Our pool has been black for a month
- Thread starter SpongyMothKilledOurPool
- Start date
- Jun 1, 2018
- 13,974
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
If u have a regular pool vacuum there’s no need to purchase anything extra aside from possibly more hose to extend what u already have.
This is what i was referring to
- Nov 12, 2017
- 11,961
- Pool Size
- 12300
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
The lower the end outside of the pool is, relative to the vac head, the more powerful the suction will be. So if you can run it downhill a ways, you'll get more vacuuming power (but you'll lose more water, so just attain the suction you need).
I'm not sure why he was workin' so hard to start the suction. Just slip a baggie or some plastic wrap over the end of the hose while it is under water, then a rubber band over that, to keep it sealed, then walk that end down the hill. Remove the rubber band and your siphon will start.
My husband calls that shaker siphon a "cheater" LOL He says it should be easy to use once you find the purrfect way to get it going.
That guy in the video made a couple/few mistakes. The water HAS to go away from the bottom of the pool or your risk washing the dirt from under the pool.
That guy in the video made a couple/few mistakes. The water HAS to go away from the bottom of the pool or your risk washing the dirt from under the pool.
At this point, I think I'd drain it, clean it out and leave it until she gets back from vacation.
She can't drain it. It is a vinyl pool so it would be risking the liner floating and shrinking in this HOT sun we have going on right now. She is making good progress now and has a solid plan moving forward. If nothing else it will not get any worse while she is gone.
For vacuuming lots of junk and not clogging the filter I've used this many times. You don't loose any water and traps all right in its own mesh net.
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I'M BACK IN TOWN finally!
Husband's been giving the pool a bottle of bleach every night in my absence & washing the filters as usual. The pool has gotten a bit paler green again, and when we pull a sample cup of water that is visibly much clearer.
He also bought a sand filter to swap out with our current system at some point, because it sounds easier to clean and there was one heavily on sale. He ran it by me & I didn't have time to research in-depth, but gave it a greenlight after a quick search didn't seem to turn up any glaring downsides. Not sure when we'll actually install it, though. For now we're still on the old cartridge filters.
I ran a full test panel today & got
FC 3.5 *
TC 6
CC 2.5
-
pH 8.2
TA 110
-
CH 335ish
-
CYA <20 **
(filling the tube all the way & the dot barely looking hazy)
*The FC is up from husband having put a bottle of chlorine in 3 hours prior, first thing in the morning. He says while I was gone, the chlorine he added each night was gone by 12 hours later in the morning.
**I added CYA the day I left town, but I was also frantically trying to finish packing, and it was pouring rain most of the day, so trying repeatedly to help that sockful of granules dissolve & brush the bottom was... fun.
Just now I did an ammonia test since that CYA I added 10 days ago seems to have vanished (but maybe I never added enough CYA in the first place, I was just trying to get what I could in there in a hurry before leaving).
So for the ammonia check, I added what PoolMath said would get me to 10ppm FC, and 10 minutes later I tested at 9ppm, so... yay!
I guess I need to add more CYA, MA, and get to proper SLAMing. We'll have to go shopping again because we're on our last bottle of bleach from the 16 jugs we initially bought (husband says the hardware store clerks seem pretty convinced he's a serial killer) and we finished off the MA before I left.
Husband's been giving the pool a bottle of bleach every night in my absence & washing the filters as usual. The pool has gotten a bit paler green again, and when we pull a sample cup of water that is visibly much clearer.
He also bought a sand filter to swap out with our current system at some point, because it sounds easier to clean and there was one heavily on sale. He ran it by me & I didn't have time to research in-depth, but gave it a greenlight after a quick search didn't seem to turn up any glaring downsides. Not sure when we'll actually install it, though. For now we're still on the old cartridge filters.
I ran a full test panel today & got
FC 3.5 *
TC 6
CC 2.5
-
pH 8.2
TA 110
-
CH 335ish
-
CYA <20 **
(filling the tube all the way & the dot barely looking hazy)
*The FC is up from husband having put a bottle of chlorine in 3 hours prior, first thing in the morning. He says while I was gone, the chlorine he added each night was gone by 12 hours later in the morning.
