Another holiday, and I still can't use my pool. Ready to winterize and cover.

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AccidentWaitingToHappen

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LifeTime Supporter
Jun 21, 2015
4
Mooers Forks NY/Adirondack Mountains
Pool came with the house. I live in a rural area and have been driving to my pool store 30 miles one way just to spend lots of time and money with little progress. I have been doing a lot of reading here and just yesterday got my 2006 test kit in the mail. I made the mistake of having the water tested at the pool store and they convinced me to put in 12 lbs of overpriced baking soda, followed by 2 lbs of stabilizer and for dessert...a lb of shock. I can't even bring myself to post how much that cost. I did this 2 days ago in gradual steps over the course of the entire day. My test results this morning are;

FC .5
CC 1
Ph 7.7
Ak 175
CYA 90

Oh, and did I mention the white foamy beer head that has appeared? Happy 4th! My question here is should I do nothing and test again later/tomorrow? Do the chemicals I put in need more time or do I need to take immediate action and do something else? I just don't want to make matters worse..I'm sure I could...I do have a track record of well...(see user name). Thank you for this terrific forum.
 
You ain't gonna like this, but with a CYA of 90----(jacked up by them having you add 2 lbs. of stabilizer)-----you need to drain and replace 1/3 of that water to get CYA down to a reasonable level so you can SLAM it.

Full SLAM instructions in Pool School. Welcome to the forum. Plain bleach is your friend. See the chlorine/cya chart in pool school.
 
Okay, you learned your lesson at the pool store. :grrrr: Welcome to TFP! :) We'll help you. Good thing you have the Taylor K-2006 now. So let's see:
- First thing, your CYA is wayyyyy to high. It happened from continued use of tablets, pucks, and bags-o-shock. Unfortunately, the only way to lower CYA is to do a partial drain. You can drain an AG pool to within about 1 foot without messing up the liner or shell, so you can do that, or at the very least, drain about half and check your CYA again. But since you just put 2 lbs of stabilizer in, that won't show up for another few days, so your CYA may be even higher. Ideally, you want to get your CYA down to about 30-50. People with a lot of sun might go to 50, those with less sun a little lower. But that's your #1 priority. Makes no sense to add any more chemicals until your drain and lower the CYA.

After that, and your CYA is back to 50 or lower, we can give you a gave plan to fix your water with nothing more than regular liquid bleach. :)

Sorry to hear you got "pool stored", but trust me ... you're not the first. That was me 2 years ago. Check back with us after your drain. Have a great day.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to see you got "pool stored". You have come to the right place.

As mentioned, you should really drain & replace water. If you are reading a CYA of 90ppm today, but added 2 lbs of stabilizer yesterday the CYA level will continue to rise as the granular stabilizer continues to fully dissolve (pool math say 32oz of stabilizer will raise it 18ppm in your pool). If you have the stabilizer in a sock somewhere get it out of the pool now.

Dom
 
Welcome to TFP. I'm guessing you spent $70 on about $10 worth of chemicals from the pool store, plus gas. Bleach and your test kit are now your best friends. It will be clear soon if you follow the directions you are given. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Update: I have spent the last couple of days draining a little more than half of the water from the pool and refilling it. It's outward appearance has changed it doesn't have that milky white appearance anymore, although it's certainly not clear. I have run the pump for the past 18 hours or so for some air and a good stir, I have brushed and vacuumed. The beer foam on the top is gone.:). Here are this morning's test results.

FC 0
TC 0
AK 170
CYA 40
PH 7.6

I have a couple of questions regarding SLAM. Do I have to address AK now or wait until after SLAM? Is there a difference in effectiveness of SLAM with the pump on high speed vs low? What is recommended? Also according to the chart it is my understanding that with the CYA of 40 I have to get to and maintain 16ppm of FC, test, vacuum and brush for the duration until I reach the three truths..Do I have that right? Thank you everyone for sharing your experience and expertise. You seem to have infinite patience with us newbies, and your generosity is appreciated. Meg
 
AWtH, based on your latest reply, here's what I would suggest:
- Don't worry about "TA" (alkalinity) right now.
- Bring PH down slightly with acid to about 7.2 in preparation for the SLAM
- Pump can be on low during SLAM, just needs to be constantly moving the water. Maybe when you are actively brushing turn it up.
- Your SLAM question - "right". Maintain at 16 FC until you pass ALL 3 criteria.

