Well Water=Brown Water. Test Results!

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aharper10

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Jun 6, 2009
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Hi, I am brand new to this forum. Thanks for the info you all provide here. I have a brand new liner as of a few days ago. I am on well water and just finished filling it up. The well water is always clear as long as we don't use too much at once so you know what happened next. It's brown and we can't see down 6 inches into the water. I shocked it last night and started running the filter, no difference this morning. I got my water tested at the local pool shop:

FC - 5.8
CC - 0.0
ph - 7.8
TA - 170
CH - 140
CYA - 15
Copper - 0.4
Iron - 0

They recommended:

1.) 2 gal 5 pt 1.0 oz of muriatic acid or 26 lb 6 oz of ph decreaser
2.) 14 lb 7 oz calcium hardness increaser
3.) 6 lb 14 oz stabilizer

They said to run the filter and let it clean up the water. I didn't buy anything before I got your opinion(s). Are there recommendations right? Also, at what pressure do I need to backwash? It was at 25 lbs and I backwashed and it's still at 25 lbs. Thanks in advance!

-Adam
 
aharper10 said:
1.) 2 gal 5 pt 1.0 oz of muriatic acid or 26 lb 6 oz of ph decreaser
2.) 14 lb 7 oz calcium hardness increaser
3.) 6 lb 14 oz stabilizer
Click to expand...
That amount of acid can't be for your pH, it must be to lower your TA. Definitely do NOT add it all at once! Read up on lowering TA in Pool School.

Vinyl pools don't mind having a low CH, don't bother with increasing it.

That amount of stabilizer will increase CYA by about 15, which is about right.

(The Pool Calculator is your friend!)
--paulr
 
Welcome :wave:

I agree with Paul.

Out of their three recommendations, adding the extra CYA is the good one.

aharper10 said:
They said to run the filter and let it clean up the water. I didn't buy anything before I got your opinion(s). Are there recommendations right? Also, at what pressure do I need to backwash? It was at 25 lbs and I backwashed and it's still at 25 lbs. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
A general rule is backwash when your psi increases around 30% of your clean filter psi. What is your clean filter psi? Does your gauge go to zero when off?

Have you added sequesterants or did you have to add them to your pool before the new liner/refill?

Have you added anything that contains copper?
 
Totally Lost, Please Help.

I haven't been able to get online the last few days to check the replies so I had to go by the pool store recommendations. I didn't put all the acid in the pool or the stabilizer because he said I needed to let the filter work for a few days. So, I did and basically no difference, still brown. On Monday (2 days ago) the dude said to use this:

00970053.jpg


I did and yesterday morning I woke up to a less brown pool, but with a hint of green. I shocked it last night and today it is darker green. The dude said I have yellow algae now and wants me to put in "Yellow Treat Algicide" because he says the shock has no effect on yellow algae. After that he wants me to floc? it and vacuum to waste. Even if I'm supposed to do that I can't because I have a cracked pipe underground and a "regular" vacuum won't work, it just continually sucks in air. I had to buy a polaris 360 that works through the returns to even vacuum.

So, with all that said I'm going on vacation this Saturday and will be gone for a week. I don't have a clue what to do. I can get someone to come over and backwash and keep chlorine tablets going but that's about it. Do I need to do the yellow treat stuff or just wait till I get back? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to read as much as I can in pool school and am eager to learn. I'm going to order a test kit ASAP so I can start trying to figure this stuff out myself instead of being a slave to the pool dude. Thanks in advance.
 
You are getting "pool-stored". You need to take charge of your water. You cannot get the tools you need and get your pool cleared by Saturday.

I would have someone come by your pool each evening and add one small jug of Clorox to help keep the algae from becoming overwhelming.

When you get back, you'll need to be able to test your water and plan on consuming a ton of Clorox. Your pool will be sparkling clear if you will make the comittment to follow the advice from the smart folks on this forum.
 
duraleigh said:
You are getting "pool-stored". You need to take charge of your water. You cannot get the tools you need and get your pool cleared by Saturday.

I would have someone come by your pool each evening and add one small jug of Clorox to help keep the algae from becoming overwhelming.

When you get back, you'll need to be able to test your water and plan on consuming a ton of Clorox. Your pool will be sparkling clear if you will make the comittment to follow the advice from the smart folks on this forum.
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Will do. Thanks.
 
Ok, so here I am the day before I leave for Orlando for a week....... I just got back from Wal-Mart and bought (8) 96 fl oz bottles of 6% bleach. I'm about to pour one bottle in slowly, taking about 2 minutes, in front of the returns...correct? I'm gonna tell my sister to do the same thing every day that she comes by here. Will that be too much? Also, I told her to backwash if the pressure gets to 30 psi (clean it's at ~24). I told someone what I was doing and they said, "you're brand new liner is gonna be bleached out white". :goodjob:

P.S. I ordered the TF Test kit. It will be waitin on me when I get back from Disney. :party:
 

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Butterfly said:
aharper10 said:
P.S. I ordered the TF Test kit. It will be waitin on me when I get back from Disney. :party:
Click to expand...

Great! You will have someone make sure your kit is picked up and stored in a climatized place (like inside the house), right! :lol:


Have a wonderful Disney trip :lol: :whoot:
Click to expand...

Just emailed my sister to do that :)

Thanks!
 
Just got home. I got the test kit opened up and am gonna test the water. My sister put all the bleach in it and all of the green is gone. We can see the bottom of the deep end now. It's just a little cloudy with a blue tint. There's quite a bit of dirt/sand on the floor so it needs vacuuming. I'm gonna test everything and post.......Suggestions welcomed......
 
Ok, here's the results from my trusty TF-100:

FC - 14
CC - 1
TC - 15
pH - 7.2
T/A - 90
CH - 100
CYA - 35

I checked the pH and chlorine with the blocks and the pH was 7.2 and the chlorine was an orange tint. I did the chlorine drop test twice because the first time I added 32 drops and wasn't sure I had swirled every time. I did it the second time and made sure I swirled every time and got 28 drops. Isn't that FC high?! My sister put bleach in the pool yesterday she said. Now that the vacuum is running it has everything stirred up and there may be a little green tint to the water.

So, what to do now..... I need to raise my pH with washing soda or borax, scrub the walls and loosen up whatever algae is left, keep pump and vacuum running and monitor pH & FC.....???
 
Ok, so the FC is at shock level (14). I need to monitor it the rest of the day and make sure it stays the same overnight? Since the CC is 1 do I need to go ahead and shock again tonight? If so, how much bleach? Is that on the pool calculator?
 
Well, if you're still up and wanna, you could do the Overnight Test tonight. Sorry I caught this so late.

As reebok said, you do need to shock your pool. You are done shocking when you meet this three criteria (ChemGeek's):

1. You lose 1ppm of FC or less overnight, and
2. Your CC is 0.5 or less, and
3. Your water is sparkly

When your FC drops below 10 ppm, retest your pH. If it is lower than 7.2 use Borax to raise it to around 7.4.
Don't test your pH while your FC is >10 because it will read a false high.

Your sis did a great job for you while you were at Disney :goodjob:
 
Ok, I got it I think. I'm just trying to figure out exactly how much bleach to put in......Looking at the chlorine/cya chart, if my CYA is 35 I would need to get FC up to 14. I just tested the FC, (twice to make sure), and it is 20 and CC is 1. Since it is higher than shock level do I just monitor it until it goes below shock level and while I'm waiting scrub the pool? I'm thinking I might need to check CYA again because that would affect my shock level, and I might not have "gotten it" the first time I tested it. Thanks!


-Adam
 

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