New pool owner

[mccustomize]

We are the proud new owners of my parent's old house in central texas, with of course an inground sports pool. I actually spent most of my child hood in this house but the pool was not put in until I left for college. Now I am pretty well versed in just about anything mechanical, but chemistry throws a wrench in my thought process.

I actually came across this forum while doing a google search on cleaning the pool after our recent flooding here in Texas. Normally, our pool is pretty easy to maintain, local company does our chemicals once a week and tests the water, I just run a vacuum a couple times a week and sweep as needed of course.

Now I am getting conflicting information from the company that does our chemicals and all my research, the pool company told me to keep vacuuming on filter, very slow, to remove all the dirt and sediment from the pool, however online everything I read says to vacuum on waste, we do have a popup valve in the front yard for our waste to run out, which is handy because you can just peer over the fence and check the condition of the waste water.

So with that said I'm in a pickle, I intend to have a BBQ on sunday and I have now been trying for 3 days to get my pool cleared up, it's not green, it is brown, I can only see the top of the first step. I can see dirt on the top step that accumulates there.

Pool company tested the water yesterday and said the balance is fine. What do I do? I've never seen the pool take this long to get cleared up.

 

[JVTrain]

Welcome to TFP!

First things first. I can honestly tell you that rarely does a pool that's brown or green of any kind get clear in several days. Your timeline is likely more easily measured in week(s). The pool store may try to sell you potions with promises of otherwise, but it's likely just as effective as throwing money out the window on your way to the store. Your pool company may thing your balance is "fine" but you won't find any sympathy for pool store testing or advice here. Their testing is typically just as inaccurate as their advice. If you decide to go with TFP methods, you cannot mix the methods here with pool store advice. It won't work.

The most important item you can get to clear your pool is not chemicals for putting in your pool. It's a proper test kit you can use at home. It's convenient and accurate and necessary. See a selection of test kits recommended here: Test Kits Compared

The other most important item cannot be purchased at all. It's the knowledge available here in Pool School and asking questions of the experts here. Start with ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and work your way up from there in Pool School. I can tell you that with a cloudy, murky pool that a SLAM procedure is in your future should you choose to take control with TFP methods. There's a link to that in my signature. Speaking of which, it helps a lot to update your with the details you know about your pool, especially pool surface, volume, chlorination method, filtration, etc. To change your profile and/or signature, select "Settings" (top right under Pool School button). Scroll down (left side) to "My Settings" & select Edit Profile or Edit Signature.

Good luck!

 

[Texas Splash]

Another Texan! Quite a few of us here in TFP. Hope you find everything you need on this site to have an enjoyable swimming season. The advice and methods on this site do work. On another note - Funny how your parents decided to install the pool AFTER you left for college. That's funny. Now you can make-up for lost time ~ enjoy!

 

[JVTrain]

On the vacuuming: If you have a small amount of sediment on the bottom, it's fine and advisable to vacuum to your filter. If you're drawing out a lot of sediment and filth, then vacuuming to waste and not clogging your filter is preferred, especially if you have a cartridge or DE filter. What type do you have? Have you been monitoring filter pressure? Backwashing or cleaning cartridges? A sand filter only needs to be backwashed when filter pressure rises 20-25% over the clean pressure. Same with a DE, but you need to add DE filter media each time you backwash a DE filter. Cartridge filters must be cleaned periodically also based on pressure rise. I'm less familiar with cartridge filters myself. If you have a lot of brown sediment, your filter may be having problems removing it, but water chemistry is more often the problem with cloudy pools. Did you have an observable event of lots of dirt/dust getting in the pool? Cloudy pools are usually the result of chemistry problems and only after they are addressed can the filter clear the water of particulates.

 

[mccustomize]

http://www.weather.com/forecast/regional/news/plains-rain-flood-threat-wettest-may-ranking

Texas has experienced record setting rainfall this month. we haven't had a clear pool in weeks. Not to mention im working on a drainage issue that hasn't occurred in 10 years.

I have a sand filter, as for the rest of the specs its a sports pool, 3*5*3 feet deep. material is gunite . As for the rest of the details I will update those when I get home this evening.

 

[mccustomize]

30x15 sports pool, 3 feet deep on each end, 5 in the middle. Pac Fab purex triton sand filter? Does that sound right?

Updated my signature with everything I could find last night. We Vac'd again yesterday evening and no really particularly dirty water came up, I think we got most of the sediment as now nothing builds up on the steps that I can see. The water is a cloudy brown now. I believe my dad had a test kit with the pool chemicals in the shed so I will check that at lunch today.

