Hi! Complete noob with a swamp
- Thread starter MomUv5
- Start date
Time to bump this one and get more help.
Got the pump fixed. It was all at the pump so I didn't have to replace much water.
We got almost all of the sticks, leaves, & mud out of the pool. Shocked heavily, and the water was brown.
Added sequestrants and it was no longer brown, but more of a yucky green color.
I started looking more and more closely, and realized that a lot of the color I was seeing was staining.
Here's the tricky part.
I decided to try the AA treatment for stains. I let the chlorine level drift down, added polyquat 60 to prevent a big algae bloom, and yesterday did the AA treament.
It was absolutely astounding. Suddenly the pool looked beautiful! I added the best sequestrant I can find locally. It is Pool Baron's brand, Super Metal Remove. The label says that it contains a polyphosphonate, but does not have a real list of ingredients. I checked the pH and it was really low, so I added Soda Ash, but it continued to remain lower than I could test for.
Last night it rained. We had at least an inch of rain.
This morning, the water was still clear, but very green. Very green. Emerald green.
I took a sample to the pool store for testing. I have watched the employees, and they do real tests instead of just strips, and have a set-up that is pretty idiot-proof, so I'm somewhat comfortable with their numbers.
Here's what they gave me:
FC 0.3
TC 0.5
CC 0.3
pH 6.6
Hardness 75
Alkalinity 68
CYA 23
Copper 0.2
Iron 0.74
Salt 2600
I bought 3 quarts of their Super Metal Remove (contains a polyphosphonate) and added that along with 5 lbs. of Poolife "pH Plus" which is Sodium Carbonate.
It has been about three hours since I added all that. It's raining again. The water is still green. I have turned on the SWG to the lowest setting.
FC - less than 0.5
CC - .5
pH - 6.8
TA - 70
CH - ?? started out lavender and I didn't see any change in color
CYA - 20
Any suggestions? Help.
Got the pump fixed. It was all at the pump so I didn't have to replace much water.
We got almost all of the sticks, leaves, & mud out of the pool. Shocked heavily, and the water was brown.
Added sequestrants and it was no longer brown, but more of a yucky green color.
I started looking more and more closely, and realized that a lot of the color I was seeing was staining.
Here's the tricky part.
I decided to try the AA treatment for stains. I let the chlorine level drift down, added polyquat 60 to prevent a big algae bloom, and yesterday did the AA treament.
It was absolutely astounding. Suddenly the pool looked beautiful! I added the best sequestrant I can find locally. It is Pool Baron's brand, Super Metal Remove. The label says that it contains a polyphosphonate, but does not have a real list of ingredients. I checked the pH and it was really low, so I added Soda Ash, but it continued to remain lower than I could test for.
Last night it rained. We had at least an inch of rain.
This morning, the water was still clear, but very green. Very green. Emerald green.
I took a sample to the pool store for testing. I have watched the employees, and they do real tests instead of just strips, and have a set-up that is pretty idiot-proof, so I'm somewhat comfortable with their numbers.
Here's what they gave me:
FC 0.3
TC 0.5
CC 0.3
pH 6.6
Hardness 75
Alkalinity 68
CYA 23
Copper 0.2
Iron 0.74
Salt 2600
I bought 3 quarts of their Super Metal Remove (contains a polyphosphonate) and added that along with 5 lbs. of Poolife "pH Plus" which is Sodium Carbonate.
It has been about three hours since I added all that. It's raining again. The water is still green. I have turned on the SWG to the lowest setting.
FC - less than 0.5
CC - .5
pH - 6.8
TA - 70
CH - ?? started out lavender and I didn't see any change in color
CYA - 20
Any suggestions? Help.
Well, I'm impatient.
I got tired of waiting for a response, so I decided to see what I could do that wouldn't mess things up too badly.
Put all my numbers in the pool calculator and decided it would be a reasonable plan to add a box of borax (which I already had on hand) and enough chlorine to bring it up to 3ppm.
Added the borax.
Added the chlorine.
Green started disappearing. It was just as dramatic as when I added the acid to get the stains off. Wow! Musta' been algae after all.
I'm gonna add a little bit more.
I got tired of waiting for a response, so I decided to see what I could do that wouldn't mess things up too badly.
Put all my numbers in the pool calculator and decided it would be a reasonable plan to add a box of borax (which I already had on hand) and enough chlorine to bring it up to 3ppm.
Added the borax.
Added the chlorine.
Green started disappearing. It was just as dramatic as when I added the acid to get the stains off. Wow! Musta' been algae after all.
I'm gonna add a little bit more.
I'd keep the pH low at around 7.2 and then slowly raise the chlorine level. If the CYA reading of 23 ppm is right (the reading of 20 ppm is your own, correct?) then you should shock the pool to around 8 ppm FC and hold the chlorine there by adding more as it gets used up. You should probably be raising your CYA level unless your pool doesn't get much sun; otherwise the chlorine drop during the day will be pretty large -- probably losing up to 70% in a long day.
chem geek said:
chem geek, I've added more cya. We have a lot of trees and don't get much sunlight, but I do want to get the cya up higher. I checked pH & chlorine and added a large jug of bleach about 2 hours ago.
I just re-tested and pH is above 6.8, but not up to 7.2. I'd call it 6.9 based on guessing the difference in colors. FC is 3 & CC are 0.5
Water is clear. I'm gonna add a little more chlorine. I don't want to get it too high, though or metal should start falling out, right?
I used pool cal and it said with FC 3 and a goal of 8, I could add a large jug of bleach. So I did. BTW, I guessing that my pool is 18K gallons based on the way it has responded. I'll change that in my siggy. Now that I can actually see the bottom, it has majorly sloping sides in the deep end, so I'm thinking 18K is more like it.
I know that I still need to raise the pH, but I'm waiting til morning to buy more supplies.
It sounds like you are finally getting there, once you get everything stabilized managing it will get a lot easier.
Ike
Ike
The metal shouldn't fall out as long as the pH doesn't get too high. Chlorine alone won't cause that but adding a lot of chlorine has the pH rise somewhat. Just raise the chlorine slowly but get it to shock level and keep it there until the water clears and at that point then you can test for the rate of overnight chlorine loss.
chem geek said:
Oooh. . . . that's good to know. The water cleared after the first addition of chlorine.
I haven't been out there yet, but my ds just said that the water's still clear.
Two questions:
1. Am I more likely to get algae after a rain since I have lots and lots of trees? Some of them overhang the pool and the backyard is completely surrounded by trees & oversized bushes.
2. What pH should I aim for?
I can't help with your first question, on the second one I can tell you there is a lot of conflicting advice online about the acceptable range for pH, however most agree you should have it somewhere between 7.4-7.8
Ike
Ike
Isaac-1 said:
Ike, I am trying to get my target a little tighter than that. Since too low is bad for my vinyl liner, and too high will make the metal fall out of solution, where should I aim?
I'm thinking that 7.4 would be a good target?
I'm planning to add borates, since that will make it easier to keep the pH in one place. At least that's my understanding.
Anything in the 7's is a normal pH in almost all pools and should not lead to any problems