I'm new to the forum and could really use some help!
Very old Gunite Pool - Probably at least 30 years old or more, freeform shape. I think it may be 40,000 gallons, but I noticed last night that Leslie pool has it in their system at 20,000. DE Filter. Walls haven't been painted in decades. Area - Boston Mass.
My pool was opened on June 3rd with slightly cloudy water, and the pool guy who opened it told me to just keep the chlorine levels high and put our pool robot (dolphin delux 4) in the next day.
it turns out the robot didn't work so I took it to Leslie Pool. They kept it for about two weeks then said that it all worked fine. Unfortunately it still didn't work for me so we ended up having to buy a new one. Got a Polaris 955 because it was the only one with a long enough cord for the pool. So the pool wasn't cleaned for 2 weeks. But I kept adding chlorine to try and get the water clear.
At the bottom of the pool we had lots and lots of tan or buff colored silt/dust appearing. We've had this before, but this time we had so much, probably because the pool hadn't been cleaned. Anyway when I put the Polaris in the cartridge filled up very quickly with this silt, and the pool became so cloudy that you couldn't see it. I've run the robot at least a half dozen times and it keeps filling up with this stuff. The water is extremely cloudy and no sign of the bottom of the pool yet.
I've tried putting a filter sock in, and it very quickly gets so caked full of the buff colored silt stuff that water won't go through to the filter.
test results from Leslie Pool last night show a lot of my chemicals off:
FAC 10
TAC 10
CH 270
CYA 100
TA 100
PH 7
Base 2
Copper 0 (but he said it was on the verge of being high)
Iron 0
TDS 1100
Phosphates 1000 (He said this should be 100)
I should note that we have wild ducks that like to spend time in our pool, so that has probably added to the phosphate issue.( I've tried a coyote and swan decoys, but those ducks seem to know better and don't get fooled.)
Leslie pool told me to (in this order)
1) use Floc, then have the robot clean it up after it all falls to the bottom
2) put in 2 pounds of Soda ash for the PH
3) after that is done get a chlorine nutrilizer
4) then get and use Phos free
And when I asked he said we should not use the pool
I have ordered a Taylor testing kit which should arrive early next week, but the weather is really nice and I want to be able to use the pool soon. Plus we have some guests coming.
Should I follow the suggestions of Leslie pool, or is there something else I should do? And one more question - will it make the chlorine levels go down faster if I turn on the pool heater?
Thank you so much for your help!
Very old Gunite Pool - Probably at least 30 years old or more, freeform shape. I think it may be 40,000 gallons, but I noticed last night that Leslie pool has it in their system at 20,000. DE Filter. Walls haven't been painted in decades. Area - Boston Mass.
My pool was opened on June 3rd with slightly cloudy water, and the pool guy who opened it told me to just keep the chlorine levels high and put our pool robot (dolphin delux 4) in the next day.
it turns out the robot didn't work so I took it to Leslie Pool. They kept it for about two weeks then said that it all worked fine. Unfortunately it still didn't work for me so we ended up having to buy a new one. Got a Polaris 955 because it was the only one with a long enough cord for the pool. So the pool wasn't cleaned for 2 weeks. But I kept adding chlorine to try and get the water clear.
At the bottom of the pool we had lots and lots of tan or buff colored silt/dust appearing. We've had this before, but this time we had so much, probably because the pool hadn't been cleaned. Anyway when I put the Polaris in the cartridge filled up very quickly with this silt, and the pool became so cloudy that you couldn't see it. I've run the robot at least a half dozen times and it keeps filling up with this stuff. The water is extremely cloudy and no sign of the bottom of the pool yet.
I've tried putting a filter sock in, and it very quickly gets so caked full of the buff colored silt stuff that water won't go through to the filter.
test results from Leslie Pool last night show a lot of my chemicals off:
FAC 10
TAC 10
CH 270
CYA 100
TA 100
PH 7
Base 2
Copper 0 (but he said it was on the verge of being high)
Iron 0
TDS 1100
Phosphates 1000 (He said this should be 100)
I should note that we have wild ducks that like to spend time in our pool, so that has probably added to the phosphate issue.( I've tried a coyote and swan decoys, but those ducks seem to know better and don't get fooled.)
Leslie pool told me to (in this order)
1) use Floc, then have the robot clean it up after it all falls to the bottom
2) put in 2 pounds of Soda ash for the PH
3) after that is done get a chlorine nutrilizer
4) then get and use Phos free
And when I asked he said we should not use the pool
I have ordered a Taylor testing kit which should arrive early next week, but the weather is really nice and I want to be able to use the pool soon. Plus we have some guests coming.
Should I follow the suggestions of Leslie pool, or is there something else I should do? And one more question - will it make the chlorine levels go down faster if I turn on the pool heater?
Thank you so much for your help!