New Guy, here.
First, specs are in my sig.
Second, I've owned this pool for three years and never had this problem.
Third, I'm about 1.5 seconds away from putting a hand grenade in my pool.
The story:
I was incredibly busy in January and February and left the pool pretty much unattended for about six weeks. Green algae ensued. No problem. Shocked it with chlorine (liquid 10% stuff) and within minutes the pool was blue again. Yay!
This was not my first time dealing with algae, so I knew it would take a couple of days for the water to fully clear up. I brushed it regularly, vacuumed to waste what I could see (and blind vacuumed the known spots for accumulation), and made sure the water stayed balanced.
Today, the water looks exactly the same as it did two days after I shocked the algae: the shallow end is relatively clear (I can see the bottom), but the deep end simply refuses to clear up. I cannot see the last three feet or so of the deep end and its driving me nuts.
Pics:
Shallow end:
Deep end:
Why is it driving me nuts? Because its been three weeks and nothing has changed.
Now, we're having a massive pine pollen invasion right now, but its nothing that hasn't happened every spring before this and this cloudiness hasn't been an issue. I was swimming in it last Easter, in fact.
I use bicarbonate for TA, borax for raising pH, muriatic acid to lower pH, CYA and 10% liquid chlorine (I get it cheap onbase) and nothing else as of late. I used to use dichlor for shocking but switched to liquid this year (as a result of reading about BBB on Ben's website that doesn't allow registration
)
Regardless, here are my most current test results using what I've got. I have a somewhat basic drop-based test kit. I only use strips to test for CYA since my kit only does CC, FC, TA, pH, and acid demand. My FC test results will be estimated since my kit only registers up to 5 ppm. I can only infer by the intensity of the color as to what my actual chlorine levels are at this point. I'll definitely know when they come back down, though.
I've also been running the pump and filter 24/7, BTW. I've only backwashed once since the pressure hasn't really changed much. I have a pressure gauge, but it decided to stop working for no reason this winter. Besides, I can tell when it needs backwashing by feeling the pressure at the jets.
Anyways, the test numbers:
pH: 7.6
FC: at least 10 ppm (I put four gallons of 10% in last night) and holding.
TA: 140 ppm
CYA: ~40-50
Based on my limited knowledge, my three remaining options are to:
- try to do a partial drain/replace of the water.
- call someone out here and pay them $65 to do what I could do myself if I just knew what was wrong.
- employ the aforementioned hand grenade.
Thanks in advance for the help. I tried to provide as much info as I could to make the answers a little less confusing and a little more helpful.
First, specs are in my sig.
Second, I've owned this pool for three years and never had this problem.
Third, I'm about 1.5 seconds away from putting a hand grenade in my pool.
The story:
I was incredibly busy in January and February and left the pool pretty much unattended for about six weeks. Green algae ensued. No problem. Shocked it with chlorine (liquid 10% stuff) and within minutes the pool was blue again. Yay!
This was not my first time dealing with algae, so I knew it would take a couple of days for the water to fully clear up. I brushed it regularly, vacuumed to waste what I could see (and blind vacuumed the known spots for accumulation), and made sure the water stayed balanced.Today, the water looks exactly the same as it did two days after I shocked the algae: the shallow end is relatively clear (I can see the bottom), but the deep end simply refuses to clear up. I cannot see the last three feet or so of the deep end and its driving me nuts.
Pics:
Shallow end:
Deep end:
Why is it driving me nuts? Because its been three weeks and nothing has changed.
Now, we're having a massive pine pollen invasion right now, but its nothing that hasn't happened every spring before this and this cloudiness hasn't been an issue. I was swimming in it last Easter, in fact.
I use bicarbonate for TA, borax for raising pH, muriatic acid to lower pH, CYA and 10% liquid chlorine (I get it cheap onbase) and nothing else as of late. I used to use dichlor for shocking but switched to liquid this year (as a result of reading about BBB on Ben's website that doesn't allow registration
)Regardless, here are my most current test results using what I've got. I have a somewhat basic drop-based test kit. I only use strips to test for CYA since my kit only does CC, FC, TA, pH, and acid demand. My FC test results will be estimated since my kit only registers up to 5 ppm. I can only infer by the intensity of the color as to what my actual chlorine levels are at this point. I'll definitely know when they come back down, though.
I've also been running the pump and filter 24/7, BTW. I've only backwashed once since the pressure hasn't really changed much. I have a pressure gauge, but it decided to stop working for no reason this winter. Besides, I can tell when it needs backwashing by feeling the pressure at the jets.
Anyways, the test numbers:
pH: 7.6
FC: at least 10 ppm (I put four gallons of 10% in last night) and holding.
TA: 140 ppm
CYA: ~40-50
Based on my limited knowledge, my three remaining options are to:
- try to do a partial drain/replace of the water.
- call someone out here and pay them $65 to do what I could do myself if I just knew what was wrong.
- employ the aforementioned hand grenade.
Thanks in advance for the help. I tried to provide as much info as I could to make the answers a little less confusing and a little more helpful.
)
ed