**I added CYA the day I left town, but I was also frantically trying to finish packing, and it was pouring rain most of the day, so trying repeatedly to help that sockful of granules dissolve & brush the bottom was... fun.
Just now I did an ammonia test since that CYA I added 10 days ago seems to have vanished (but maybe I never added enough CYA in the first place, I was just trying to get what I could in there in a hurry before leaving).
So for the ammonia check, I added what PoolMath said would get me to 10ppm FC, and 10 minutes later I tested at 9ppm, so... yay!
I guess I need to add more CYA, MA, and get to proper SLAMing. We'll have to go shopping again because we're on our last bottle of bleach from the 16 jugs we initially bought (husband says the hardware store clerks seem pretty convinced he's a serial killer) and we finished off the MA before I left.
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,576
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
OK, so - the FC is not getting eaten by ammonia or you wouldn't have 3.5ppm FC left after 3 hours. That's a good thing. Means you don't have to worry about the CYA getting eaten by a bacteria that turns it into ammonia and causes crazy FC demand.
You are on the right track. Use Pool Math to figure out how much acid to add. Figure going from 8.2 down to 7.6 first, let mix for 30 minutes, then test again. Hopefully you're down below 8.2 where you can see a range. Then you can add enough from wherever you landed to get down to 7.2.
While you're adding the acid you can get the CYA dissolving. I'd add 20ppm for now and dissolve. It will take a few days to register on the test, but you can start just figuring you have about 30ppm in the pool and target FC that way.
Once your pH is in the right place, and the CYA is dissolving (or is done dissolving) you can start adding FC! Read the SLAM Process carefully - you're going to be checking multiple times a day, as much as you can (at least 2-3 times a day, up to once an hour) to check the FC and add liquid chlorine to get back to that SLAM target. Within a few days you should be getting the water turning milky blue, and then it's your filter's job to get all the dead stuff out. Keep us updated so we know how it's going
You are on the right track. Use Pool Math to figure out how much acid to add. Figure going from 8.2 down to 7.6 first, let mix for 30 minutes, then test again. Hopefully you're down below 8.2 where you can see a range. Then you can add enough from wherever you landed to get down to 7.2.
While you're adding the acid you can get the CYA dissolving. I'd add 20ppm for now and dissolve. It will take a few days to register on the test, but you can start just figuring you have about 30ppm in the pool and target FC that way.
Once your pH is in the right place, and the CYA is dissolving (or is done dissolving) you can start adding FC! Read the SLAM Process carefully - you're going to be checking multiple times a day, as much as you can (at least 2-3 times a day, up to once an hour) to check the FC and add liquid chlorine to get back to that SLAM target. Within a few days you should be getting the water turning milky blue, and then it's your filter's job to get all the dead stuff out. Keep us updated so we know how it's going
At one time there was a discussion that you may drain and try to remove all the sludge at the bottom. Not mandatory but just wanted to mention that before you start adding more stabilizer and acid then starting SLAM. I think you have the option to do either but others may have input as well. You would still SLAM after draining and refilling maybe easier SLAM with less stuff in the pool.
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,576
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Addressed in post #24 - cost of water was a concern.
Since I already had the FC up so high I got excited and jumped the gun on SLAMing--added chlorine to target 10ppm again the following hour (going from 7ppm at that retest). I should have restocked my MA this evening, would it make sense to just kind of blindly adjust pH then (ie adding roughly what PoolMath says, without retesting pH after since chlorine is too high)? I've added a sock of CYA now as well.OK, so - the FC is not getting eaten by ammonia or you wouldn't have 3.5ppm FC left after 3 hours. That's a good thing. Means you don't have to worry about the CYA getting eaten by a bacteria that turns it into ammonia and causes crazy FC demand.
You are on the right track. Use Pool Math to figure out how much acid to add. Figure going from 8.2 down to 7.6 first, let mix for 30 minutes, then test again. Hopefully you're down below 8.2 where you can see a range. Then you can add enough from wherever you landed to get down to 7.2.
