Just bought house old pool - just back from honeymoon

[jkfox1112]

Hello All,

I just bought my house about a month ago and proceeded to get married and go on honeymoon within 2 weeks. I came home to a green pool. I never owned a pool before and am learning as fast as possible. My house came with the standard 6 way test kit but I have already ordered the superior test kit recommended by everyone and its on its way. But for now I am relying on Leslie's water analysis to get me by.

Of course I came home from a 2 week honeymoon from Costa Rica with a green pool

Any recommendations?

I used green to clean and then bleach for a quick solution but it didnt seem to work. I am trying to get my foot in the door here in the forum so I appreciate any help possible.

I have a 22,500 gallon concrete pool that is pretty old. It has a sand filter. I realized my chlorine levels would be really low when i got home because of the heat. These were the levels when I came home.

Free Chlorine 0
Total Chloring 0
PH 7.6
TA 60
Hardness 210
CYA 30
TDS 550

Thank you all very very much!!!

 

[svenpup]

Have you read through pool school? Definitely check out the article on defeating algae and follow the instruction on how to shock.

Chlorine is consumed by two things: sunlight and organics. You have so much algae that when you add chlorine it is quickly consumed and goes to zero. Once it is at zero, the algae has a chance to "regroup" so you didn't make any progress. You need to bring FC up to shock, and keep it there by re-testing and adding more chlorine. You should do this once per hour until you notice that the FC isn't being consumed as quickly.

ETA You should bring your pH down to about 7.2 before shocking. Slightly lower pH helps the process, and pH tests are affected by FC > 10.

You might also want to read:

• 
  pool-school/basic_pool_care_schedule
  pool-school/bbb_for_pools
  pool-school/types_chlorine_pool
  pool-school/recommended_levels

 

[Richard320]

Yeah, what Brian, er, Svenpup, said!

This ought to be easy - it's just algae, no 3 foot layer of composting leaves at the bottom or perhaps worse stuff hidden beneath the green, no outrageously high CYA.

A whole lot of bleach will fix it up. Expect your sand filter to need help. You'll be cleaning it a lot, and once the pool goes cloudy blue/gray you might need to try adding a little diatomaceous earth to help it filter.

Start stockpiling chlorine now while awaiting the test kit. You won't get so many suspicious looks if you only buy 3 bottles at a time instead of 12

 

[nikolasmor]

I would start with 6 bottles of 6% bleach to get you Fc up to shock level, retest hourly and add more as needed.

Veterans please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[anonapersona]

I would start with 6 bottles of 6% bleach to get you Fc up to shock level, retest hourly and add more as needed.

Veterans please correct me if I am wrong.

It is the retesting hourly that is the issue now, they are waiting on the test kit. Starting the chlorine without the test kit is likely going to waste $ by over or under doing the chlorine. Just a short while with FC too low can let the algae get right back where it was. Waiting for the kit is OK.

 

[nikolasmor]

I would start with 6 bottles of 6% bleach to get you Fc up to shock level, retest hourly and add more as needed.

Veterans please correct me if I am wrong.

It is the retesting hourly that is the issue now, they are waiting on the test kit. Starting the chlorine without the test kit is likely going to waste $ by over or under doing the chlorine. Just a short while with FC too low can let the algae get right back where it was. Waiting for the kit is OK.

Thanks for the info, I see the kit is ordered!

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP!

You have gotten some really good advice thus far.

 

[jkfox1112]

Thank you all for your help! I have a few follow up questions if you dont mind.

What is "shock level" everyone always refers to it but what is the level?

Also what is diatomaceous earth?

Thanks again for all the great help!

 

[anonapersona]

We refer to this chart http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock that shows the FC levels you want at any CYA level. Normal operation is you add chlorine to reach your target level, then before it gets to the minimum, add chlorine again to get to target. To shock, you go to the shock level of FC.

DE is something that is added to a DE filter or can sometimes be added to a sand filter. Very fine particles.

