Still finding my way...

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JudyMaggs

0
Jul 17, 2016
10
Wilmington, MA
Greetings!

We inherited our above ground pool about 4 years ago when we bought our house, and I am still learning!!

It is about 20,000 gallons, we have a sand filter, and just purchased a new 1.5HP pump this summer, and what a difference that made!! Wish we had done that at the beginning!

I look forward to being able to learn from the members of this group!!

We have just emerged from nearly 2 weeks of cloudy green water. Now it is no longer green after many shock treatments, but the water remains persistently cloudy. How long can I expect this to continue before the water is clear again? I used a bottle of clarifier two days ago, but that has not made a difference. I am hesitant to add more, as it seems that overdosing is itself a problem.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks bunches!!
 
Welcome to TFP :) To answer your questions, your pool will remain cloudy and funky as long as you have contaminates in the water as well as any debris such as dead algae still floating around.

Please update us by making a signature line out describing your pool and equipment, test kit etc. You can find that under "Settings" at the top, then go down to "Signature"

How are you testing? And how are you chloriinating this big ole pool?? We only trust two test kits on the market-the Taylor K-2006 or the TF-100, both available thru TFTestkits.net or Amazon. I personally prefer the TF-100 as it has more reagents for the tests that people run the most.

We need the most recent:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

Homework- ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

We can answer your questions with the information requested. Again, welcome! Glad you found us.
 
Greetings, and thanks for your help!!

Here are readings for a couple of hours ago using a Taylor K-2006 kit.
FC - 12.5
CC - 1
pH - 7.6
TA - 175
CH - 250
CYA - 80

I have been using powdered shock, not liquid chlorine. I added 16ozs of Leslie's Ultra Brite clarifier yesterday.

The color is light blue, but it is still extremely cloudy. I have backwashed every day for the past 2 or 3 days, and the expelled water is milky at first, and then clears within a minute or two. Should I use a flocculant tonight then turn the pump off overnight? I am really hoping that we can swim this weekend...!

Thanks again!
 
Welcome to TFP!

Is your pressure rising quidkly? We recommend back washing your filter when the pressure rises 20-25% over clean pressure. A dirty sand filter filter better. I don't know anything about floc, we don't recommend it and I have never used it.

Do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test and see if you have killed all the algae. If it doesn't pass the kill the algae following this process, SLAM Process
 
JudyMaggs said:
Here are readings for a couple of hours ago using a Taylor K-2006 kit.
FC - 12.5
CC - 1 A CC of 1ppm means there is something in your water causing you problems.
pH - 7.6
TA - 175
CH - 250 How did this get so high? Vinyl pools don't need calcium (unless they have heaters) but if you added it recently it can cause cloudiness.
CYA - 80 Too high for a non-SWG pool in a northeastern state.

I have been using powdered shock, not liquid chlorine. I added 16ozs of Leslie's Ultra Brite clarifier yesterday. Powdered potions add extra CYA stabilizer or extra calcium along with the chlorine. You need to move to using only liquid chlorine at this point.

The color is light blue, but it is still extremely cloudy. I have backwashed every day for the past 2 or 3 days, and the expelled water is milky at first, and then clears within a minute or two. Should I use a flocculant tonight then turn the pump off overnight? I am really hoping that we can swim this weekend...! Floc comes with its own side effects and we never recommend it. Lay off backwashing your sand filter until the pressure gauge raises 20%. A slightly dirty filter actually helps trap more debris.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Because of the 1ppm CC you need to either move to a SLAM procedure <instructions --> SLAM Process > or hold off a day by doing an OCLT (Overnight Chlorine Loss Test) first.

 
The water is still cloudy, but a little less so.

These are tonight's readings:

FC - 7.5
CC - .5
pH - 7.4
TA - 175
CH - 250
CYA - 95

Based on your comments yesterday, I would say that the FC is depleting too quickly. I am at work all day so I will just try and keep the FC level up until the weekend when I have the time to SLAM effectively!!

The CH remains stubbornly high, and the CYA is rising which probably as a result of the powdered shock I have been using.

I have not backwashed today, as the pressure gauge is actually reading LOWER than usual...

The only good reading is the CC which has fallen to 0.5ppm.

The saga continues... Sigh!!
 
Hold on here....how did your CYA rise 15ppm overnight?? That makes me think there may be testing errors.

Until you can deal with the pool this weekend, just add a gallon of bleach in daily to try to stunt any algae growth. Consider if you can drain your pool down about halfway then refill and we can move on from there to get your water clear again.

