Thanks and an Introduction

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Anubis82

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May 7, 2009
9
Well,

Hey everyone. My friends call me JJ. I just wanted to introduce myself and say thanks. I lurked and got a lot of information from all the posts. I just moved into my house in October and this is the first season of the pool. The pool is probably 20,000 to 25,000 gallons. i haven't measured but figure that's a close estimate.

The cover was torn along the seams during the winter and tons of debris got in the pool. When I opened it it was black as a stagnant pond and the mosquito larvae loved it. While i had my back turned i heard a flapping noise, and a duck landed on it. You can see him in the photos I've attached. So I took that as a sign that the pool was in very rough shape. ahhahah

AND it stunk to high heaven!

So The previous owner left two gallons of liquid shock. That was like pouring cups of water on a house fire.

SO i dipped out what I could feel with the leaf net, gagging the whole time.

I tested the water, with the dinky pool tester I have, and it was zero chlorine and very very low PH. SO, i hit it with several bags of shock.

Then i got the milky pool effect you see in the attached photos. A couple days of that, and vacuuming up remaining debris, and scrubbing the sides of the pool and letting it all collect in the middle was fun. Then I put clarifier in the pool and over night it really cleared up nicely.

While working on getting some of the clarifier piles of debris out of the bottom I hear another flap flap, I turn around and a GOOSE landed on the gazebo. LOL. She was sniffing the air and looking at the pool like she really wanted to land. I can say it took a lot of yelling and flailing to get her to leave.

You can see her in the pictures.

I have switched to using bleach now, no pool shock. I do have the chlorinator going with tabs. The pool is very clear, and smells clean. The deep in is a bit "foggy". But I'm guessing that will clear up. I have noticed some white debris on the bottom when I sweep. I'm guessing thats the remaining clarifier?

I'm using Pool socks on my skimmers to keep it out of the filter, and when I do vacuum the piles of it, i do that to waste.

Anyway. I took a final picture yesterday morning of the Pool. What do you guys/gals think?

I don't have numbers because of the dinky tester, but everything is in the "normal" range for FC and PH.

I do wish the "foggy" deep in would clear the rest of the way up.

Thanks for all your help.

I am going to break down and buy a test kit soon I think. The only thing I have to do now is figure out how much bleach I will have to add to keep things normal.
 

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Hi, JJ,

Great first post and great story. You have intuitively caught on to what you need to do to maintain your pool. Yes, you have a little more work to do with your water. It's probably simply a matter of more chlorine but it's hard to tell without test results.

Nevertheless, you have rounded third base and are virtually home with your pool water. A final touch is all it probably needs to get it sparkling.
 
JJ, welcome to the forum!

What a pretty pool deck/yard! The pools going to be a great retreat for you.

I highly recommend the TF100, followed by the Taylor 2006. Both can be ordered online, it's rare to find the Taylor kit in stores. Many times people confuse the 2006 with other tests and end up having a poor substitute.

Its the best investment in your pool you can make, and simplifies pool care like you won't believe. You'll have no regrets, trust me.

Be careful using the tabs in the chlorinator, they are acidic and can lower PH, which is very bad for vinyl liners, heaters, etc. also they add CYA, and you want to keep an eye on that so the level doesn't get too high. Another reason to get the good kit, so you can monitor these two important levels. :wink:
 
Hey JJ & welcome to the forum :wave:

Great story and a great job on your part :goodjob: . Your pool and surrounds are gorgeous!

When you get a moment, please add your pool/equipment specs in your sig and your location in your profile. :wink:

We're glad to have you, quack, quack :mrgreen:
 
Thanks everyone. I'm going to order the test kit tonight and hopefully have some numbers. The pool is actually clearer today than it was when I took the photos. So It is about at that point where its "done".

Thanks for the compliments on the pool and surroundings. I love it. I couldn't have gotten it up and going with out the articles I trolled on here. I'm now just using bleach, and I still have some tabs in the chlorinator, though i'm not sure if I'll replace them once they are "used up".

I'll Get my equipment specs and all that jazz and put it in my sig. I've been messing with the silly hot tub for a day or two. I think my timer quit on it. At least it won't come on unless you bang on the timer. LOL. So now I have to take that apart and see if its rusted.

I will try to get some final pics soon, on a great sunny day.

Thanks again for the warm welcome everyone ;)

JJ
 
Okay everyone, drum roll please.

I got the test kit, even after the fedex guy lost it. ahahah

So here are my initial results. I put some information in my signature, not sure what all else to put as I can't find lots of tags.

