Help! We closed on our house 2 weeks ago and we have next to no experience with pools. I'm limping along with some general chemistry knowledge I learned in college and the internet!
When we previewed the house the pool was blue, sparkling and beautiful! It's about 2 years old and the pool inspection stated everything was great fwiw.
When we came by for another reason a few days before closing, the previous owners had vacated 3 weeks prior and the pool had been untreated and pump off for 3 weeks. It was green and visible algae along the stone at the water level and waterfall rocks.
Two days later, we closed and the realtor had obviously done somethong, because it was blue again...for about 24 hours.
I took a sample of the water to Leslie's and they recommend we pour x amount of this, x amount of that, then two bags of shock, and some algae prevention and the next morning it was blue again...for 24 hours.
I didn't want to make thrics weekly trips to the pool place to have them hold my hand while i shelled out hundreds each week, so I started trying to figure out the chemistry of it all myself....
I came to the conclusion that I think the CYA was too high from relying strictly on the auto chlorination/tablets. Each time the pool turned green, the FC tested at 0. After spending time on this site, I realize that we should have, but never tested to see what it was when the pool was clear. For all I know we've never had enough FC. All I really know is that FC is 0 when green and after a few bags of "shock" circulate overnight, it looks good for 1-2 days.
I've read up on SLAMing and I am currently trying to follow the guidelines, but I am a bit frustrated that the FC isn't coming up!
This is what I have done and the results thus far...
15k gal, plaster (I think), sand filter.
Started with test strip and got -
FC 0
TC 3
CC 3
CYA 100
PH 8.9
Upgraded the test kit and last test was -
FC 10
TC 20
CC 10
CYA 40 (pre-slam)
PH 7.4 (pre-slam)
We are making some progress in color...we have gone from green to murky white. There isn't much, if any solid debris in the pool, as there are no trees or anything to blow in. The "monster" as we call it never has anything to pick up. Strictly a color and clarity problem.
I'm frustrated with the FC just being at 10, and the CC also is still high (also at 10). I have poured 18 121oz bottles of 8.25% bleach in. Pool math is saying we need a 24 ppm level for the algae shock...how the heck many bottles is this going to take?!
I guess...all that to say, am I missing something? Should it really take this many to reach a shock level of 24 ppm? Is there another factor I'm overlooking?
When we previewed the house the pool was blue, sparkling and beautiful! It's about 2 years old and the pool inspection stated everything was great fwiw.
When we came by for another reason a few days before closing, the previous owners had vacated 3 weeks prior and the pool had been untreated and pump off for 3 weeks. It was green and visible algae along the stone at the water level and waterfall rocks.
Two days later, we closed and the realtor had obviously done somethong, because it was blue again...for about 24 hours.
I took a sample of the water to Leslie's and they recommend we pour x amount of this, x amount of that, then two bags of shock, and some algae prevention and the next morning it was blue again...for 24 hours.
I didn't want to make thrics weekly trips to the pool place to have them hold my hand while i shelled out hundreds each week, so I started trying to figure out the chemistry of it all myself....
I came to the conclusion that I think the CYA was too high from relying strictly on the auto chlorination/tablets. Each time the pool turned green, the FC tested at 0. After spending time on this site, I realize that we should have, but never tested to see what it was when the pool was clear. For all I know we've never had enough FC. All I really know is that FC is 0 when green and after a few bags of "shock" circulate overnight, it looks good for 1-2 days.
I've read up on SLAMing and I am currently trying to follow the guidelines, but I am a bit frustrated that the FC isn't coming up!
This is what I have done and the results thus far...
15k gal, plaster (I think), sand filter.
Started with test strip and got -
FC 0
TC 3
CC 3
CYA 100
PH 8.9
Upgraded the test kit and last test was -
FC 10
TC 20
CC 10
CYA 40 (pre-slam)
PH 7.4 (pre-slam)
We are making some progress in color...we have gone from green to murky white. There isn't much, if any solid debris in the pool, as there are no trees or anything to blow in. The "monster" as we call it never has anything to pick up. Strictly a color and clarity problem.
I'm frustrated with the FC just being at 10, and the CC also is still high (also at 10). I have poured 18 121oz bottles of 8.25% bleach in. Pool math is saying we need a 24 ppm level for the algae shock...how the heck many bottles is this going to take?!
I guess...all that to say, am I missing something? Should it really take this many to reach a shock level of 24 ppm? Is there another factor I'm overlooking?