New to me Pool and brand new to pool ownership

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J

jcorkins

0
Jul 11, 2016
32
Davenport, FL
I am trying desperately to get this whole pool ownership thing under my belt and get it to where I fully understand what's going on and what I need to do to get things set up properly. A little history - I bought this house just outside of Orlando, FL a little over a month ago. When I got into it and started checking out the pool there was 0 chlorine in it so I bought a large container of tabs after talking with a friend that works for a pool company. I put a tab in my chlorinator and discovered a couple of days later that there was one in my basket. After a few days the pool turned green and I started researching like crazy. That's when I found this site and discovered that continuing to add pool shock was not the best way to keep it going so I tested the water and discovered that I could shock the pool properly by getting my CYA down and then adding 3 gallons of liquid chlorine. After doing that the pool cleared right up and I have since had my water tested this past Sunday at a local pool store and purchased a Taylor test kit k-2006. The pool store said that everything looked good but that I needed to add about 7oz of Acid to lower the PH which was tested at 8.0.
I added the Acid and have tested it the last couple of days myself and here is my current results:
Calcium Hardness - 400
Total Chlorine - 0.4
Free Chlorine - 4.6
PH - 7.4
Alkalinity - 80
Cyanuric Acid - 150
Pool temp is hovering around 84-86
I don't know what the Dissolved Solids are as that isn't included in the test kit. (I believe the guy at the pool store tested that at around 1500ppm)
The problem is that I still have what appears to be a green algae that I can simply brush off the edges and the floor which I have been doing daily and I have been spraying off the pump filter every couple days to clean it. I want desperately to have a beautiful clear pool for my girls and my guests when they come. Any suggestions aside from a water change would be greatly appreciated. I intend to completely empty the pool this winter to resurface it and start over at that point. I will also do away with the chlorine tabs at that point and go to liquid chlorine only. I just don't want to waste the $80 I spent on the tabs by not using them and would like to continue using them until I completely start over.
According to the Watergram calculator included in my test kit the Saturation index is at a -0.23.

Do I just need to keep brushing away at the pool until it clears up or is there something that I am missing?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.PoolShallowEnd.jpgPoolDeepEnd.jpg
 
Good job on the test kit and welcome to the forum!

Good news is, it's just a little green. Definitely take the pucks out! With your CYA that high, you need a ton of chlorine in there to keep it sanitary. Check out the Chlorine/CYA Chart to find out what your FC should be depending on your CYA. Bad news is, you need to replace water. If CYA of 150 is accurate(how did you test it that high? Dilution?), you need to replace 2/3 of your water to get down to 50ppm. We recommend 30-50ppm for non-salt water generator pools. Are you in an area with water restrictions? What type of water do you have, city, well? If it's city, cost might not be too bad. If well, then you need to check for metals in the water before putting any in. You may have to filter it before it goes in if you do have them.

You're going to need to SLAM the pool but before you do that, you'll want to lower your CYA to at least 50ppm and your pH to 7.2. You can find out how much MA to add to get the pH down using the PoolMath link above.
 
Root cause of your green water is you don't have enough Chlorine for your CYA level. Retest for CYA a few times and once you feel comfortable with your number, use e pool calc to see how much water you may need to replace to get CYA to manageable level (50-ish for you).

CYA acts like sunscreen for your chlorine and keeps it from being lost so quickly; however, it limits its effectiveness so you need higher Chlorine. These pucks are RAISING your CYA and cause more harm than good.
 
Thanks for the quick feedback. I'll have to check with the water company on any water restrictions. I live in Polk County in Florida if anyone has any knowledge. I'm brand new to pools and Florida (from Northern KY). I did do a partial change before when it got really bad and it helped. I did do a dilution sample to get the cya level. Since doing the partial change I've been draining water everyone it rains to try to help get it lower. Still haven't gotten the first water bill though so I have no idea what is going to cost to change out that much water. Might just do a little at a time so it doesn't hit me all at once if that's advisable.