My Results, after swamp thing was killed !

FC 1
CC 3
TC 4
pH 6.8
T/A 50
CH 200
CYA 30
Temp 72

Seems like I feed this beast a lot of bottles of chlorine. I'm going back out to add a couple jugs of 96 oz, as per poolcalculator. And then I am going to purchase about 4 pounds of washing soda ash, and 94 oz of baking soda to give to the oasis.

The pool is super super clear, and I don't want to lose that. THough the water is a tad chilly.
 

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Anubis82 said:
My Results, after swamp thing was killed !
Seems like I feed this beast a lot of bottles of chlorine. I'm going back out to add a couple jugs of 96 oz, as per poolcalculator. And then I am going to purchase about 4 pounds of washing soda ash, and 94 oz of baking soda to give to the oasis.
The pool is super super clear, and I don't want to lose that. THough the water is a tad chilly.
Click to expand...
Wow, What a transformation!... Simply put, YOU DONE GOOD! :goodjob:
 

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Anubis82 said:
Thanks guys/ gals.

SO you think I need to shock this pool? Hmmm I wasn't even thinking that.

So I should buy enough chlorine to shock it again, even after the shock from the swamp thing?
Click to expand...
Yep! You posted FC 1 & CC 3. You still need to shock until your cc is <.5. And, as FPM said, you should adjust your pH first.

We don't want this gorgeous almost perfect pool to slip backwards! :lol:
 
Anubis82 said:
Thanks guys/ gals.

SO you think I need to shock this pool? Hmmm I wasn't even thinking that.

So I should buy enough chlorine to shock it again, even after the shock from the swamp thing?
Click to expand...

YES! You need to shock the pool to get rid of the CC's! When you shock it, take the cover off so the sun can burn up the CC's too.

You beat me butterfly! :lol:

It looks fabulous though! You are almost done! 8)
 
Thanks everyone. I suppose tomorrow when I get home I will shock the pool. :) I think I have enough chlorine on hand, (liquid). I do have some pool shock powder as well. Not sure if I want to use that though.

I worked on the PH yesterday, it should be up to par by the time I get off work at 8am tomorrow.

OH and I too love the moss on the roof. Was one of my favorite things :). Some of the tiles blew off and I have to get those fixed, but I think i can do it by transfering tiles from the back to the front.

Okay.. back on topic ;). thanks again for all the compliments.

I will shock the pool tomorrow morning, if the PH checks out, which it should.

I have already taken the solar cover off, I saw no benefit from it. So unless I hear otherwise I might use the remaining powder pool shock I have. I do have liquid chlorine too, not sure which to use.

Thanks everyone for the help.

JJ
 
I'd stick with the liquid. If you have to, go buy more.
 
You could use a little of the powdered "shock", just to use it up. But I don't recommend using it on a regular basis. The powdered products contain either CYA, or CH. If you keep using them, either your CYA or CH level will eventually get too high.
 
Well this is hard, but I guess i'm in the right direction.

When I got home I doused the pool with 2 96 oz jugs of Chlorine and 3 pounds of powdered shock.

This morning the pool tested at

FC 1.5
CC 1.5 (down from 3)

I'm like.. GEESH.. this pool's Chlorine level should be through the roof, as much as I've fed it.

So before work I got ****** and gave it 3 more pounds of shock, and 2 182 oz bottles of bleach.

I sure hope this thing doesn't continue to eat Chlorine like this, I can't afford it LOL!
 
Welcome to TFP!!

I like the determination you've shown throughout this :goodjob: You were out there in the rain opening the pool and photographing Mr. Duck, you got the good test kit and have followed the great advice here every step of the way - you :rockon: !

I think your days of lots- O- bleach are almost over 8) All you've got to do is get rid of the cc and you'll be using normal maintenance doses :)

BTW - if you think the bleach is going to bankrupt you, sole reliance on trichlor tabs would have you living in a cardboard box under a bridge :lol:

Ya done good :-D
 
YAY Light at the end of the massive chlorine usage. I think the next couple of days and the CC will be gone. The FC disappears as fast as I can feed it but, the CC's are dropping so that's good news.

Yeah my roommate was asking why on earth I was opening the pool in the rain. I'm thinking, "i'm going to get wet anyway, so why not!" :)

ahahah

OH and I can't remember if i posted this yet, but I bought a bug zapper from lowes. OMG. If you don't have one, get one. Its killing about 1000 mosquitos per night.

I'm going to put up a sign beside it that reads, "Mosquito Bar" "Free Drinks for the first 1000"
 

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