Perplexed and frustrated. Please help!

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Sshymanik

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Jul 5, 2015
42
Northern IL
We bought our house recently and are first time pool owners. There's direct sunlight on the pool from around 7 am until around 7:30 pm. We have come across several issues with trying to open our pool but finally had it going (the CYA was 30 and FC was 3 according to Leslie's). This past weekend (Saturday) we had a party with several swimmers who spent the entire day in the pool. By Monday our CYA and FC both dropped to 0 (again according to Leslie's) so we added 4 quarts of Instant Pool Conditioner. By Tuesday the water was tinted neon green but I could still see the bottom of the pool. Today, the green is much darker and I cannot see the bottom. My husband has finally agreed to let me take over and become a "mad scientist". I tested the water today (first time with Taylor K2006) and the levels are below.

FC - 0
PH - 8
TA - 80
CH - 150
CYA - undetectable (below 30)

Since we just added the conditioner on Monday, should I be waiting to test the CYA?

Any ideas on why our pool water turned green after we added the conditioner?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. We've only been able to use the pool a handful of times and it's already the end of July.
 
Welcome to TFP! I'm sure you will do a much better job maintaining your pool than the pool store.

If it was liquid CYA then no reason to wait to test. Your pool was about to turn green no matter what you did. Algae was already growing in the pool due to lack of chlorine. A cloudy pool is the first sign of an algae bloom, then slimy, then green. Also, the CYA is gone due to lack of chlorine, bacteria will consume your CYA in low chlorine conditions. Which makes it worse because the sun will burn up chlorine faster.

It is very important to keep the chlorine at or above target level for your CYA at all times, Chlorine CYA Chart. If it ever drops below minimum the pool is unsanitary and algae will start growing.

Adequate chlorine is especially important when lots of people are swimming or you are swimming all day. When we are planning to swim a lot we raise FC to 10ish before we swim, again after we swim and then double check again a few hours later. If you are swimming all day long take a mid-afternoon FC check and raise it with a dose of bleach if it is low. The point is to keep it at or above target at all times. It is safe to swim with FC up to shock level for your CYA. It is not safe to swim with FC below minimum because the pool is not properly sanitized.

So, now you have some algae in the pool. Time to Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain the pool to kill the algae.

Also, check out the Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
 
Thank you pooldv. I just want to make sure that I am going to do this right since it is my first time. In order to SLAM the pool with the measurements listed in my previous post, I first need to lower my Ph. Then SLAM the pool with chlorine. Then, once the SLAM process is finished, I should raise the CYA? If the CYA is so low that it's undetectable, will I even be able to raise the FC to the appropriate shock level and maintain it?
 
Hey, fellow Northern Illinoisian! Welcome!

Go ahead and buy some more liquid conditioner (faster fix although more expensive than other types) to bring you up to about 40 CYA. Buy enough for 40, but only add to 20 (poolmath) as you don't want to overshoot and you may well have some in there already from your first addition. I have my CYA between 30-40 and it seems to work well in my pool and our climate.

Do you have some muriatic acid? Use it safely (ask if you don't know how) to lower your pH to the low 7's.

After your CYA is at least 30 and pH is down, start your slam.

Ask questions whenever you have them!
 
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No glass around the pool. I usually just estimate. I have used a plastic measuring cup and a kitchen scale occasionally to be more precise. But, most of the time I just round it to the nearest 1/4 jug or so. For my hot tub I do have a plastic 1/4 cup and a plastic teaspoon that sit with my hot tub stuff because the chemical doses are so much smaller. Your pool is relatively small so a plastic measuring cup would be good to have. Poolmath reports most things in volume and weight so you can just use the volume measurement and a measuring cup for dry things as well.
 
Welcome! To start you should focus on bringing your CYA up to between 30-40 and lowering your pH to between 7.2-7.5. With the amount of sun your pool sees its very important to get your CYA up to the correct levels. Between the sun and the algae any chlorine you add will get eaten up almost instantly if you dont have the correct amount of CYA. While waiting for the CYA to raise go out and get a mess of regular bleach. Your going to need it. As for a measurement tool I use a glass 1 cup measuring cup with a string to put around my wrist so i can drop it. (like the nintendo wii remotes) but I have a fairly small pool so that just works the best for me. Good luck and feel free to post some pics so we can follow along on your new pool owning adventure
 

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The PH is off the scale so no telling how high it really is. Add the same amount of acid, let it mix 15 or 20 minutes with the pump running and test again until it show lower on the test.

- - - Updated - - -

Sshymanik said:
Will I get (am I getting) an accurate pH reading with the algae issue?
Click to expand...

Yes, the only thing that interferes with the PH test is if the chlorine level is above 10.
 
I have a plastic 64 oz clear paint bucket from Lowes that I measure my MA into. It's marked ounces on one side, litres on the other. Never had any issues using it and I've been using the same one for 3-4 years. It's nice using this size because I usually only add 16-24 oz MA, so it only fills up a couple inches which is about a fifth of the volume, so lots of space for the fumes to dissipate and to hold and pour.
 
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Your CYA/stabilizer can be added anytime regardless of pH. Did you get liquid or granular?

Okay. Not sure where your read A was better than C, but be prepared to buy more reagents. The 0.75 bottles won't last long. 00871 especially.

A tad more MA wouldn't hurt. Just a TAD!!! Low pH is one of the biggest no-no's!!!

2nd question: what does your water currently look like?
 
CYA, being an acid, will further lower the pH somewhat when you add it, so keep that in mind.

If you haven't played with PoolMath yet, take a look down near the bottom of that page - there is a very useful function where you can see the effects of adding specified amounts of various pool chemicals (be sure to enter your pool volume up at the top first). That way you can predict what your planned CYA addition is likely to do to pH.
 

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