Total newbie. A little overwhelmed.

[red-beard]

Thank you so much! I know this sounds totally stupid, but when you say liquid chlorine, do you mean bleach? The people at the pool store told me I only needed the powdered “shock”, so that is all I bought. They don’t open again until Tuesday, and they told me not to use the liquid chlorine from Walmart that I already had. They said it would harm my liner? Is there an ideal amount of liquid chlorine that I should begin with?

Ah, you just were "Pool Stored". Liquid chlorine is perfect for all types of pools. It will not harm your liner. This is a more general issue of the who you believe, a pool store or random people on the internet.

The good news, TFP is not "Random People" on the internet! They are people who developed a tried and true method for operating swimming pools. It works, it is less expensive and it takes less time.
That said, I'll let the experts continue to help you.

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Since you're not technically in SLAM mode yet, you should be okay to wait until you get back from work to add more chlorine. If however you decide to add a little chlorine in the morning before leaving, only add 1/2 gallon. With a projected CYA of 30, your SLAM FC level would only be 12 anyways, so we don't need to go to high.

Tomorrow when you return from work, you only need to test the FC and pH. The CYA will be assumed to be 30 for now. Post the FC and pH tomorrow along with the quality of your water. We'll make a decision about a potential SLAM at that time. Until then, great work today. Good stuff.

Hello new pool friend!!

Back from work. FC is 5. PH is 7.4 from the best I can tell. (Somewhere between 7.2-7.5…more toward the latter)

I added .5 gallon of liquid chlorine this morning before I left for work. Water looks clear OTHER than there is a lot more of the floating specks on top. It did rain here today. Not exactly sure how much, as I work an hour away, but it definitely rained.

 

[Texas Splash]

Very good. Let me ask you this...... if you were to drop a quarter in the deep end, could you tell if it were heads or tails?

 

[Flying Tivo]

Pictures always help!

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Very good. Let me ask you this...... if you were to drop a quarter in the deep end, could you tell if it were heads or tails?

If I squinted

 

[Bryleemom0709]

If I squinted

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Pictures always help!

I tried. I don’t think you can see the icky stuff on top though.

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Finally got a good vantage point of the stuff on top. If that matters.

 

[Texas Splash]

Not bad. Sometimes pics don't do it justice. But you can be the judge based on some of the pics in the thread below. That's our goal for you to be on that thread. So here's the deal. You just took over a pool and bounced back quickly by adjust some important levels and are maintaining FC relatively well. We don't "see" algae, but that doesn't mean it's not there in transparent form or hiding in some tight spot out of sight. Hopefully not, and the pics look good, be we need to be sure. So .......

At some point I would like for you to perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test. This will tell us (you) that free chlorine is not being consumed excessively and you basically have an algae-free pool. Performing the OCLT will be based on your work schedule since essentially what you have to do is take an FC reading at dark before bed, then test in the morning before the sun hits the water (no sunlight). No exact duration, but somewhere in the 6-8 hr test time frame would work. Read the Overnight Chlorine Loss Test and let us know if you have any questions about how to do it.

In the meantime, I would increase your FC this evening by another 5 ppm which should get you somewhere in the 9-10 FC neighborhood. It won't hurt to keep the FC slightly elevated for now after all it's been through. Let us know if you have any questions.

How Clear is TFP Clear? Let's See (Pics Only Please).

How clear should my water be? A very common question. Here is mine on a calm morning where I could finally vacuum. Yes I know, I'm still manually vacuuming. It took me 7 years to finally get an SWG, I'm working on a robot. :) So now let's see your water clarity.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Good very early morning!! I did the chlorine loss test last night. 8:40 PM FC= 12.5/4:20AM FC = 12. I think that’s good, right?

However, the deep end looks a little cloudy to me this morning. Way too dark to take a good photo. I’ll check it again this evening when I get home.

The icky floating stuff (could it be pollen??) is still there.

So, couple questions:
-Do I need to do anything about the cloudy-ness?
-can I do anything about the floating stuff?
-At what point will it be ok for kiddos to swim?

Thanks so much for your help

 

[Texas Splash]

Good job on the OCLT! That should rule-out algae. An FC result of 12.1 isn't possible (12 or 12.5), but you held enough FC to pass.

The cloudiness you saw at night can be misleading. Particles are often more visible at night, so let's wait until you can see the water later today in good daylight. You might also keep an eye on teh filter pressure gauge to see if the filter needs a backwashing. We can help you with that if you like.

As for the floaters, they could be seasonal. Make sure you have a skimmer sock in the skimmer basket(s). A skimmer sock is nothing more than a product that lines the inside of your skimmer to catch tiny bugs and junk that would otherwise go through the basket at to the pump/filter. Just Google skimmer sock or search on Amazon and you'll see what I mean. I use a 1-gallon paint strainer netting from HD, but many people like the disposable ones online.

You can swim now. But later today, if the sun is out in your area for the CYA test, please post one more full set of water test result for us just so we can be sure you are balanced well. Since CH is "N/A" for vinyl, you can skip that one unless you just want to practice it.

 

[mgtfp]

12.1 isn't possible

All good there. Just took my glasses off to see the details on my phone - it's not "12 point 1", but "12 period I"

 

[Texas Splash]

All good there. Just took my glasses off to see the details on my phone - it's not "12 point 1", but "12 period I"

Ha ha ha! I missed that as well. Too early for these tires eyes I suppose.

