My beginning pool nightmare

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S

Seaking

0
Sep 8, 2016
11
Annapolis MD
Just found this forum while studying how to clear a green pool. THis pool was not used for four or five years. Required a new pump n motor, chlorinator. I tried to get the pool company that had worked on it previously but they were too busy to get to a potentially troublesome opening. The guy I talked to had a friend of his call me to help.

The friend was an older guy who seemed to know what he was doing. After getting the pump running , he "shocked" the pool with 5 0r 6 bags of granular product. He had some test strips and the PH was high. He had me get a gallon of muriatic acid and add. That did bring it back down. But the chlorine was low quickly. After reading some I realize he should have tested it before shocking.

After reading some here I see I need the better test kit, another problem is the pool is three hours away from my home. I have only been there a few times for maybe two or three days straight then have to leave. My robot cleaner needed new feet but is lost on the bottom of the pool now. I will go back with my mask so I can recover him to keep at the cleaning. There could still be some leaves and debris on the bottom on the deep end.

I did change the sand in the filter last week. I plan to go back on Sunday night to be there a couple of days at least. I do have someone there I can teach to run daily test. I found an old tub of granular HC I can use but now I feel I should get a bunch of regular bleach to pour in after a good dose of Muriatic acid first. THe PH was above 8 when I left it yesterday morning.

I had a pump electrical issue several days ago, I got it going again and the pump is running 24 hrs a day just now.

OK opening post done, Clear water ahead!!
 
Welcome,

You have some work ahead and you'll have to find some time, or someone with it to get this cleared. You're right about the kit, and the only two I will suggest are the Taylor 2006C or a TF100XL. A lot of testing will need to be done up front and these are the only reasonable options. Other kits simply dont have enough reagent for this situation.

You need to get all the debris (goop or whatever) out as quickly and as best you possibly can. If you don't drain and clean, this is essential. Knowledge, and testing are key to everything we do, and the best place to start with that is in the ABCs of pool chemsistry in Pool School. Start there and dig into the rest. If you get stuck or have questions, the answers are here, or there will be someone to answer you. Good luck, and let us know how we can help.
 
Just to follow up there, don't confuse the K-2006C with the more common smaller K-2006A often advertised as just the K-2006

Personally I feel the TF-100 is the better deal, plus TF Teskits helps support this place
 
Clearing a pool, especially one that has not been opened is 4-5 years is not a quick process. It takes significant work, money and time. It can easily take as much as a couple weeks even if you perform every step just right. A 30k gallon pool is a lot of water to clean up and it will take lots of bleach and brushing, as well as frequent filter cleaning and testing to clear out the algae. The first few days will require full attention to maintain the process. Initially you may be testing and adding bleach every hour or even more often to continually maintain the high level of chlorine required. The chlorine will rapidly be consumed killing off the algae. No way you can expect success if you dump a bunch of stuff in for a couple days then leave, it just doesn't work that way. Your helper absolutely must be willing and able to do much more than just run a test now and again.

Once the pool is clear it takes daily attention to keep it that way. A few simple chores can easily keep the pool clean and sparkling. Personally I spend on average less than 10 min per day testing, dosing, cleaning the skimmer and doing some occasional brushing, but some of these tasks must be done every single day. Once the pool is clean there are ways to automate dosing, but it will need a daily check to make sure everything is working, clean the skimmer and a daily test to confirm proper chemistry and regulate the dosing.

Test strips are wildly inaccurate and those bags of powder shock, granular chlorine and tablets dump other stuff into your pool, mainly massive amounts of CYA, too much CYA renders the chlorine ineffective. Once you have too much CYA a water change is about the only option. Get one of the recommended test kits and trust only that. Stick to bleach or liquid pool shock only for your source of chlorine as these do not add unwanted chemicals.
 
One thing else to consider, as a person who has 3 pools under his ownership now (fathers, father-in-laws, and friends), and TWO of them where complete swamps when I took them on:

1. If you don't stay on it all the way until the end, don't do it. Pay someone. If you can't afford to pay someone, just don't do it. Once you start, you have to complete it, and leaving for a few days will absolutely, 100% undo all your work, meaning wasted time and money. Algae grows quickly.

2. Since your time is limited, I'd say try to do this during the cold months, since Algae doesn't grow or grows slowly in sub 60 degree water.

3. Testing is the only way to know it's working, don't use the guy who threw in shock first and adjusted PH later. High PH makes chlorine very ineffective, ask me how I know :) Adjust PH first, THEN shock it.

4. You're probably looking at some water replacement, so I'd get a CYA reading, and don't take it to a store because they typically have a range, and when it's over 100ppm, they just say it's above 100, so it's 100. That means it could be 350ppm (mine was), and they tell you it's 100. It could be 900, and guess what, it's 100.
 
