Help... NEW pool owner of an old pool/swamp!

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Kimnlogan

Well-known member
May 20, 2015
71
Springfield, IL
I know there are multiple threads and I've read quite a few but I need to know what WE need to do NOW... and having trouble piecing it together from others' threads. So...

We bought house last winter with existing pool. 27ft (or 28?)x4ft round above ground with sand filter (bought new one already this spring) and 1hp hayward pump. Pool was not opened last year at all and was a horrible swamp when we pulled cover off a few weeks ago.

I hired a couple of 'pool guys' to 'open' the pool. They determined the filter was broken and installed new one for us and dumped a bunch of chemicals in it.

Fast forward 2 weeks and we have been vacuuming and scooping PILES of leaves and junk out of the bottom. Have filter running 24/7. I go out and backwash every few hrs when I noticed the output from the return is slowing down (and when I check PSI has gone from 14-15 to closer to 18-19). The water is now a lovely aqua shade of blue but very cloudy (can see down about 18in maybe?).

Yesterday I decided we had enough debris out that we could start on chemicals again (been running tabs through the feeder but not much else as focusing on all the debris). Took sample to pool store .. was very confused but ended up putting in 3 bags of shock, 1/2 bottle of algae eater and some 'clarifier)... oh and most of a 12lb bag of baking soda. After 4hrs did a check of the water and it looked pretty good (had some free chlorine, ph ok, etc..).

This morning I got this...

HArdness: 100-250
Total Chlorine: 1
Free chlorine: 1
pH: 6.8
Alkalinity: 0
CYA: 0

So... I threw in my last bag of shock and got on here!!! So happy I found this place... I am all about going the cheap/easy way! :)

So... where do I go from here? (also we are going to be leaving friday afternoon and not returning until Monday afternoon... so do I start now and if so what about the weekend? or do I wait until Monday when we return???)
 
Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

First, don;t be in a hurry - you have a swamp and it's not going to change in a couple of days. Get your plan of action worked out and your tools in hand.

If you have read around here much you have probably seen that not much credence is given to pool store testing. While you would think that a "professional" would be the best, unfortunately in most cases it is quite the opposite. Between employees who blindly trust the word of chemical sales representatives and high school kids working in the pool store for the summer you end up with poor results from their testing.

As your most important tool you will need to pick up one of the recommended test kits. To effectively practice the TFPC methods, the FAS/DPD chlorine test is essential. All the kits on the list contain that test while very few other kits do. The kits sold at the pool store generally won't won't cut it, but be careful pool store employees are known to say “it's the same thing”. Generally it's not!

As yo have a swamp to clean up I would say get the TF100 test kit with the XL option as it has the amounts of reagents you are going to need to start this battle.

I fyou order your test kit now you should have it for a Monday start.
 
OK, STAY CALM and quit just dumping stuff into the pool.... in order of importance and planning:

1) Order a Taylor or TFT test kit. You won't know what to do and we can't tell you, until you have good test numbers. You are NOT going to get them at the pool store.
2) Get a pool rake and start removing any stuff from the bottom of the pool
3) Get a brush and start brushing the sides
4) DO NOT ADD tabs, shock, algae eater, or clarifier... or anything else, without test results and a plan, you are just creating a toxic waste dump
5) Get reliable test results, THEN AND ONLY THEN...
6) Get the pH under control
7) Begin your SLAM

We can begin to balance the water (your current test results just don't look believable) once we get past the SLAM (the cooties are gone) and chlorine levels get down to a point where the pH test is reliable.

Bottom line: without reliable test results, you can't develop a plan. Without a plan you are just throwing money at a problem with no reasonable expectation of success.....

+1, what tim5055 said....
 
Just let your system run 24/7 and keep cleaning, vacuuming and brushing.

You may consider adding a skimmer sock to your basket too. It'll trap some smaller junk and keep you from so many frequent backwashes. It'll need to be cleaned frequently in the beginning too.

My pool was not quite as bad in the beginning but those are the steps I took aside from daily testing and maintaining the levels outlined in pool school.

The other thing I did that seemed to really help polish the water was adding DE to my sand filter: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/133-add-de-to-a-sand-filter This really seemed to help the clarity a lot! I can't believe how clear my water is now. Adding DE to a very dirty pool might not be a good idea unless you can babysit your pressure gauge and be ready to backwash a lot because it'll likely trap so much that it'll spike your pressure. DE is cheap so adding it multiple times in a day wouldn't be an issue. I think I paid around $13 for 10lbs of it and I use only 2.75 cups of it per backwash. I used to have either dead algae or silt or something that would return after a few hours of vacuuming before adding DE. Now it never returns. I suspect that those particles were so small they passed right through my sand and back into the pool. The DE stopped that.

You have to get those CYA levels up too or you'll struggle keeping FC's in. Aim for 30ppm all at once and then creep the CYA up ~50. Don't want to over shoot. I just had to drain a whole bunch of my pool to get rid of it. Now I'm carefully bringing it back up.

Good luck.
 
Also since we already have most of the debris out (all that we can get our vacuum and scoop on at least) and the water is now blue/cloudy instead of green/thick do we still do the SLAM?

And what should I do from now until Monday when we return (and hopefully have the better test kit in hand)?
 
Test kit, test kit, test kit. Pool store testing is inconvenient and inaccurate. Do you have a test kit? Which one?

If you've been running tabs and shock, your CYA is likely not zero. When you say you added tabs and shock, what kind? An important part of the TFP methods is to know EXACTLY what's going in your pool. For example:

Tablet types:
Trichlor: Adds FC and CYA
CalHypo: Adds FC and CH
Trichlor + metal additives: Adds FC and CYA and metals (STAY AWAY!)

Shock types:
Dichlor: Adds FC and CYA (more CYA than trichlor per FC)
CalHypo: Adds FC and CH
Dichlor + metals: Adds FC, CYA and metals (BAD!!!)
Cal Hypo + metals: Adds FC, CH and metals (you're getting that metals are bad, right?)

As has been said, test kit then do some reading on the site ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and check out the SLAM, Chlorine/CYA Charts from the links in my signature.

You can add some liquid bleach to the pool, maybe up to 1 gallon a day when the pump is running but until you get a proper test kit, you can't do much to attack the pool.
 
Swampwoman said:
Kimn, just have a sec but this is a better deal for a slam and the company owner is a mod here and ships faster than the one in your link: http://tftestkits.net/TF-100-Test-Kit-p4.html
Click to expand...

This one is quite a bit more and i have amazon prime so will have it in hand in two days. What is the difference? They seems to be very different even though both say they are TF 100 kits???
 

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don't forget to get the XL option for slamming. If you can add the speed stir. Testing very easy with this. I also have the sample sizer. Makes getting your sample volumes consistent. Check out the video for CYA testing.
 
Kimnlogan said:
Gotcha.. thank you... I searched for TF 100 kit on amazon but didn't realize it gave me the other one as a result!
Click to expand...
Amazon is sneeky that way. I love my Prime also, but go with teh TF-100. it's a little more money but you get lots more of the stuff you will actually use. The Taylor kit is designed for a commercial pool and has lots of stuff in it you will never use. Don't ask how I know that.....

- - - Updated - - -

Kimnlogan said:
So what about the weekend? Since my pressure creeps up/return flow decreases and I need to backwash every 4-6hrs it seems should I turn the pump off while we are gone??
Click to expand...
Yes, when you have a swamp don't filter unless you are around to monitor the situation.
 
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