So for now, get that PH down slightly then crank-up the FC with bleach to MAINTIN an FC of 16. Good luck!
 

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Thank you for your prompt reply. The water is a very light grey barely light green with a medium gray undertone,:) around the edge of the pool is clear but not enough to see through to the bottom. Before I replaced half of the water there was a white foam suds at the top dark grey no visibility at all. Prior to getting 'pool stored' it was green. I read on here that the current color could be dead algae. I welcome your advice.
 
You going to have to SLAM that pool. There are instructions and explanation in Pool School. But basically, you need bring your pH down to around 7.2 and then add enough plain bleach to raise your FC up to SLAM level for your CYA. You will continue to test your pool and add bleach as needed to MAINTAIN the FC level required. As often as you can. But not more than once an hour. Usually they suggest every two hours is sufficient.

I'm sure an expert or two will be along shortly to fill in the blanks. But if you go check out the Pool Math and Pool School tabs you'll at least have an idea what they are talking about.
 
The Three Truths

It's been a little while, but let me tell you what happened..details, that's how I roll. I did drain my pool about 2/3, and refilled it. That took about a day, even with all that new water in it the grey foamy beer head remained. I will spare you what it smelled like. Let's put it this way, I was standing at the kitchen sink washing the dishes and had to close the window, due to the stench. The following morning I commenced SLAMming. It took 11 yes, 11 days. It also took 16 jugs of Clorox (I used the close to a gallon size jug). I found a place that has the 12.5% bleach and graduated to that. It took 21 gallons of that. I should have just replaced the water with bleach right? It took awhile, I had to get a rush order of DPD powder in the middle of all of it, but I continued to refer to the charts/poolmath and most importantly the SLAM instructions. I kept reminding myself that slow progress is still progress. The longest part was achieving clarity the first two truths came much easier, but I stuck with it. The funk that was in my pool was like the Cat in the Hat's bathtub ring! One morning it happened though-the third truth- chronic sparklitis! Thus far (I almost hate to type this) it has been pretty easy to maintain. There is good helpful information on this site, I refer to it often. What I like about it the most is that the 'why' is explained. I have a better understanding of the relationship of the chemicals. What a confidence builder that SLAM was. I do have pictures I can post, but I need to get a third grader in here to show me how to get them from my camera to my computer:). In order to show my gratitude I am putting my money where my mouth is and making a donation. I challenge all other newbies who have been helped to do so as well. Please note my new signature and thank you, thank you, thank you.
 
Last edited:
AccidentWaitingToHappen said:
The Three Truths

It's been a little while, but let me tell you what happened..details, that's how I roll. I did drain my pool about 2/3, and refilled it. That took about a day, even with all that new water in it the grey foamy beer head remained. I will spare you what it smelled like. Let's put it this way, I was standing at the kitchen sink washing the dishes and had to close the window, due to the stench. The following morning I commenced SLAMming. It took 11 yes, 11 days. It also took 16 jugs of Clorox (I used the close to a gallon size jug). I found a place that has the 12.5% bleach and graduated to that. It took 21 gallons of that. I should have just replaced the water with bleach right? It took awhile, I had to get a rush order of DPD powder in the middle of all of it, but I continued to refer to the charts/poolmath and most importantly the SLAM instructions. I kept reminding myself that slow progress is still progress. The longest part was achieving clarity the first two truths came much easier, but I stuck with it. The funk that was in my pool was like the Cat in the Hat's bathtub ring! One morning it happened though-the third truth- chronic sparklitis! Thus far (I almost hate to type this) it has been pretty easy to maintain. There is good helpful information on this site, I refer to it often. What I like about it the most is that the 'why' is explained. I have a better understanding of the relationship of the chemicals. What a confidence builder that SLAM was. I do have pictures I can post, but I need to get a third grader in here to show me how to get them from my camera to my computer:). In order to show my gratitude I am putting my money where my mouth is and making a donation. I challenge all other newbies who have been helped to do so as well. Please note my new signature and thank you, thank you, thank you.
Click to expand...

Camera? What's that? My iPhone is better than the last digital camera I bought. For the price difference it should be. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That is SO awesome to hear! What is interesting is how you were able to do it just by reading TFP!

May I ask you what helped you the most?

Hummmmmmmmmm I teach Kindergarten so maybe I can help you.........let me ask one of them how to load pics from a camera! LOL

Kim
 
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