 

[lightingguy]

svenpup listed some very important reading for you in his post. There are quite a few terms, etc. to learn. It's daunting at first - but it's actually really easy once you get through it.

Even if you are able to clean up this algae issue with info from these posts alone you are going to continually struggle with the pool without the background education found in pool school.

New house, new wife, new life - pool chemistry is probably pretty low on the list. I totally get it. Someone is gonna have to take care of it though. (Not a critique - just a nudge in the direction I wish someone nudged me a couple years ago) Read the pool school, let it sink in, read it again, let it sink in. You'll get there.

 

[jkfox1112]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to thank everyone for their help! The pool is nice a blue again. Only trouble is that the pool is a little cloudy, but according to everyone it seems like that is just from the large amounts of chlorine.

Thank you again for everything!

 

[svenpup]

Chlorine does not make the water cloudy. The cloudiness is most likely dead algae. It can take a while for it to clear up, so be patient. This is where the diatomaceous earth that Richard mentioned comes into play. It optional, but can help get the pool clear a little faster.

Did you pass the overnight chlorine loss test?

Post a new set of numbers so we can double check you status.

 

[jkfox1112]

Alrighty so my handy dandy super test kit came today. Its the TF-100 FYI.

Here are my numbers its my first time using it so fingers crosses:
FC=1.5
CC=1
TC=2.5
TA=60
CH=350
CYA=60
PH=7.2

 

[anonapersona]

All righty then! Now we have something to work with! Congrats on the test kit choice.

First pH is fine.

CYA is OK, on the high side but we can work with that. As long as you do not add anything that has CYA in it, it will tend to drift downward with rain and fresh water replacement and time. With that CYA you want to keep FC between 5ppm and 7 ppm and you shock the pool at FC 24.

So, that means FC is quite low and you need to add bleach right away. Use the Pool Calculator to find how much, given you pool volume and FC now = 1.5, FC target is 24. Gasp, I know that is an amazing amount of bleach but this is going to kick butt on that algae.

With the CC at 1.0 you do need to continue to shock, and now we know what level you need to keep it at. FC 24 is what you try to keep it at. Test, add bleach, wait 1 hr, test again.

Now I will predict that you are very close to being done with shocking, this last big push should kill the last bits that may be lurking hoping for a chance to come out to play again. Be sure to brush everywhere that algae may lurk. And run the filter 24/7.

Later, once the pool is clear and clean, we can address the TA being a bit low and the CH being a bit high. A water change may be a good thing, depending on what your tap water has for TA and CH. Can you do a test on tap water to get those values, please? If a water change is a good thing for these values, then that will also let you reduce the CYA some. Looking at the chart, if you got CYA down to 40 you'd shock at 16, CYA at 50 shock at 20, so that would be helpful. But if your tap water has really high CH or TA, then it may not be quite as helpful.

 

[jkfox1112]

Wow is the shock level really 24? Thats another 1050oz of bleach! Seems like alot, i guess i underestimated when you all said ALOT of bleach!

 

[svenpup]

Wow is the shock level really 24? Thats another 1050oz of bleach! Seems like alot, i guess i underestimated when you all said ALOT of bleach!

While that might seem daunting, remember, once you get the algae dealt with and get into maintenance mode you chlorine demand shouldn't be much more than 2-3ppm per day.

 

[lightingguy]

your high CYA holds a lot of that chlorine back in reserve. It makes it progressively more difficult to shock the higher the CYA gets.

Once you get through the shock process you wont be using chlorine by the truckload. (Yeah, what svenpup said )

 

[anonapersona]

Wow is the shock level really 24? Thats another 1050oz of bleach! Seems like alot, i guess i underestimated when you all said ALOT of bleach!

Exactly. This is why we prefer to not let CYA levels get so high. At some point, you have to look carefully at draining off some water and replacing with fresh water that will of course have no CYA in it. Where your water comes from, and what is in it (TA, CH, metals) will affect whether you prefer to replace water or buy a lot of chlorine.