 

[mccustomize]

Alright I went home at lunch and found the test kit my dad had in the shed, one kit had a bunch of chemicals, but no instructions, but one kit had the instructions so I tested the water, my results were:

Ch - 1-1.5
Br - 1.5
Ph - 7.5

So as far as the water goes it seems in the normal range. I will say looking at the water today it appears the constant vacuum has removed most of the dirt and the water has transitioned from very cloudy brown to very cloudy green. So what are my next steps to clearing up the cloudy green water?

When I get a scoop of water from about 18" below the surface it does not look very green in a cup, cloudy, but not green?

 

[mccustomize]

Well I had a local pool supply help me out on the cleaning aspect, I bought some ultra bright that worked amazingly. A lot of the problem was the silt particles causing the water to be brown and cloudy were too fine to vacuum or filter, so this product made the particles stick to each other and after 6 hours of running the filter it was extremely easy to vacuum the silt up. The pool looks a ton better and you can even see the bottom now.

I also bought a test kit from Leslie's pool supply in a pinch. Here's my current numbers.

Fc .5
Br 1
Tc 0
Ph 7.5
Ta 80ppm

So now the pool is justa smoky green color. I can see from reading pool school that I need to bring my chlorine level up and maybe my total alkalinity just a little, does that sound like the best plan of action at this point?

 

[bbodb1]

Mccustomize,

I see you have the potential for another issue just to your left here....as you can see from my avatar (look to the left) I have this issue too!

On a more useful note, test kits lose their accuracy/effectiveness with age - have you ordered one of the recommended test kits (as mentioned by JVTrain)?

 

[mccustomize]

I have not been able to order one of the full test kits yet, I did purchase one of the test kits from the local pool supply yesterday, (nobody local sells the full test kits recommended) it however does not test for CYA, which I see is very important, especially in Texas. I do see my Chlorine is low so I am going to pick up some bleach while I'm out and about and re-test after dumping.

 

[bbodb1]

I have not been able to order one of the full test kits yet..., I did purchase one of the test kits from the local pool supply yesterday, (nobody local sells the full test kits recommended) it however does not test for CYA, which I see is very important, especially in Texas. I do see my Chlorine is low so I am going to pick up some bleach while I'm out and about and re-test after dumping.

Definitely take a few minutes and order a recommended test kit. It will save you time and money in the long run. I have used TFTestKits for ordering and I have been very satisfied with the kit (it is one of the recommended test kits).

Good luck!

 

[mccustomize]

I realize that and I will order one, however I cannot get a complete kit here within a couple hours, I have an event tomorrow that has been planned for a few weeks now. I've made good progress but I need real help, I already know I need to order a complete kit, yes, I will once our imiediate needs are taken care of from our house flooding. As of right now I have a Leslie's pool deluxe test kit, but it does not test for CYA. One of the immiediate problems I have is the debris in the pool it seems is too small to get caught by the filter, and too small to be caught by my skim net on the surface of the water.

I got most of the debris out by using my skim net and a T-shirt, but now as it settles on the bottom even the hand vac moving very slowly just stirs the debris.

I also noticed that when I start the pump on filter it sends brown cloudy water in through the return jets, but we backwashed yesterday after cleaning and the water was very clear after about 30 seconds, any ideas?

 

[pooldv]

There are a few options to help out your sand filter
First, make sure you are backwashing it correctly, Maintenance and Cleaning of Pool Filters.
Second, you can try Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter.
Third, you can Add DE to a Sand Filter

You can also use skimmer socks or knee high pantyhose in your skimmer baskets to catch fine debris. Be careful they can clog quickly and cause your pump to run dry.

 

[pooldv]

From the numbers I have seen the chlorine level is way too low a lot of the time which is letting algae grow. Chlorine level must always be kept above the minimum level according to your CYA level on this Chlorine / CYA Chart.

 

[mccustomize]

How long should I run the filter after adding bleach?

My levels are getting closer but my chlorine is still low.

Fc .5
Tc .5
Ph 7.8
Alkaline 90

I used pool math but I need to take a sample in for a full test so I can test the stabilizer I guess, maybe thats why I'm losing all the chlorine I'm dumping?

 

[pooldv]

When trying to clear up a swampy pool I would run filter 24x7 or at least all day and evening.


There are two possible scenarios with CYA/stabilizer.
1, you don't have enough and the sun is burning off your chlorine rapidly.
2, you have too much and are not maintaining high enough chlorine levels

Have you read the Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain process? This is how we recommend clearing up a green pool.