While you're adding the acid you can get the CYA dissolving. I'd add 20ppm for now and dissolve. It will take a few days to register on the test, but you can start just figuring you have about 30ppm in the pool and target FC that way.
Once your pH is in the right place, and the CYA is dissolving (or is done dissolving) you can start adding FC! Read the SLAM Process carefully - you're going to be checking multiple times a day, as much as you can (at least 2-3 times a day, up to once an hour) to check the FC and add liquid chlorine to get back to that SLAM target. Within a few days you should be getting the water turning milky blue, and then it's your filter's job to get all the dead stuff out. Keep us updated so we know how it's going
I think we might be mainly algae & very little bottom sludge now! Somehow, just maybe, we've gotten through the bulk of it with our constant filtering & half-assed vacuuming. I haven't busted out the vacuum again yet since my return (I will!) BUT I did a little brushing after one of today's chlorine additions, and got only a tiny bit of brown & leaf debris billowing up from around the center drain!! None of those dramatic clouds of murk mushroom-clouding up like we had before.
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,576
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Nope, 8.2 is high enough that it could be problematic for the FC to be doing what it needs to do, and you don't want to blindly add because if it goes below 7.0 you could be damaging pool equipment and surfaces.
FC needs to be below 10ppm to test the pH, but you should be below 10ppm in a couple of hours anyway. I'd let it drop below 10ppm, verify it's lower than 10ppm with the FC test, and then adjust the pH as I mentioned upthread.
Good on the CYA. That will help your pool be protected from the sun, too.Baaaaaahhhhh grumble grumble... I was finally doing it I was SLAMing!Nope, 8.2 is high enough that it could be problematic for the FC to be doing what it needs to do, and you don't want to blindly add because if it goes below 7.0 you could be damaging pool equipment and surfaces.
FC needs to be below 10ppm to test the pH, but you should be below 10ppm in a couple of hours anyway. I'd let it drop below 10ppm, verify it's lower than 10ppm with the FC test, and then adjust the pH as I mentioned upthread.
OK, I'll ease off the chlorine till I've dropped more acid (hurr, hurr).
- Jun 8, 2019
- 4,576
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Gotta read the whole article closely: SLAM Process and follow the prerequisites. We want this to work correctly for you so you're not wasting money on chlorine that isn't working right!
We want this to work correctly for you so you're not wasting money on chlorine that isn't working right!Yeah, but folks were telling me earlier in the thread to chlorinate the heck out of it without worrying too much about pH/CYA so I got a little loosey-goosey!Gotta read the whole article closely: SLAM Process and follow the prerequisites.
We have thunderstorms now so I'll probably be able to (/have no choice but to) start with a blank slate (chlorine-wise) tomorrow morning.
Your FC will fall very quickly in a swamp so no worries either way. Perfection isn’t needed, just do your best.
LOL Tell him to buy a tarp and so rope the next time he is there and they will KNOW he is!
I bought the TFPro and it’s great and works.I'll add my two cents- Regarding the test kits: years ago a mom & pop couple who posted on TFP saw a chance to start a business by putting together a kit that is actually geared to how we test our pool water. More of some reagents used often, less or the less common test reagents. They named their company tftestkits.net and many, many of us liked those kits. Their profits go to them, not the website.
The website is a non-profit tax deductible website that provides free information. Donations that are given freely are used to manage the computer system or whatever makes a website work. It requires program updates and maintenance at times. Donations help keep this site advertisement free.
The two entities are separate.
Maddie
I struggle with the Cya test only bc it a subjective test but I think I am close enough on it.
Yeah that CYA test is a bugger!
Here is my tip for it-GLANCE in only. Do not look for the google eye. GLANCE in then back out. Pour from line to line, GLANCE in, Pour to the next line until you don't see the google eye at a GLANCE.
Here is my tip for it-GLANCE in only. Do not look for the google eye. GLANCE in then back out. Pour from line to line, GLANCE in, Pour to the next line until you don't see the google eye at a GLANCE.