Can't get it any cleaner

[scuba frog]

Hi all. Normal story I guess. New pool owner bad previous owner. It was a swamp. I have been reading for a while and read thru pool school and got things much better but now I have hit a wall and can not get it any better. I know we like details and pictures so here goes.

16x32 in ground goes from 3 feet to 8 feet figuring about 24,000 gal
Vinyl liner just replaced.
new Hayward S244T sand filter and new sand
Hayward 1HP pump
Testing with LaMotte ColorQ 7 Pro
Using TriChlor for now
AquaBot to clean the bottom/walls

Started with:

FCL 0
TCL 0
PH 7.3
ALY 110
CH 116
CYA 0 Hence the TriChlor

Now have:
FCL 7.86
TCL 8.43
PH 7.1 Down due to Chlorine right?
ALK 75 No idea where this went
CH 107 Within +/- for the tester
CYA 23 Getting there

Cleaned all the junk out of the pool and have been keeping the chlorine above the yellow mustard algae level for about a week and shocking trying to get combined chlorine down. The fact that it stays up around .6 or so tells me that there is still organics in the water. But I would think that a week of filtering 24/7 at 7.5-8.0 FCL and daily manual and auto cleaning would have killed that by now no? So right now the pool is shocked to 10+ (max of tester) and the bot is running but the water is getting no clearer. What do I do. It's a blue gray color in the shallow end and I can see the bottom. The deep end is more of a green color and can only see down a few feet.

[attachment=0:2awb86ld]whole thing.JPG[/attachment:2awb86ld]

The entire pool

[attachment=1:2awb86ld]deep end.JPG[/attachment:2awb86ld]

The deep end

[attachment=2:2awb86ld]shallow end.JPG[/attachment:2awb86ld]

The shallow end off to the right (dark spot) is the shadow of the wall.

I also owe you guys a few more pictures to explain the rock pile in the background.

 

[scuba frog]

The rocks are there because I was looking for water:

[attachment=2:2b38tzch]breaking.JPG[/attachment:2b38tzch]

[attachment=1:2b38tzch]breaking2.JPG[/attachment:2b38tzch]

[attachment=0:2b38tzch]broken pipe.JPG[/attachment:2b38tzch]

Ah That's where it must be. Both returns were split open where they connect to the pool.

 

[scuba frog]

Pipe is fixed:

[attachment=2:av6vxiv8]fixed pipe.JPG[/attachment:av6vxiv8]


So the swamp

[attachment=1:av6vxiv8]The swamp.JPG[/attachment:av6vxiv8]


Can start to be cleaned

[attachment=0:av6vxiv8]Cleaning.JPG[/attachment:av6vxiv8]

There were a LOT of leaves.

 

[PaulR]

The trichlor is acidic, which is the most likely reason that your pH and TA (i.e. ALK) have dropped. It's also a relatively slow way to add CYA, but also clearly it has done that job as well.

With CYA in the 20-30 range, the Pool School Chlorine/CYA Chart says shock level is 10-12. This is not to say 8 won't get the job done, but the process will slow down.

My take is you should let the tabs dissolve, that you have in there now, but switch to bleach as your primary chlorine source. You have enough CYA at this point that you won't lose absolutely everything to sunlight each day, but the shock levels aren't ridiculous either. Finish the shock process with bleach, and then if you want a higher CYA you can do that after you're done shocking.

Recap: Don't add any more tabs; target FC 12 using bleach; backwash as needed; and see what happens.
--paulr

 

[Richard320]

What Paul R said.

You can always dilute your sample 50/50 with distilled water to read higher Chlorine levels. Or if you have one of those pricey water filters that removes everything, that works, too, for Chlorine testing anyway.

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP! Nothing like breaking out the jackhammer to get your pool open for the summer.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Now have:
FCL 7.86
TCL 8.43
But I would think that a week of filtering 24/7 at 7.5-8.0 FCL and daily manual and auto cleaning would have killed that by now no? So right now the pool is shocked to 10+ (max of tester) and the bot is running but the water is getting no clearer. What do I do. It's a blue gray color in the shallow end and I can see the bottom. The deep end is more of a green color and can only see down a few feet.

You aren't done shocking - your CC is still over .5 and you're water is not clear.

Our criteria for knowing when you are "done" is

Your FC holds overnight or you less than 1ppm;
Your CC is .5 or less;
Your water is crystal clear (if you don't have an FAS-DPD test to confirm 1 and 2)

I highly recommend you get your own Test Kit, its the best investment you can make to protect your investment.

 

[Casey]

I highly recommend you get your own Test Kit, its the best investment you can make to protect your investment.

Exactly!

Welcome to TFP!

 

[scuba frog]

To start, thanks for all your help. I didn't fully under standing shocking. I was keeping a high chlorine level and shocking once a day. What I needed to be doing was maintaining the shock level. Now that I am keeping it at about 11 ppm things have been clearing right up with improvements by the hour.

As far as a test kit I have a LaMotte ColorQ 7 Pro. I know I kind of stuck that in the middle of everything so it might have been missed or are you trying to say that's not good and should get a Taylor and learn to read colors?

Thanks again for all the help. I can see the bottom now and it's getting better. The dark streak is stuff I need to vacuum the off the bottom


[attachment=0:15tyonb0]see bottom.JPG[/attachment:15tyonb0]

 

[duraleigh]

Hi, Scuba,

A lot of folks miss that point. Sounds like you are on your way.

The La Motte ColorQ seems to be a mixed blessing. It seems to do Okay for pH but can't measure high levels of FC (which you need to do when you shock properly and it really seems to lose accuracy with the CH and CYA test.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Well, perhaps you can supplement your kit with an FAS-DPD test and a separate CYA test.... you can purchase these tests "ala carte" from both Taylor and TFtestkits.net.

Keep us posted....