New owner of a 17 year-old AG pool. I've recently swapped homes with my parents and the pool obviously came in the deal. It is currently, and has always been, a chlorine-free pool. I'm really not sure how they've managed to keep a clean pool for 17 years without chlorine. Truth be told I've been struggling with it the past two months. Everything was great at first, I just vacuumed almost every day because I have two young boys that seem to have accepted tracking grass and dirt into the pool as their current mission in life. A few weeks ago the pool became heavily diluted due to storms and another mishap. (In the interest of continued social harmony, I will leave that vague. lol) I restored the sanitizer (Aquasilk) level back to 50 ppm within 3 hours of the dilution and the water was already looking hazy. Within a few days it took on a light teal color, and the fight has been on. I've found it frustrating and expensive to try and stem the green tide. I've oxidized, algaecided, and scrubbed like a mad man for two weeks now. The water is slowly getting better. I've cleaned the sand, the baskets, all the hoses... taken the vinyl ladder clear out and scrubbed the algae off of it with a mixture of baking soda and water. It's so frustrating... How could peroxide based sanitizers be a good idea, outside of allergies? This is not fun... pools should be fun! My parents advice on how they've dealt with this "Ignore it, it will go away". When? After the water freezes? I am a waste-water professional. I work in the transportation side of the business, but I have access to considerable resources and the knowledge of very good organic chemists. Unfortunately, the limitations of this type of pool are only overcome with money and patience and I do not have an abundance of either. I'm looking forward to getting through whatever remains of this swim season and moving on to next spring when I will replace the liner (It's stained and looking shabby above the waterline) and reopen the pool with crystal clear chlorinated water.
Gearjammer Saying Hello
- Thread starter Gearjammer
- Start date
Hello
Welcome to the forums.
Check out pool school. You need the kill the algae, use chlorine, it's very cost effective.
Welcome to the forums.
Check out pool school. You need the kill the algae, use chlorine, it's very cost effective.
You will save money converting to chlorine. At this point in the season you may just want to wait and do it in the spring. The less peroxide based sanitizers in the water when you do the conversion the better. You will need time, chlorine (but don't add any chlorine until you start the conversion as the chlorine will immediately start to oxidize the peroxide sanitizer.) and new filter media (sand, cartridges, DE) as the old filter will be trashed during the conversion.
If it's something you want to do, read over the article "Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine".
It would help us if you would add the following information to your signature
If it's something you want to do, read over the article "Convert Your Baqua Pool to Chlorine".
It would help us if you would add the following information to your signature
- The size of your pool in gallons
- If your pool is an AG (above ground) or IG (in ground)
- If it's IG, tell us if it's vinyl, plaster/pebble, or fiberglass
- The type of filter you have (sand, DE, cartridge) and, if you know, the brand and model of the filter.
- If you know, please tell us the brand and model of the pump, and mention if is it a two speed or variable speed pump.
- Date of pool build/install, particularly important if less then a year old.
- What kind/model of water test kit you are using
- Other significant accessories or options, such as a spa , SWG, or cleaner
Thanks! Switching to chlorine will be first on the agenda when I reopen the pool in the spring. I intend to change out the liner as the old one is looking shabby, so it will be the perfect time for it. I did manage to kill the algae, but it wasn't cheap. I tried the recommended algaecide route but it seemed like I might as well fill the pool with money. I started dumping 35% Hydrogen Peroxide in until I reached 100ppm and kept it there a while. The next morning the water looked like milk, and by the end of the day it was back to a sensible shade of blue. The turbidity was still over 1, but the filter put in some work and had me back to .58 NTU when I got home yesterday. I did a lot of back-washing in the process and the Peroxide level is coming down, but I am still over 50 ppm. It's been raining cats and dogs for the past 6 hours though, with an entire week of rain in the forecast so I anticipate it being good to go by the weekend. In the end I spent $26 on 4# granular non-chlorine shock, $21 on the liquid oxidizer, $54 on 2 bottles of algaecide, and used about 6 gallons of peroxide, that would have cost me more than $100 if I had to buy it retail. $200 to fight off one algae bloom, that could have been handled for a 1/10th of that with Chlorine.
Conversion went much better than expected.
Pool looks amazing and holds chlorine overnight. I am wondering if I can bring my CYA up with bags of dichlor and or trichlor tabs, (Which I have access to for free) or if you think it would take too long?
Pool looks amazing and holds chlorine overnight. I am wondering if I can bring my CYA up with bags of dichlor and or trichlor tabs, (Which I have access to for free) or if you think it would take too long?
Welcome back! I merged your threads as this new post made no sense out of context.
You can use the tablets or dichlor to slowly add CYA if you understand everything they are doing to your water. You might should add at least some CYA right away though (10-20ppm) or you will lose the FC to the sun very quickly.
You can use the tablets or dichlor to slowly add CYA if you understand everything they are doing to your water. You might should add at least some CYA right away though (10-20ppm) or you will lose the FC to the sun very quickly.
Thanks for the merge. I have a basic understanding, I just want to be sure as having such a small pool makes it much easier to overshoot the mark.
FC must have taken a massive beating from the sun yesterday. It fell from 13 at dawn back to 1 at 5:30 pm. I dissolved a pound of dichlor in a bucket and tossed it in last night. FC held at 10 all night, and I dropped two pucks in the skimmer basket this morning. According to pool math I am still going to be short on CYA so I will either have to use a few more pucks or bite the bullet and buy stabilizer. The water looks amazing! Looking down from my second story the pool looks like it is empty. Up close, the water magnifies how uneven the sand underneath it is. I wish I would have followed through with the plan to change out the liner at the end of last season.