It's High School Chem All Over Again! Hello!

[Mommy24]

Hi there,

We bought the kiddos an Intex above ground pool this past Christmas. We got tired of $100 blow-up ones popping. Our kids are active in the water. I have suspicions that a "real" pool is in our distant future. But anyway, we are rural, so on a well. The main thing that sent me to the pool store was the iron problem. We're currently getting that under control. While there, I got some test strips. The guy sold me algaecide, stabilizer, and I already have some chlorine pellets for the floater, and some Chlorox brand pool shock.

Here's the thing. I've tested my pool 3 times today after I put in the algaecide, stabilizer, and shock that I just dumped in this morning because until then, the pool had had no chlorine at all (it's been filled about 1 week). Anyway... here is my most recent reading this evening...

CYA: 30-50
pH: 7.2
Alkalinity: 40-80
FC: 0 -.5
TC: .5 - 1

I have read some on Pool School. What I am understanding is that the super bright sun today eliminated all of the shock I dumped in this morning (because I should have done it at night). And now, my pool has no FC. So that's bad, right?

The pool guy had me dump in something to make the iron and metals bond together so they could be filtered out. My alkalinity had been super high so we dumped in some muranic acid.

What do I do? More chlorine shock? How much?

Dare I ask...can this pool be open for swimming tomorrow evening???

I kinda want to puncture the thing and forgo the whole endeavor. Who has time for this?

Thanks if you can help!

 

[aussieta]

welcome to tfp
you need some liquid chlorine in there pronto normal household bleach not scented or splashless or you can buy liquid chlorine from pool shop
cant advise how much as i dont know the size of your pool
the cya acts like sunscreen for your chlorine so it is more likely something in the water used up the chlorine
what does the water look like
beware solid forms of chlorine add things you may not need or want
have a read of this Pool School - Guide for Seasonal/Temporary Pools
seeing water is only one week old possibly ok tomorrow

 

[Mommy24]

Hi and thanks so much! I just read that part in "R" about the signature! So I hope mine now says what it needs to. I do have scentless liquid bleach in the house. Would love to know what to do!

 

[Mommy24]

Water was orange this morning - well water iron. And now it's slowly been clearing up today. I have been altering the filters and cleaning them every few hours. I am running the pump non-stop.

 

[BattleOfYakima]

Welcome to TFP! I know you want to swim as soon as possible, so I'll start there.

Go to the big box store/hardware store/grocery store and buy at least 2 jugs of regular, plain bleach or concentrated bleach (no scents, no easy pour, no technology, no fanciness. no germicidal, ) Pour in an entire 121oz jug today, then a quarter of a jug each day thereafter. This is best guess since you don't have a test kit with FAS-DPD testing for FC and CC.

Just to prepare you - when you add the bleach or any product with chlorine, your orange water may turn brown, but that's potentially very helpful in removing the iron as it indicates the iron is precipitating out where you can catch it. If your water doesn't change color that's fine too.

I work better with numbered lists, hope that's okay! I'm keeping this post as short as I can, but am really happy to explain anything in detail, no offense taken.

1) "Pool Check 6 in 1" - are these the test strips you submerge in the water and then compare to the bottle? If so, do yourself the biggest favor a pool owner can do and buy an approved test kit. Why would I ask you to spend more money before even discussing your pool? Because I am confident it will SAVE you money, time, and promote safety in the big picture. I suggest the TF-100 test kit because it is an even better value than the also fantastic K-2006C. You may research these all you want or just order the TF-100 and move on with life. No pressure, up to you.

2) "The guy sold me ... " followup and more info
algaecide - didn't need it, don't buy more, return what you can (whatever you put in the pool is fine, no worries at all)
stabilizer - this one you actually needed! Yay! No pressure, but do you know how much has gone in the pool since filling?
some chlorine pellets for the floater - don't buy more, don't refill the floater, but leave those in there for now
Chlorox brand pool shock - don't buy more, no worries
something to make the iron and metals bond together - we have some favorites we can talk about later if his magic potion doesn't work (generally speaking pool stores seem to suggest ones we haven't seen very good results from)
muriatic acid - we like this product, but don't use it for a while since the pellets you have floating in the pool are very acidic and will lower the PH as they dissolve

3) Iron - so this may take some time, so be patient please. We will talk more about it later, but right now, I'll just say it isn't anything to stress over, and it is totally resolvable.

 

[aussieta]

here is a link to the fc cya chart Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart
for a cya of 50 your minimum chlorine is 4 target is 6-8
if you enter your details into poolmath, link at top of page it will tell you how much of each chemical to add
for now chlorine is the only thing you need to get on to

 

[Mommy24]

Welcome to TFP! I know you want to swim as soon as possible, so I'll start there.

Go to the big box store/hardware store/grocery store and buy at least 2 jugs of regular, plain bleach or concentrated bleach (no scents, no easy pour, no technology, no fanciness. no germicidal, ) Pour in an entire 121oz jug today, then a quarter of a jug each day thereafter. This is best guess since you don't have a test kit with FAS-DPD testing for FC and CC.

Just to prepare you - when you add the bleach or any product with chlorine, your orange water may turn brown, but that's potentially very helpful in removing the iron as it indicates the iron is precipitating out where you can catch it. If your water doesn't change color that's fine too.

I work better with numbered lists, hope that's okay! I'm keeping this post as short as I can, but am really happy to explain anything in detail, no offense taken.

1) "Pool Check 6 in 1" - are these the test strips you submerge in the water and then compare to the bottle? If so, do yourself the biggest favor a pool owner can do and buy an approved test kit. Why would I ask you to spend more money before even discussing your pool? Because I am confident it will SAVE you money, time, and promote safety in the big picture. I suggest the TF-100 test kit because it is an even better value than the also fantastic K-2006C. You may research these all you want or just order the TF-100 and move on with life. No pressure, up to you.

