Green Pool

[YAZ]

I'm gonna post, then get back to "Pool School".

OK.

My pump wasn't working properly, basically had a ton of air leaks. The whole thing needs to be replaced; just trying to get through the summer. Silicone is my new best friend... :-D

Lately in Phoenix: wind, rain, and lots of debris. The bottom was gettin' dirty (wasn't using the vacuum cuz of the pump problems), and the water was gettin' cloudy.

No big deal, I thought, I'll just run the pump on overtime. 24/7 Baby. Connected the vacuum and left for the day. Evidently, the vacuum stirred up a lot, and my poor pool became a thick, kinda brown mess.

Disconnected the vacuum; ran the pump with just the skimmer. 1 day later....I've got a green pool that only a frog could love.

Stats:

One of those "floaty things" that I keep full of Cl tabs.
CYA....through the roof...greater than 100 ppm
Free Cl...through the roof...about 7 ppm
Total Cl...5 ppm
Combined Cl....-2 ppm? am I doing the math wrong? :?:
pH....7.3
Total Alkalinity....190 ppm....

I understand that a cloudy pool will throw off the CYA level....

Now what?

Right now,
I'm running the pump 24/7, still have the floating Cl thing going on. No vacuum action, just the skimmer.

 

[Buggsw]

Well, I hate to tell you this, but your chlorine is not through the roof considering your high CYA. Your pucks, if they are trichlor, are contributing to your CYA problem. Because it is so blasted hot here right now, you should not dump your water to lower your CYA.

You may want to get a manual vacuum as it does help to vacuum as much of that stuff out. If you vac slowly you can sometimes minimize stirring up and making a thick cloud. Vac to waste if you can. This will help lower your water and as result help lower your CYA as you will need to top off with fresh water when you vac to waste. Be careful doing this, though in this heat, don't let it get lower than your tiles before you top off. If you cannot vac to waste and can only vac to filter, make sure you backwash regularly - you may have to do it daily if your pressure gets up there. You will still be replacing water from the backwashing. If you have a cartridge filter - you won't backwash, but you will be cleaning cartridges plenty often. You have to get that sludge on the bottom out of there. The skimmer isn't going to pick it up from the bottom. You also need to brush the sides at least daily, through this process.

I'd stop using the pucks in the floater. Find a B&L pools or another pool store that carries 12% liquid chlorine and using the info from Pool School, the cya charts and the Pool Calculator start putting the liquid chlorine in and keeping it over your shock level day and night until you maintain FC or lose only 1 ppm of FC overnight. You may have to add chlorine several times throughout the day for the first day or so, but it's important to keep it at or over shock level else you are giving the algae time to defeat you. It can take a week or more to get it cleared up. The more diligent you are about this, the faster it will go.

If you go to the HASA website http://www.hasapool.com/az_dealers.htm you will find all the pool stores that carry the 12% chlorine. B&L sells it for 12.99 for 4 gallons with a $5 deposit for the crate and bottles. If you get on their mailing list, they will send you several coupons that will save you even more. I don't know how much the other stores price it, could be even better.

Get going now, it's hotter than you know what and you should be swimming and enjoying your pool.

 

[duraleigh]

I understand that a cloudy pool will throw off the CYA level....

Not really. That has been discussed but the pool would have to be virtually opaque to have influence on the test. I believe your CYA is excessively high and will cause caring for your pool to be problematic until you get it down to a reasonable level.

Stopping use of the pucks will be a first step. Figuring way to do some water replacement will be the next.

Take a look at the CYA/chlorine relationship chart that is in Pool School. It will give you an idea of where your FC needs to be given your CYA of 100+

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

You need to do a series of partial drains and refills, to lower the CYA level.

When the CYA level is down to 60-70 (a much more mangaeable number) you can begin to rebalance.

Start with PH/TA first, get them in range. Then shock the pool.

Once the FC is holding, and the water is clear, don't use pucks anymore except for vacation use. Just use bleach.

 

[DCAG]

Be careful doing this, though in this heat, don't let it get lower than your tiles before you top off.

Buggs, those of us in the north can't imagine heat like AZ has. Does this statement mean what it sounds like - if water drops below the tiles, bad things start happening? Like tiles popping off, or something?

Dan