Thankful to be here!

[Princess]

Hi. I am so glad that I have found this website. I got my pool this summer and it has been nothing but hurdles ever since, everything from permitting, electrical, water, deck to pool chemistry has gone south so far. I've already learned more this morning reading the threads than I ever thought I would learn about a pool. I started looking this morning because my pool is a very dark green and I can't get it to clean up. I was on vacation for 2 weeks so my boyfriend had a pool party with his nieces and nephews and never ran the pump once while I was gone. Then came a huge rainstorm. When I came home from vacay the pool was green and I tried to shock it a few times but it didn't work. After everything I read this morning I realize that I was not doing it correctly. One thing I definitely did wrong was that I misunderstood the use of CYA, I thought it was for opening the pool only. I did not realize I needed to maintain those levels. I read that you need to know what your CYA level is before you get algae and I don't know what it was. I assume it must have been very low since it was never added (except initially in July). So how do I proceed? Not sure if this matters but when I left for vacation my salt level according to SWG was 3200 (as recommended by manufacturer) and now it reads 2800. I plant to shut my salt generator off and try the SLAM process. I have ordered the Taylor K2006 test kit and expect it to be here Wednesday (I planned a pool party a month ago for this coming Saturday!). I had been using the strips that came with the chemical bundle. I look forward to asking a ton of questions about pool ownership but my big questions for today are...

How can I get my CYA level right if I don't know what it was before the algae took over?

Also, I keep reading about using liquid bleach and not to fall prey to pool store marketing- just to be clear, we are talking about bleach in a bottle that I would use on my laundry, right?

How much liquid bleach should I buy?

Thank you in advance for your responses and thank you for this forum, I have a feeling it is going to be a very useful resource for me.

 

[kimkats]

Hi! You have come to the right place to clear the pool but I am not sure we can get it clear in time for your party Here is what you can do while you wait on the test kit to get there.

Liquid bleach=household bleach, just plain bleach. No pretty smells or splashless. Here is what you shopping cart should look like:

You can't really know your CYA level until your test kit gets there. Don't even bother taking it to a pool store as this is one of the tests they get wrong the most.

For right now pour in a jug of bleach each evening with the pump running. Your pump should be running 24/7 while you work on getting the pool clear. I say evening so you don't have to worry about the sun taking any of it. If you put it in after the sun is off the pool it will be able to start killing the algae. Have the boyfriend brush your pool 3 times a day since he is the one that got your pool into this mess

Kim

 

[Princess]

Thanks for the advice. I used regular bleach and vacuumed and brushed each day. I also backwashed the filter and vacuumed a ton of green gunk out with the filter on waste. My pool is a ton better but very cloudy still. I can now see the bottom step but not the floor of the pool and when I first started I couldn't even see the top step. My test kit (Taylor k-2006) came and it shows my alkalinity at 100 ppm, and ph 7.6. The CYA is still below 30 even though I put some in yesterday. I'm thinking it may not have dissolved because it seems like there is a white spot where I dumped it. I will be more careful about spreading it around next time. Tonight I will scrub and vacuum and backwash and add more bleach. Any insight on resolving my cloudiness issue?

- - - Updated - - -

Also I will do the overnight chlorine test tonight.

 

[kimkats]

Since it is still cloudy don't bother doing the over night test. That is for when it is clear.

CYA should not be dumped into the pool. You need to brush it real good to get is dissolved. What we like to do is put it in a sock (like you wear) and hang it in front of a return. It takes a couple of days but you know it is all dissolved and not sitting on your pool floor. You can even squeeze it until it is gone if you want to speed it up.

Kim

 

[Pool Tool]

Cloudiness will be cured with persistence. Keep up the hard work, keep FC at SLAM levels and keep running your pump 24/7. Backwash only after a 25% rise in pressure from your 'clean' pressure (pressure right after you backwash)...a dirty filter filters the best at least it starts to prevent flow.