2) "The guy sold me ... " followup and more info
algaecide - didn't need it, don't buy more, return what you can (whatever you put in the pool is fine, no worries at all)
stabilizer - this one you actually needed! Yay! No pressure, but do you know how much has gone in the pool since filling?
some chlorine pellets for the floater - don't buy more, don't refill the floater, but leave those in there for now
Chlorox brand pool shock - don't buy more, no worries
something to make the iron and metals bond together - we have some favorites we can talk about later if his magic potion doesn't work (generally speaking pool stores seem to suggest ones we haven't seen very good results from)
muriatic acid - we like this product, but don't use it for a while since the pellets you have floating in the pool are very acidic and will lower the PH as they dissolve

3) Iron - so this may take some time, so be patient please. We will talk more about it later, but right now, I'll just say it isn't anything to stress over, and it is totally resolvable.

Hello and thanks.
1. Yes, those are the test strips. I will buy the test kit you recommended.

2. Algaecide: I have another bottle and the pool store guy advised just adding 2oz per week as regular maintenance. I am fine with that. So far, yesterday 20 oz of algaecide went in and now I maintain.

3. Iron - yes I understand the time thing. Already it is looking clearer from it. We have also been looking at YouTube videos of ways to make a filter at home using polyester poly-fil and a 5 gallon bucket. Both the videos we watched have Intex pools. The current pump filter with cartridge would stay in-tact and in use and the bucket filter is added between the Intex one and the re-entry of filtered water to the pool. I realize the pool we have, since the other poster advised reading about seasonal pools, likely has a pump that is too small.

4. I realized late last night that I didn't have any regular old bleach. So I ordered 6 gallons of regular non-scented, non-concentrated, non-fancy stuff. But because FC was at 0, I felt nervous enough that I dumped in another Chlorox pool shock bottle. This morning FC is up to 3 ppm and CYA is still stable. BUT we are having a heat advisory today with high temps in the 90s.

5. What puzzles me is the pH. It is in the high 6s. What do I do? Can the kids swim later? If it helps yesterday the pH was 8 after I put in that first Chlorox shock bottle and before the pool guy had me add all the other stuff.

- - - Updated - - -

here is a link to the fc cya chart Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart
for a cya of 50 your minimum chlorine is 4 target is 6-8
if you enter your details into poolmath, link at top of page it will tell you how much of each chemical to add
for now chlorine is the only thing you need to get on to

Thank you so much for all your help. I found that calculator last night and I have been figuring things out.

 

[jeffchap]

Algaecide is unnecessary in a properly maintained pool, and besides being a waste of money it can add things like copper to your water which can stain your liner and turn your hair green. We strongly advise against its use.

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi Mommy,
Adding Muriatic acid drops the pH a LOT but the TA only a little. Dont worry at all about the TA it's likely fine and not really of any consequence to the health of the pool. All TA does is sort of buffer how fast the pH rises. Nothing else.

To raise the pH back up into the 7's you can add 20 Mule Team Borax. Use Pool Math to figure out how much to add so you can get your pH back up in fairly quick order.
Or if you have one of those water fountains that connects to your return and sprays water, then hook that up.

Spraying and splashing water aerates it, and that aeration causes a rise in pH. It might take a couple days to get it up a significant amount though.

If the Chlorox pool shock was the liquid type, then thats good stuff. Its basically the same a bleach, but just stronger.

 

[BattleOfYakima]

Great posts! Great to hear you are getting an approved test kit, you'll love it after you learn the testing routine (we have videos and write ups).

Since you've got those floaters in there (which are lowering PH 24/7) I suggest you follow the above suggestion and aim the water return jet upwards enough to make bubbles on the surface of the water. This is called aeration and will combat the general PH fall due to floaters, but will not be enough to bring you back up for swimming today.

While I don't generally base advice on strips, since you ordered the test kit, here we go! I will say that if your PH tests lower than 7.2, and you want to be swimming, I'd spend the $4.50 or so for the Mule Team for the 4lb 1 oz box usually found in the laundry or household aisle (available at most big box stores and grocery stores) At my local pool store they sell a "Fast Acting PH Increaser Magic" or something and charge $16.99 for 5 lbs, when it is on sale. No thanks!

Again, I'm basing this off test strips, but if it were my pool, I'd use PoolMath, setting your 5,455 gallons, your current PH at 6.8 and your goal at 7.5 (or whatever you wish), and putting in TA of 60 (average of your "40-80") I can press calculate and see it says to add 41oz by weight of borax, which if I hover over 41 it says at the top near calculate that it is 2lb 9oz. So I'd buy one box, slowly, slowly, slowly, pour in about half the box in front of the return jet, then give it a good brushing all over the floor and walls to make sure it all dissolved nicely. 20 minutes later, I'd retest PH to make sure that did the trick good enough. Then my PH should be great to swim, or I just plug my most recent PH & TA in PoolMath to see how much more I need.

I know PoolMath has a lot of fields, but if you use my explanations as a tutorial, you can check to see if you get the same result - which would suggest you are using it correctly. If you don't get the same result, please say what you do get so I can see what you're doing wrong and fix it.

I wouldn't let my kids swim until the water is PH 7.2-7.8, FC at least 8, ideally 12 (guessing because of strips), and the water is clear enough to see the bottom everywhere. I'm fine with orange and brown tinted water, but if it looks like its gone green tinted too, that's it until I can SLAM Process with the real test kit.

Is this the bottle you poured in? Do you have any more?