above 10 ppm yesterday. The ph came down to 7.5 but I'm not sure how accurate that was with high chlorine.
This morning the pool was greener. So I began the SLAM process. With the CYA at 40, I got the FC up to 16 and kept it there (1/2 hour checks at first and then 1 hour checks til it was remaining at shock levels.) I brushed the pool during my wait between readings. There were 0 CC's on most readings but a couple with .5 CC's I started at 7 a.m. and continued til 2 p.m. when I had to leave. I returned home at 7:00 pm to a greener pool. I am at my wit's end. My husband is pushing me to go to the store and get "Algae Shock". I can't believe that it's getting greener with that much chlorine in it. Do I just need more patience or am I doing something wrong? Please help.
38K plaster in-ground, 1 1/2 hp Pentair pump, sand filter (not sure of the size but I have been assured that it's plenty big enough.) Hayward Tiger Shark cleaner