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Ha ha ha! I missed that as well. Too early for these tires eyes I suppose.

Lol. Way too early for me also

I may be panicking a bit, since I was totally on top of this… but I was talking to my boyfriend this morning and asked him to go check the pool today to see if it’s cloudy and this is what he said..

“It shouldn’t be, I added some of that algae stuff last night because of the algae on top of the water, like the pool guy told me and it cleared it right up”.

OMG. He added algaephos. Some kind of stuff the pool store sold us when we went and bought all of the (now I know, unnecessary) powder shock and stuff.

Is that going to throw everything off? Maybe that’s the reason it’s cloudy this morning?

Ughhhhh!!!!!

 

[Texas Splash]

“It shouldn’t be, I added some of that algae stuff last night because of the algae on top of the water, like the pool guy told me and it cleared it right up”.

Okay, now you know who is NOT allowed near the pool unless it's to brush it. That's a worthless pool store snake oil that claims to help with algae and phosphate control. It will not. In fact, it might reduce your free chlorine level. Hopefully no side effects and not copper based. Pools store products and snake oils are a thing of the past.

Be sure to keep your FC level good & strong today if you leave the house to ensure that product doesn't cause the FC to drop excessively.

We'll watch for a full set of test results later today.

 

[mgtfp]

Don't panic. At least it's not a copper based algaecide, so it shouldn't do any long term harm. It can limit algae growth to a certain degree, but chlorine does so much better and cheaper. That stuff might make your water foam a bit and give it a bit of an unpleasant smell. It's really only the pool store benefitting from that stuff.

You might loose some FC and some CC gets created while chlorine decomposes the stuff.

It also seems to contain a phosphate remover which might turn the pool a bit cloudy while the phosphates coagulate and fall out of solution.

The only algaecide we sometimes recommend is Polyquat60, e.g. when FC has to be kept at zero for a longer period during certain treatments like removal of iron staining.

The best stuff to kill algae is chlorine. Period.

But again: No need to panic. Watch your chlorine and keep filtering.

 

[Bryleemom0709]

Don't panic. At least it's not a copper based algaecide, so it shouldn't do any long term harm. It can limit algae growth to a certain degree, but chlorine does so much better and cheaper. That stuff might make your water foam a bit and give it a bit of an unpleasant smell. It's really only the pool store benefitting from that stuff.

You might loose some FC and some CC gets created while chlorine decomposes the stuff.

It also seems to contain a phosphate remover which might turn the pool a bit cloudy while the phosphates coagulate and fall out of solution.

The only algaecide we sometimes recommend is Polyquat60, e.g. when FC has to be kept at zero for a longer period during certain treatments like removal of iron staining.

The best stuff to kill algae is chlorine. Period.

But again: No need to panic. Watch your chlorine and keep filtering.

Okay, now you know who is NOT allowed near the pool unless it's to brush it. That's a worthless pool store snake oil that claims to help with algae and phosphate control. It will not. In fact, it might reduce your free chlorine level. Hopefully no side effects and not copper based. Pools store products and snake oils are a thing of the past.

Be sure to keep your FC level good & strong today if you leave the house to ensure that product doesn't cause the FC to drop excessively.

We'll watch for a full set of test results later today.

Alrighty!! Here we go. Tested the FC at lunch time today and it was 8.5. I added a little liquid chlorine to try to bring it back up to 10. Seems to have stayed put.

FC-8.5
CC-0
PH-7.2
TA-120
CYA-0 (I can still see the dot?!?)
TC-8.5

 

[mgtfp]

The 4 pounds of stabilizer you added should have increased CYA by about 25ppm, so there should be some in.

What type of CYA test tube do you have, one that goes down to 30 or 20?. Looks like you really were at zero when you started and you are now right at the lower level where the test starts showing.

I'd go slowly, it sometimes takes up to a week until an addition of stabilizer fully shows. After a week, maybe add another 5-10ppm worth and see where that gets you.

 

[Bryleemom0709]

The 4 pounds of stabilizer you added should have increased CYA by about 25ppm, so that's should be some in.

What type of CYA test tube do you have, one that goes down to 30 or 20?. Looks like you really were at zero when you started and you are now right at the lower level where the test starts showing.

I'd go slowly, it sometimes takes up to a week until an addition of stabilizer fully shows. After a week, maybe add another 5-10ppm worth and see where that gets you.

It goes up to 20. It’s kind of cloudy but I can still definitely see the dot.

 

[Texas Splash]

Your numbers look quite good except that CYA. That is odd. We'd hate to add too much though and over-shoot. You used the sock method to dissolve the stabilizer so it should be good. We'll give the CYA a couple more days to acclimate. Good work! Now that you've passed an OCLT and your FC appears to be holding well, you can breath a bit easier. Your pH is on the low end but not to worry, it is fine. I suspect it will creep upwards soon enough. I'd leave the TA alone for now. Just focus on testing the FC once a day and the pH maybe every 2-3 days. Try to find a consistent time of day so you can compare FC changes in a 24 hrs period. If you ever see the FC crash extremely low or fall more than 4 ppm in 24 hrs, let us know.