If you can be there for a couple of days, with a good test kit you can get a great start on clearing the pool
Then you said you has someone who could do a daily test and add chlorine so this could work out for you. Daily brushing would be a bonus if they are able

Dont use the guy who threw in the bags of chlorine and then tested the ph. ph will read incorrectly when your chlorine is above 10. BTW ph should also always be between 7.2 and 7.8

Have you ordered a test kit yet?
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I have already decided to not use the "old guy" again. I will order the kit today. I instructed the person who is at the house to put in a gallon of MA today and after a couple of hours to pour in two gallons of liquid chlorine. I will get to the pool later tonight and be there only tomorrow and a couple of hours the next day. I will test the ph again with the kit I have tonight. that might give me some idea if it is improving.

Should I take a couple of more gallons of chlorine or even more. for the next few days to be poured in. I am taking my diving mask to try and recover the vac head and robot head. I have new feet for the robot, try and get him going to clean constantly.


Question, at this time how much should I be running the filter pump.
Thanks again, everyone.
 
my friend is putting in two gallons of chlorine early today. Should I take 6 or more, to have plenty to kill the algae. How long does it keep?

The filter has been running several days since I changed the sand. Before the sand was changed my low "clean" pressure was 21-22 psi. After changing the sand, the pressure dropped to 16-17. I assumed that meant the sand needed changing certainly after sitting dormant several years. Should I backwash it first thing when I return, even if the pressure is still at the new "low"?
 
I agree with fajitas21 in post #5. A SLAM requires multiple tests and chlorine additions every day, not a "blind" addition of x amount of bleach.

Backwash when the gauge reads 25% higher than after a backwash, so ~20 psi for you.
 

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PH is still showing max reading/color. 8.2 and low /no chlorine with my two way kit. Do I need to focus on getting the PH down first? pour a gallon of MA in and see if it drops the ph? Or should I wait until I have the tf-100 to test everything.

If I have to remove water , can the pool be emptied safely ( in ground gunite ), left empty a couple of days to clean? My wife made comment she would be afraid the pool may cave in with out the water, is that possible? I guess anything is possible.
 
If your FC is above 10 then don't adjust PH. If it is 10 or lower then put 8.2 in NOW PoolMath and 7.6 in TARGET and add however much MA it says. Pump running, retest in 30 minutes and repeat until the pH show up below 7.8 on the test.

No, the pool will not cave in but it could float up out of the ground if you have a high water table. You shouldn't need to empty it completely anyway.
 
Pooldv is right...the pool will not cave in with no water in it, absolutely not. Completely empty may not be good where you are because of the water table, but I have no idea. You can do partial water changes though, say in thirds repeatedly if needed to reduce what you need too. For us to really help you, you need good test results. Two gallons a day in 30K gallons won't do much if its Green, but it wont hurt anything save wasting the Bleach.
 
According to PoolMath 2 jugs of 8.25% bleach will raise FC by 5.3 ppm in 30k gal. So the yuck in the pool is probably using that up quickly. You can keep adding another jug with the pump running give it a little brush to help mix and retest in 15-20 minutes. Keep doing this until FC show up on your chlorine test. That will give you a head start on the SLAM Process. Sounds like you are fine from a water table standpoint.
 
The swim season is just about over for this area. I don't foresee you getting this thing clear by the time it is time to close the pool for the season. Why clean it now if it will just be closed soon?

Personally I would wait until spring. It might be cheaper to dump the water and refill especially if the water table isn't an issue with the pool popping out of the ground.
 
We are trying to get the house on the market. Long story but have been trying to get it going since memorial day. Waiting on old pool company.. I wish now I had "dove in" (no pun intended) on my own at first and researched to find this site months ago.

got the ph down today. poured 3 gallons of bleach and got it up to 4 or 5 FC. I got in with my mask to find the robot and on the deep end there is a thin layer of "black" that waving my hand over expose the white. It was late in the day. So no luck on finding the robot and hose vac filter. I do have a water hose sweeper bag I am going to try first thing in the morning. I put another 3 gallons of bleach after the swim and the FC is over ten. I only have test strips just now. I must leave tomorrow but will be back on wed or thurs. I have someone here that will keep putting in bleach for me till I return and test. Just neeed my good kit now.
 
It all makes sense now. The TF-100 with the XL option is what you really need. The speedstir isn't mandatory, but it does speed up the time and increase accuracy. No one has ever regretted purchasing it. You will run out of FC reagents very quickly if you get any other kit. TFTestkits.net

I'm sure the water is really nasty. I bought a foreclosure that went uncovered for some time before the bank put the cover on. It was a mess with a large amount of leaf debris on the bottom. I decided to dumped my water, had a pool company do an acid wash and started with fresh water. I did have to let my pool sit for most of last summer while I was away caring for my father. I had a dead turtle (oh the stench), frogs, tadpoles and a bazillion mosquitos. Luckily my neighbors understood why I was away. It took a lot of bleach, but I was able to get it clean without having to dump the water.

It can be done, but someone will need to spend a lot of time babysitting the pool, testing and adding bleach every few hours at first and several times a day at minimum. The key is that you can't stop once you start. Any delays will allow the algae to reproduce and you'll be back to square one. This process can take several weeks. The more water you replace, the faster it will go.

We'll be here for you to help you along the way.
 

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