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!
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!