New Pool Owner Needing some help and guidance!

[Mitch.broekemeier]

Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this forum and am already learning a bunch; wish I would've found this a couple weeks ago and I'd probably have a clear pool already!

Quick background, My family and I moved into our place in early November and decided to keep the pool (27' round above ground pool). The PO stated he had used it in 2016, but had been transferred in early 2017 so he didn't keep it up at all last year. We replaced the liner and found out that we needed to replace the pump and sand filter and associated hoses. We filled our pool out of our well knowing we had some dirty water (high iron content), but the individual that installed the liner, pump, and filter stated that it would be a fairly simple process to get it clear. Once full, he had me shock the pool (we added 2 - 1lb bags over 1.5 days) and we have a floater with chlorine tabs. When the water turned brown, we tested using the test strips and the PH and TA were at the highest color on the chart. We added stabilizer (4 lbs) and dry acid, which started to help clear it up; however, it's gotten more cloudy and greenish brown the last few days.

I tested again today using the strips (Will be purchasing a better test kit tomorrow) and the levels were as follows: FC - 1-3 ppm; ALK 180ppm; PH between 8.4/9.0; CYAbetween 40/100ppm.

I need some help on a few things here. Obviously, I want to get this cleared up so my daughter can start enjoying it this summer. Any help on what I can do to start clearing this up will be appreciated. I've planned to use some polyfill (Both at skimmer and a bucket set up) to help try to filter the iron out as we adjust chemicals to proper levels.

Additionally, our installer did a not so great job explaining the frequency of back washing/recycling the pool. Do we need to back wash weekly and if so, how long or how to tell when it's been long enough? My pump has been running 24/7 and I'm not sure if we are supposed to leave that running all the time or not. Sorry for so many questions, but being a pool newbie I want to make sure we are doing this right and not messing things up.

When needing to top off is there anything I can also do to eliminate the iron from turning my pool back to a brown/green stew? It would be nice to not have to re-filter out the iron each time we backwash. I'll Try to upload some photos tomorrow.

Thanks in advance!

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! You should back wash when you see a 20% rise from the clean pressure reading. Backwash until the water from the discharge hose runs clear, then rinse until clear again.

You do not need to run the pump 24/7 unless you are slamming the pool. Start with about 6 hours of runtime, then dial it back if needed.

You can use sequestrant to keep the water clear. You will need to add it on a regular basis to keep the iron in suspension.

 

[Mitch.broekemeier]

**UPDATE**

I picked up a new test kit today (Leslie's FAS-DPD Kit) and here are my updated test results:

FC= 5.2ppm (They listed ideal range between 2.0-4.0) how can I can get this down?
CC= 0.4ppm
PH= 8.0 (Per their calculation tables I could add 5.25lbs of dry acid to get this to 7.4)
TA= 225ppm (This one is off the charts, and says I would need 37 lbs of dry acid to get this down to 125ppm, wouldn't that plummet my PH?) Need help on this one!
CYA= 33ppm (listed on the low end of ideal)

For some reason I can't get photos to upload, but my pool is a cloudy green and I have what looks like rust deposits that have settled out. If someone could help me out that would be great, we are wanting to start enjoying this pool instead of staring at what looks like dirty water. Thanks all!

 

[Neotericisis]

Here’s a bump for your post. I’m a newbie myself, but I have learned in my short time here that the best test kit is the TF-100. I’m not sure if your test kit from Leslies would be accurate enough. I’m hoping someone more knowledgeable can help you out!!

 

[zea3]

Is this the kit you bought, Taylor Technologies 81329 Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test Kit

The CYA test has a 10ppm +/- for accuracy. Round up to the next 10 when you get an in between result. That would make your 33 actually 40ppm and you dose the pool accordingly.

You do need to lower pH, and since 8.0 is the top of the scale on most kits, it may actually be higher. Use muriatic acid to lower pH. This will also lower your TA. Since you are reading high you may need several doses of acid to get to the correct range for pH.

Normally we don't worry about TA unless it is affecting the pH level. Anything you do to lower pH will also lower TA. Once the pH is in range, keep an eye on it and take note of how quickly it rises. If it doesn't rise or barely rises you don't need to mess with the TA.

Finally as you have noticed your pool is quite green with algae. You don't want to lower the FC you want to raise it significantly! Read through our instructions for the SLAM Process procedure, it will show you how to clear your pool. Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

You may want to build a diy iron filter for your pool. How to get rust out of pool water - The easy way - No more brown water! - No more red water! - YouTube