Clueless Newbie

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Staci

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Sep 12, 2016
149
Clover, SC
Having a heck of a time getting our pool clear. We bought the home on 8/17 I never had a pool, my husband did when he was a kid but his Dad and older brothers took care of the chemical part.

We had the filter hose pop off of the pump the first week and lost a lot of water. Put more water in using the hose (made the big mistake of leaving the hose in the water overnight, not realizing that it will just syphon right back out once the water was shut off) We thought we had a leak and water is EXTREMELY expensive here so we did not refill again. We did not put any chemicals in the pool for at least 4 days, we wanted to find the leak that we thought we had. The old owner of the home came over and was trying to help us find the leak and then he asked about the hose... ta da we found the socalled leak! Anywho... now we can not for the life of us get it clear. I went to the pool store and they had me get low and slow to bring down the ph and burn out 73.
3.5 cups of low and slow for 6 days, 1st day 2 cups of algaecide and 3 bags of burn out and then 2 more bags the next day... got nice and clear. We then proceeded to vacuum all the sediment that settled on the bottom. After vacuuming, backwashing and rinsing, the filter blew in cloudy. So now we are cloudy and a tinge of green again!! :mad: Very frustrating

Need a recommendation for a testing kit and some advice to get this bad boy cleared up. Right now all we have is what the prior owner left us and they are those test strips, they don't seem to be very helpful.
 
Staci- I'll give you the Cliffs Notes of TFP care-

1) Order the TF-100 or Taylor K-2006 test kit from TFTestkits.net They ship from NC so it would be pretty fast to you in Clover.
2) Stay out of the Pool Store. All they will do is sell you expensive versions of basic chemicals, or worse- chemicals you don't need such as that algaecide.
3) Go stock up on basic, plain 8.25% bleach from Walmart .... about 10 gallons to start.

Start reading: ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry and more to the point this one --> SLAM Process

When your test kit comes in get back to us with the following results:
FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

We'll be waiting to hear from you :) We'll get this cleared up! I swear!

Yip :flower:
 
should I do anything in the meantime? My husband is going to pick up a 5 way test kit from Home Depot... will that tell us the readings we need? The kits from testkit are a little on the steep side for us right now.
 
The TF-100 will pay for itself if chemical savings alone within the first season, not to mention the frustration you will have with lesser test kits. Having said that really the only two test kits on the market that will let you manage your pool the way we teach are the Taylor K-2006 and the TF Testkits TF-100, the K-2006 is a little cheaper but will cost more in the long run as it has far less reagents included for the critical FAS-DPD chlorine test and the CYA test. Given you have an algae problem I would strongly suggest the TF-100 with the XL option which doubles the amount of FAS-DPD chlorine test reagents.

p.s. if it is the 5 way drop test it can be minimally useful, if it is the 5 way test strips you are better off using a Ouiji Board
 
Clover SC in the house, love it.

You are going to need to SLAM, as YippeeSkippy said in post #2. Here's the bad news. You are going to need to replace at least half the water.

I am curious, being very familiar with the area, why in the world is your water super expensive? It's dirt cheap in surrounding locales.
 

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Hey neighbor! Oh removing half the water is going to be a problem! Is it worth it this close to the end of the season?? Can the pool be maintained in the winter so a SLAM is not necessary every year? Ugh so frustrated and confused. :confused:
The pool was clear after adding 3.5 cups of low and slow for 4 days and adding 3 pks of shock 1st day and 1 the next. Is draining 1/2 the water an absolute necessity?

The water is so expensive since we live outside of city limits and the water rate is double, it is supposedly run up from Gastonia or something like that. (some people in our neighborhood have had monthly bills over $200) Not sure what my bill will be as we just moved in 8/17 and have not yet received one yet. (biting nails)
 
If the CYA is actually 100, the minimum FC is 7, the target is 12 and SLAM level is 39 Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart I suspect it is higher. You could SLAM at that CYA, but to start it would be ~6 gallons of bleach and a lot more after that to keep it there. IF it is actually 100. Here is a Pool School article: Pool School - CYA

Check out the "If your CYA level is 90 or higher" bit
 
Do you get a decent amount of rain? Drain off 6" and use rainwater! Drain and repeat! You could lower it enough to make a slam a little easier. Be creative....setup a collection system....just thinking outside the box filled with water! But honestly...what if a drain and refill was 75 bucks? You will save that and more in one season by not going in a pool store and buying all the stuff they tell you that you need and you really don't! My pool is much smaller but I have yet to buy anything more than bleach and borax and a small jug of stabilizer.
 
no not really, normal amount...I think we are in a drought right now too. :( We were thinking to implement a rain barrel system down the road for pool topping and/or to maintain a veggie garden. I am hoping to get to the point that we only need the items you mentioned above to maintain. Fingers crossed

JEC11718 said:
Do you get a decent amount of rain? Drain off 6" and use rainwater! Drain and repeat! You could lower it enough to make a slam a little easier. Be creative....setup a collection system....just thinking outside the box filled with water! But honestly...what if a drain and refill was 75 bucks? You will save that and more in one season by not going in a pool store and buying all the stuff they tell you that you need and you really don't! My pool is much smaller but I have yet to buy anything more than bleach and borax and a small jug of stabilizer.
Click to expand...

- - - Updated - - -

MarianParoo said:
The link Mr. Bruce gave you above is a good one. (http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/220-CYA). Look at step 9 and do that dilution test for CYA next time it is sunny. Let us know your results!
Click to expand...

When I did CYA test I did it inside, didn't realize I needed to do it outside with sunlight. let me do it again this afternoon the way #9 is saying and I will post results.
 
It's best to do it in full daylight, back to the sun, holding the tube waist high with just 2 fingers at the top. I know it sounds crazy, but the point is to get as much ambient light to the tube as possible.
 
MarianParoo said:
If you want to fix it, yup. Hey, are those stairs removable? They look like an ideal breeding ground for algae and your slam will go a lot faster if you can clean the pool and the stairs separately.

Please familiarize yourself with PoolMath. Here is a tutorial: Pool School - PoolMath
Click to expand...

Yes, they are removable and we will take them out to brush those nasty little greenies away!!
Going to be a SLOW drain, we don't have any way but a garden hose to syphon out the water. Any recomendations on how to speed it up?

Once we drain and refill how do I know my desired level? Is this chart (http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/134-recommended-levels) what I go by?
 

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