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Follow up question:
With everyone's suggestions it looks like I'm in for a major water change event. Do I need to worry about anything going wrong if I drain off that much water at one time? My friend in the pool business said something about getting me something called a dead man when I drain it this winter to have it resurfaced. Something about the pressure under ground forcing the pool up if there is no weight from the water in it.

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You never want to drain the entire pool. I'd suggest draining half, filling then do it again. Test afterwards then SLAM to get rid of the algae that will still be there. Save the tabs for vacation time and only use liquid chlorine or regular ole bleach.
 

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MarianParoo said:
In your results did you mean CC of 0.4?

You can use a 10ml water sample for FC/CC and multiply the drop count by 0.5 (divide by 2).

Also, did you use the dilution method to get a CYA of 150? It should be 140 or 160.
Click to expand...
I don't believe so. In the test kit it has you do a drop count to get free chlorine and then add a reagent and do a second drop count to get total chlorine. Both were multiplied by 0.2 to get the results.

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MarianParoo said:
Okay the second test is for combined chlorine (CC), not total chlorine, (TC).

For the second test did you use 20 drops of 0871?

- - - Updated - - -

Ignore the 20 drops bit. I confused you with someone else.
Click to expand...
That's cool. Yeah I just checked the test kit and your right it is combined chlorine for the second part of the test. The total chlorine was due to a labeling mistake in my spreadsheet because I recently got the test kit and was using strips that had a free chlorine and total chlorine indicator so my spreadsheet was still set up that way. I'll have to fix that. I am going to start draining the pool tomorrow to reduce my cya so I can slam it. It turned greener while I was at work today.

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jcorkins, if you use a 10mL sample size instead of a 25mL sample size when testing your FC/CC, each drop is 0.5. This is plenty accurate and saves your reagents.

With your FC of 4.6, that means it took 23 drops of R-0871 to come to that point. If you had used the 10mL sample, you would have gotten a reading of 4.5 or 5.0 and used 9 or 10 drops. Your bottle of R-0871 will last more than twice as many tests. You're going to need those reagents when you SLAM the pool!
 
Hello fellow FL person! Nice set up you have there! We will get you clear so your kids and friends can enjoy it!

Here is your "homework":

-Drain pool down half way leaving about a foot of water in the shallow end.

-refill pool with nice, clean water

-run pump on high for about 2 hours to mix things up good

-run new tests to see where you are at

-put pucks up to be used for weekend get aways and vacys only

Here are some links I put together for new pool owners. It is a LOT of info. but will help you know the whys and hows of having a Trouble Free Pool! Go ahead and read the ABC of pools so you can start learning about the basics. It will take some reading and using for it to all make sense.

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

:kim:
 
kimkats said:
Hello fellow FL person! Nice set up you have there! We will get you clear so your kids and friends can enjoy it!

Here is your "homework":

-Drain pool down half way leaving about a foot of water in the shallow end.

-refill pool with nice, clean water

-run pump on high for about 2 hours to mix things up good

-run new tests to see where you are at

-put pucks up to be used for weekend get aways and vacys only

Here are some links I put together for new pool owners. It is a LOT of info. but will help you know the whys and hows of having a Trouble Free Pool! Go ahead and read the ABC of pools so you can start learning about the basics. It will take some reading and using for it to all make sense.

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

:kim:
Click to expand...
Thanks Kim. Ive been very pleasantly surprised with the help so far and looking so forward to having this thing cleaned up so we can enjoy it fully.

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Out of curiosity I tested the water coming into my house to see what I might need to plan for when I add water back to my pool and found some interesting results:
PH - 7.8 (2 drops of R-0005 to get it to 7.4)
FC - 1.5
CC - 0
TA - 150
CH - 100
CYA - no result as expected
My concern is that to get the TA to 100 it looks like I will need to add almost 4qts of Acid which in turn would decrease my ph to a dangerously low level. I know I'll be getting actual results once I get the pool in the water with the cya level that I'm looking for so it might change but any thoughts if the TA remains that high to drop it without effecting my PH or some way to offset the difference?

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
 

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