We just bought the house and they had the pool going. We moved in Saturday and have been fighting with it all week. Water is slight cloudy and very slight green tint (sometimes it looks green against white ladder but otherwise it look fine). 3 weeks ago when we had come over to learn what they have been doing to the pool it was crystal clear. Now we can't see the bottom of the pool. Forgive me I don't have a good test kit yet. I started reading the site and it makes more sense than most the stuff... especially more than what one of the pool stores said. Can you please help a first timer figure this out? Just want to make the pool usable for next couple weeks as our pool season is almost over in IL.
Here is what they were doing --- chlorine pucks in floater always, shock once a week, algecide once a week, sand filter pump runs 24x7
They had a large party 3 days long last of the month. (they were leaving the country so multiple goodbye parties) They said they shocked it on Tuesday. We obtained the house Friday. Saturday pool was murky so we figured it needed shock so added 2 bags. Monday (8/10) I took a pool sample in to pool store. They had it their records our pool was 17,000 gallons.
FC 16.75, TC 16.75, CC 0, PH 7.9, Total Alkalinity 46, Adjusted Alkalinity 15, calcium hardness 383, CYA 94, Copper .1, Iron .7, TDS 900, Saturation Index .5
From that I learned about CYA and it was too high but can't do much about it as really can't drain 50% of the pool with only 3 weeks left to use it. I immediately took the pucks out and stopped using them. They also said we should raise alkalinity and get rid of the metal so I bought $100 worth of chemicals and put them in the pool but not quite to their recommended levels because I planned on draining a portion of the water.
So on 8/11 I vacuumed the pool with it set to waste to get some of the water out. Then added fresh water from hose for 3 hours. Our city water can be very hard or fine depending upon the city source as they have a well and then they purchase water from neighboring towns. Just wanted to mention since we have no way of telling what the actual city water source is at any given time and from dealing with my previous house I had to install a water softener or end up replacing the hot water heater every couple of years because of the hard water build up in it that it can be very very hard.
So today 8/12 I brought water sample to the other pool store. They supposedly installed my pool. They said it is 13,000 gallons. They are a bioguard dealer and said normal range for CYA can be up to 200 and after reading this site no way am I going to trust what they say. Here is the numbers they gave me today.
Saturation Index .5, TDS 900, CYA 88, TC 5.4, FC 5.1, PH 7.7, Total Alkalinity 127, Adjusted Alkalinity 101, Total Hardness 400, Copper 0, Iron .3
They recommended raising the Alkalinity to 125-150 and adding a clarifier.
I added a half a gallon of Chlorine to the pool tonight. I also added some of the clarifier though not the dosage they recommended which was even more than what the bottle recommended.
I don't have a test kit to get good numbers going forward. I am ordering one tonight but in the meantime.. suggestions on what I can do to make it less cloudy? how much bleach do I need to add daily for my pool? How much do I need to add to get it to the level needed based on my CYA level which from the chart looks like I need to make it 9-10
Any advice?
Here is what they were doing --- chlorine pucks in floater always, shock once a week, algecide once a week, sand filter pump runs 24x7
They had a large party 3 days long last of the month. (they were leaving the country so multiple goodbye parties) They said they shocked it on Tuesday. We obtained the house Friday. Saturday pool was murky so we figured it needed shock so added 2 bags. Monday (8/10) I took a pool sample in to pool store. They had it their records our pool was 17,000 gallons.
FC 16.75, TC 16.75, CC 0, PH 7.9, Total Alkalinity 46, Adjusted Alkalinity 15, calcium hardness 383, CYA 94, Copper .1, Iron .7, TDS 900, Saturation Index .5
From that I learned about CYA and it was too high but can't do much about it as really can't drain 50% of the pool with only 3 weeks left to use it. I immediately took the pucks out and stopped using them. They also said we should raise alkalinity and get rid of the metal so I bought $100 worth of chemicals and put them in the pool but not quite to their recommended levels because I planned on draining a portion of the water.
So on 8/11 I vacuumed the pool with it set to waste to get some of the water out. Then added fresh water from hose for 3 hours. Our city water can be very hard or fine depending upon the city source as they have a well and then they purchase water from neighboring towns. Just wanted to mention since we have no way of telling what the actual city water source is at any given time and from dealing with my previous house I had to install a water softener or end up replacing the hot water heater every couple of years because of the hard water build up in it that it can be very very hard.
So today 8/12 I brought water sample to the other pool store. They supposedly installed my pool. They said it is 13,000 gallons. They are a bioguard dealer and said normal range for CYA can be up to 200 and after reading this site no way am I going to trust what they say. Here is the numbers they gave me today.
Saturation Index .5, TDS 900, CYA 88, TC 5.4, FC 5.1, PH 7.7, Total Alkalinity 127, Adjusted Alkalinity 101, Total Hardness 400, Copper 0, Iron .3
They recommended raising the Alkalinity to 125-150 and adding a clarifier.
I added a half a gallon of Chlorine to the pool tonight. I also added some of the clarifier though not the dosage they recommended which was even more than what the bottle recommended.
I don't have a test kit to get good numbers going forward. I am ordering one tonight but in the meantime.. suggestions on what I can do to make it less cloudy? how much bleach do I need to add daily for my pool? How much do I need to add to get it to the level needed based on my CYA level which from the chart looks like I need to make it 9-10
Any advice?
.