NO MORE POWDERED CHLORINE, Please!!
 
OK - Listening to Yippee!!

The water is still cloudy, but a little clearer today. Seems to be the pattern now...

Got some liquid chlorine and dumped 2 gallons in earlier this evening (since I haven't done any shocking for about 3-4 days now and the gallon said it would treat 12,000 gals of water). That produced 15 ppm of FC when I checked the water just now. Will check again in the morning and see whether the FC level has dropped.

Most of the other readings are stable, except the CYA has dropped to 85. It is highly likely the 95 yesterday was a bad reading. That disappearing black dot is a challenge...

The pressure gauge is now back to normal.

This is quite an education!! Thanks, all!
 

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Judy, I just wanted to make sure you were aware of something .... you are still working to clear algae, so you are in a TFP "SLAM" correct? But nowhere above are you even close to the proper FC SLAM level, and I wasn't sure if you were aware of that. Your cloudiness will drag-on much longer if you don't increase the FC. Your CYA testing haws fluctuated a bit from 80 to almost 100, but even if we assumed it's a CYA of 90, your SLAM /shock FC level is "35" as noted on the Chlorine/CYA Chart. You'll need to maintain that FC of 35 continuously until you pass the 3 SLAM criteria. So I just wanted to make sure you understood that FC/CYA relationship, and see if you had any questions before the weekend.

Proper lighting is critical for the CYA test, so you want to test for CYA outside on a bright sunny day. Taylor recommends standing outside with your back to the sun and the view tube in the shade of your body. Use the mixing bottle to combine/gently mix the required amounts of pool water and R-0013 reagent, let sit for 30 seconds, then gently mix again. Then, while holding the skinny tube with the black dot at waist level, begin squirting the mixed solution into the skinny tube. Watch the black dot until it completely disappears. Once it disappears, record the CYA reading. After the first test, you can pour the mixed solution from the skinny view tube back to the mixing bottle, shake, and do the same test a second, third, or fourth time to instill consistency in your technique, become more comfortable with the testing, and validate the CYA reading.
Click to expand...
 
FC - 19.5
CC - .5
pH - 7.2
TA - 175
CH - 250
CYA - 75

I ran out of both R-0871 and Liquid Chlorine!! Just stocked up again, so now I can test.

I am adding two gallons of shock now, and Ill test again in an hour to see whether the levels are holding.

I think the CYA test readings were faulty earlier - I'm on the learning curve - but I think the 75 I got today is more accurate. I also realize I should probably test it in daylight and not at night!
 
Chlorine now reading 33.

Pool less cloudy and now I can actually see stuff settling on the pool floor that I can vacuum away.

I'm having folks over on Sunday, so I have a week to get it clear. If the SLAMing does not clear it up by mid-week, should I do the unmentionable and add a clarifier?
 
FC - 24.5
CC - .5
pH - 7.8
TA - 175
CH - 300
CYA - 75

the water is almost clear today. I added cellulose fiber to help the sand filter last night so hopefully it will continue to clear over the next couple of days. How long does it take for the FC to drift back down to safe levels? Also, the CH has gone up - do I need to do anything about that, or is that in the safe range?

Thanks to all who offered advice and support. It takes patience, and we are finally turning the corner and I am now cautiously optimistic that we'll have sparking water by Sunday!
 
With CYA of 75 (round up to 80) you are "safe" to swim up to SLAM level of FC 31. In fact you should keep your FC at 31 until your SLAM is over. CH doesn't go up that quickly on its own unless you have very hard fill water, but it's moot, there is no reason to test anything but FC and CC until your SLAM is over. Even still, CH doesn't matter in vinyl pools unless it's crazy high. pH test is invalid with FC over 10.
 
Once you pass the SLAM, the FC will drop fairly quickly. Remember as long as it's under your SLAM number you can swim anyways. With your elevated CYA and target FC zone, it will be back to the 10-12 range in a day or so. Your CH is still fine. Not normally an issue with vinyl pools unless it gets really high and you allow the TA and pH to stay high as well. Have a good day.
 
The water is clear today, so I am going to let the FC just drop on its own. I have to vacuum some "dust" from the floor, but otherwise it looks great! Thanks again to all who offered advice and encouragement. It was a long ride, but we are finally there! Now to keep it there!

It is raining today, so I'll have to keep an eye on the chemistry to ensure the balance is right. How often do you all test your pool water other than for chlorine?
 

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