Hi I need advice. This is my second year of pool ownership and I have learned a lot already, but need to learn a lot MORE. I thought anything above Free Chlorine 3.0 was bad to swim in.
This is my pool adventure for this year. We filled it up in May; it was great. At end of June, the lady behind us replaced her fence and flower beds, the dirt and saw dust went into my pool (our cover was ripped badly.) There was actual sawdust at bottom of pool that wouldn't vacumm up with teensy pool vacumm--- after two weeks I bought a Shop Vac and vaccumed it up, losing about 1/3 of the water. Filled it with city water. Then we went on vacation and came back to pool with a green tint, the pump/filter had shut off with the circuit breaker and chlorine tablets were gone anyway. So I put in chlorine tablets, that didn't help. I threw in half a packet of shock, that didn't help. I threw in the other half, that didn't help. I bought 60% algeacide, that killed the algae but now the water is cloudy. I added some clarifier, that didn't help. Then I came to the computer desperately searching for help. Now I have learned I shouldn't be throwing in every and all things I own just to try to fix the problem. So I got my test kit out (I usually use strips because my teenagers will do that but they hate the 'drops' stuff.) These are my numbers.
Chlorine OTO is 5.0 bright yellow,
PH 7.6 pink in the middle of the tube,
Alkalinity is 21 drops (so that is 210 right?)
The water hardness never showed blue even after I used all the drops in the kit so I don't know what went wrong. (We do have hard water -- I live in Utah - a desert state).
My stabilizer test was 80 ppm which is high, right? I am guessing that is from throwing in shock stuff.
We had over two weeks straight of 95 degrees or hotter during time it was full of sawdust but now temps are at 90 or so.
So from what I read I need to make chlorine even more? But how do you tell how much chlorine you have when test tubes only goes to 5.0 and what is safe to swim in.
Or do I just need to change filter cartridge if the cloud is from dead algae? I tried that two weeks ago and it didn't work and now I can't find a store that still has cartridges for my crappy Kmart filters. (end of season, apparantly)
Any ideas of what to do next, and how soon can kids swim, and are there tests kits that are more specific, because I have a hard time guessing colors in tubes. Thanks, Tabby
This is my pool adventure for this year. We filled it up in May; it was great. At end of June, the lady behind us replaced her fence and flower beds, the dirt and saw dust went into my pool (our cover was ripped badly.) There was actual sawdust at bottom of pool that wouldn't vacumm up with teensy pool vacumm--- after two weeks I bought a Shop Vac and vaccumed it up, losing about 1/3 of the water. Filled it with city water. Then we went on vacation and came back to pool with a green tint, the pump/filter had shut off with the circuit breaker and chlorine tablets were gone anyway. So I put in chlorine tablets, that didn't help. I threw in half a packet of shock, that didn't help. I threw in the other half, that didn't help. I bought 60% algeacide, that killed the algae but now the water is cloudy. I added some clarifier, that didn't help. Then I came to the computer desperately searching for help. Now I have learned I shouldn't be throwing in every and all things I own just to try to fix the problem. So I got my test kit out (I usually use strips because my teenagers will do that but they hate the 'drops' stuff.) These are my numbers.
Chlorine OTO is 5.0 bright yellow,
PH 7.6 pink in the middle of the tube,
Alkalinity is 21 drops (so that is 210 right?)
The water hardness never showed blue even after I used all the drops in the kit so I don't know what went wrong. (We do have hard water -- I live in Utah - a desert state).
My stabilizer test was 80 ppm which is high, right? I am guessing that is from throwing in shock stuff.
We had over two weeks straight of 95 degrees or hotter during time it was full of sawdust but now temps are at 90 or so.
So from what I read I need to make chlorine even more? But how do you tell how much chlorine you have when test tubes only goes to 5.0 and what is safe to swim in.
Or do I just need to change filter cartridge if the cloud is from dead algae? I tried that two weeks ago and it didn't work and now I can't find a store that still has cartridges for my crappy Kmart filters. (end of season, apparantly)
Any ideas of what to do next, and how soon can kids swim, and are there tests kits that are more specific, because I have a hard time guessing colors in tubes. Thanks, Tabby