New Pool Owner - Green Swamp

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Pool_Poor

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Jun 21, 2016
7
Bellmawr
Hello Everyone...

New to the forum and what a great read! I have read, and sometime re-read AND watched the Slam video several times and I wanted to make sure we are on the right track.

First here is a little background...We bought a foreclosure house with a huge beast of a pool. Its 20x40 and roughly 40,000 gallons. From what we can tell the pool wasn't opened for a least a year, maybe more. We had a pool company come out a little over a week ago (6/10) for some help to get the old pool running. It was built in the 50's by Paragon. We had to fill the pool with about 2'-0" of water to start...and man when we took off the cover it was a swamp!!! The pool guys added a product called turbo, and told me to add liquid chlorine and some chlorine floaters to the pool. The pool started to turn from green to blue, so after watching another video, we flocked the pool friday night, thinking we were done. (We since have read up on flock and we now have a better plan of attack after reading this site)...but thats what we did

We vacuumed the pool to waste on saturday. The deep end was still a bit black / cloudy, my guess is from all the algae. We got so much debris and algae is was disguisting! LOL. Then we brushed Sunday, and vacuumed again, but since it was cloudy and we couldn't see the bottom we did what we could. We kept filling the pool at the same time we were vacuuming. Sometimes I just had to watch the vision glass on the multi port and waste line to see if I was getting anything out of the pool. We brushed the pool again late sunday and after sitting for a day Monday (no pump / filter on)...We have a green pool again. To be expected since we found this website yesterday and i began to study it and I now realize that the algea wasn't dead or gone from the pool!!

We tested the pool last night and here is our readings

FC = 0
CC = N/A
TA = 90 ppm
CYA = <30 (not even reading on the test)
PH = 7.2
CH = 60 ppm

So here is my thought process....while using Pool Math...and the Stabilizer / Chlorine Chart...it states a CYA of 20 or less isn't recommended to SLAM. Soooo I went out and bought enough stabilizer to add to the pool to get us to 30. I basically need to add 10 lbs to the pool. We backwashed the filter, added more DE, and put the filter back on. I also added 4 bags of powder "shock max blue" (dichlor of 68%) since our CYA was so low I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea. Again I'm new, so I hope I didn't make a bad call. We loaded stabilizer into old socks and put them around the pool last nite. This morning the pool was blue, and I went and squeezed the socks to release more CYA into the pool and we did a new FC reading. The FC = 3.4.

My question is, I assume that I have to wait until I raise the CYA to a minimum of 30, before I can use liquid Chlorine and start to SLAM the pool? My shock level FC will be between a 10 - 12 once I have a CYA reading. I will continue to brush and vac the pool daily until the CYA level is raised. Is there anything else I should be doing while I wait for the CYA to come up? Should I raise the PH, since i'm just shy of the 7.4 mark? I hope i'm on the right track, and my thought process is accurate.

Thank you...
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Welcome to the forum! I'm pretty new myself, but have found that the people on here can be very helpful.

Pool_Poor said:
while using Pool Math...and the Stabilizer / Chlorine Chart...it states a CYA of 20 or less isn't recommended to SLAM
Click to expand...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the CYA/Chlorine chart has an asterisk next to 20 on the CYA because 20 isn't a highly recommended CYA level, not that you can't SLAM at a CYA of 20.

I recommend retesting your CYA, then using the CYA/Chlorine chart to find the corresponding FC shock level, then continue to SLAM until the water is clear, your CC is below .5, and you pass the OCLT. Also, continue to brush/vacuum every day as needed.
 
Thanks...Thats why i'm asking the question a CYA lower than 20 is not recommended. Also the pool math chart states down in the blue FC section at the bottome "be careful if you CYA is really and truly 0"...Can I SLAM...or do I need to bring up the CYA first then SLAM. Makes sense that I would need to bring it up first, otherwise I would lose so much FC due to sunlight

AnEndingAscent said:
Welcome to the forum. I'm pretty new myself, but have found that the people on here can be very helpful.



Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the CYA/Chlorine chart has an asterisk next to 20 on the CYA because 20 isn't a highly recommended CYA level, not that you can't SLAM at a CYA of 20.

I recommend retesting your CYA, then using the CYA/Chlorine chart to find the corresponding FC shock level, then continue to SLAM until the water is clear, your CC is below .5, and you pass the OCLT. Also, continue to brush/vacuum every day as needed.
Click to expand...
 
We don't recommend adding dichlor as it will add CYA - and stabilizer IS CYA so if you already added it via sock method the dichlor "shock" you purchased is adding more. If you added CYA to get to 30 ppm, go ahead and assume you've met your target and start your SLAM - target shock level is 12 FC. Get your FC up to 12 using liquid chlorine and the Pool Math calculator (top of page) and get started!

Your pool has already come a long way so it won't be long!

Also - if you want to Maintain your shock level of 12 FC through the duration of the SLAM. If you can't be by the pool all day, try to test at least 4 times a day and add bleach.
Your FC will be consumed quickly while it gets to work killing algae.

Welcome to TFP!
 
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thanks everyone for your responses.

...I tested the CYA this morning, and plan on doing so again when I get home from work....It was stil reading less than 30, and since the test kit doesn't provide a reading for lower, I have assumed its at 0. With all the water we had to add plus the amount we vacuumed out to waste this weekend, I didn't really worry about "adding" to my CYA by using bags of dichlor shock. As of right now, there is an entire 5lb container of stabilizer (cya) (in socks) in my pool. I know according to the pool math calculator that I still need to add another 5lb container. I'm just doing is slowly, so that I don't overshoot my goal of 30. I will post what my reading is tonight and keep my fingers crossed, since it was a cloudy day here in New Jersey

cooljul said:
We don't recommend adding dichlor as it will add CYA - and stabilizer IS CYA so if you already added it via sock method the dichlor "shock" you purchased is adding more. If you added CYA to get to 30 ppm, go ahead and assume you've met your target and start your SLAM - target shock level is 12 FC. Get your FC up to 12 using liquid chlorine and the Pool Math calculator (top of page) and get started!

Your pool has already come a long way so it won't be long!

Also - if you want to Maintain your shock level of 12 FC through the duration of the SLAM. If you can't be by the pool all day, try to test at least 4 times a day and add bleach.
Your FC will be consumed quickly while it gets to work killing algae.

Welcome to TFP!
Click to expand...
 
If there was any cloudiness in your CYA test solution, then you may be overshooting your CYA add with 5#. It depends on your pool volume.

A suggestion. Take a tape measure out there and measure the water depth, not edge depth. I think you are overestimating your volume.
 
The test for CYA last night still left the water completely clear no cloudiness at all. In fact since we have been testing so often, we need to get more testing solution!

It seems like we are making good headway on the cya though, this morning when we tested it seemed so close to actually registering at 30...so after adding almost 8lbs of stabilizer, I believe we are almost there. Our FC this morning was at 13.4, so i'm feeling pretty excited that we might be swimming in the pool by this weekend, as we are going to maintain a FC of 12 for the next few days

MarianParoo said:
If there was any cloudiness in your CYA test solution, then you may be overshooting your CYA add with 5#. It depends on your pool volume.

A suggestion. Take a tape measure out there and measure the water depth, not edge depth. I think you are overestimating your volume.
Click to expand...

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the tip...I read that suggestion on this site before....and so every morning and night when I get home from work I have been squeezing the socks. LOL!

cooljul said:
Feel free to squeeze the socks to get that cya to dissolve quicker. It may take a couple of days for it to register on your test after its fully dissolved.
Click to expand...
 

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So I am very happy to report, that the pool has been clear and awesome for a week now. Just follow the advice here, put in the elbow grease (sweep, brush and skim, etc), and test, test, and do more testing and you will have an amazing pool to enjoy! Very happy pool owner at this point.
 
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