DH's Pool Girl needs HELP!

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smittysgirl

smittysgirl

0
Aug 11, 2010
26
Hi,
I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks now gathering information to try & correct an algae problem that's taken hold of our pool. I'm hoping to get it back in shape for a little bit of fun before the season ends. :whip:

Here are the details:
AG
7647
Haywood pump (not sure of the size) w/ 85 sq ft cartridge filter
Test kit Taylor K2005

Background: The algae problem started 2-3 weeks ago. We had been treating our pool once a week or so w/ cal-hypo and have a 3" tablet feeder which we were keeping 1-2 tablets loaded in most of the time. At the worst, the pool was very green & very cloudy. :rant: I started treating it by dumping in a lot of cal-hypo (48%) and then a lot sodium-hypo (10.8%) w/o success. I then found this site :party: After reading here & buying a decent test kit, we started on the "Turning your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis" plan last Thursday by first draining & refilling about 1/3 of pool because the CYA was ~90 :oops: Friday evening we began checking & dumping cal-sodium into pool every 1/2 - 1 hour to maintain pool at shock level for 5-6 hours. On Saturday, we checked the pool about 4x and brought it back up to shock level. By Sunday, it was blue / gray and cloudy. Sunday - Tuesday, we checked the pool 2x a day, morning and evening, brought it back up to shock level.

Here's the morning numbers after bringning the pool up to shock level (FC=13) last night:
FC 7.5-10 (I have a hard telling between the colors on the test kit.)
TC .5-1
PH 7.4
TA 85
CH 181
CYA 27

As you can see, we're still losing FC overnite and quite a bit during the day. (It had dropped to 1.7 by the time I got home from work yesterday.) The pool is still blue but very cloudy, though I can make out the bottom of the pool ladder.

Here are my questions:
1. Should we put the tablet feeder back in now to help hold the FC level during the day?
2. I vacuumed the pool on Sunday but we have not actually got in the pool to brush all the walls down real good. Is this recommended at this point?
3. What else should we be doing to get it sparkling clear?

Thank you for all your help so far and going forward :-D

Cecilia
 
Hi, Cecelia,

Welcome to the forum. :lol: You have started the shock process pretty well, now you have to finish it. Finish it by keeping your FC even higher (about 12ppm) and CONSTANTLY keep it there until your pool clears. If you get the FC up to that level and HOLD IT THERE. You should see constant improvement in the clarity and color....it'll still likely take a few more days.

Disregard the tab feeder....it won't help you in this situation and will only start to rebuild your CYA which you don't want Use liquid chlorine (clorox) to keep the FC where it belongs.

YOu should brush as often and as completely as you can. It stirs up the dead algae, exposes the live algae to more chlorine, and lets the filter start doing it's job.

Have you cleaned the filter? what is your clean psi?
 
Thanks for your response and suggestions!

I will work on keeping the FC up as much as possible when not working. I'm sure that will help! I also plan on pulling the ladder out today and cleaning it because it probably is harboring some algae. We haven't cleaned the filter since opening the pool. Hubby thinks the pump works better when the filter is not totally clean? Not sure what the clean psi is but I will find out!
 
You should upgrade your kit and purchase an FAS-DPD test to supplement it. IT can test FC up to 50ppm and its a drop-count test (similar to the TA test where you are counting drops looking for a color change - not comparing colors on a chart) Its simple to use and extremely accurate.)
http://tftestkits.net/FAS-DPD-Chlorine-CC-s-test-p47.html

Once you have completed shocking you can begin using the tabs again since your CYA has dropped below 30. When your CYA level drifts back up to 50 stop using the tabs and just use the liquid.

You are "done" shocking when:
Your FC holds overnite or you lose less than 1ppm - confirm this with an FAS-DPD test
Your CC is .5 or less
Your water is clear.
 
Just a suggestion, if you are going to order the FAS-DPD test, you might want to consider ordering an extra bottle of R-0871 (2 0z) Reagent for the FAS/DPD Test. I had mustard algae. After testing once or twice every morning and night and sometimes more often during the 5 days of shocking at high levels of FC, the R-0871 (2 0z) Reagent is almost gone.
 
Thanks for the add'l suggestions! I guess I'll have to order the FAS-DPD to test the chlorine level accurately though I'm sure hubby isn't going to be happy about spending more money on the pool at this point :rant: I tested this morning and diluted the sample 50% but the resulting color was above the 5 so the FC was > 10 when multiplied by 2. When I diluted the sample to 20%, the color was between 2 & 3 so the FC was somewhere between 10 and 15 when multiplied out. Not real helpful :( I feel like I'm flying blind at this point.

I took the ladder out yesterday and found some algae hiding on the underside of some the rungs so I scrubbed it down good, drained it as best I could and put it back in the pool. I also brushed the pool down yesterday and today right after I topped up the chlorine. The pool is nice & blue & cloudy though I can see the bottom of the pool :?

Any other advice or do I just need to keep plugging along? We've gone through 10 gallons of 10.8% chlorine since Friday. Yikes!
 
Get the test kit. Once your DH sees how beautiful and sparkly your pool will be when you are able to test and get proper numbers, he will be happy to have spent the $$ on a great kit because he and you will be SAVING money in the long run. This is my first summer with the BBB method (bought the test kit over the winter in anticipation of this coming summer) and I have saved a lot of money by being able to test accurately and then dosing correctly. I am no longer being "pool stored" into buying a ton of stuff that a) wasn't needed and b) was expensive.

BTW, please put your pool particulars in your signature so that we have a reference by which to answer questions and give advice. Go to the top of the page and click User Control Panel and edit in the Signature section.

Keep plugging. We call it P.O.P. Pool Owner Patience
 
I forgot to add that my ladder had some algae from last summer still hanging out in the legs so every so often I will dose the chlorine right around the ladder to give it a chance to really keep the latent algae in check. Good Luck! :wave:
 

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Cloudy and blue is heading in the right direction. You have been working on it about a week now, and that was without a great test kit to guide you. I know it is hard to buck up for the test kit after all this trouble, but testing is the key to a trouble free pool. Once you get that pool under control, you will be amazed at how easy it is to keep it looking great.

When the kit arrives you will know for sure how much bleach you need. When it seems to be holding you can test to see if the algae is all dead by doing the overnight test. If your pool can hold a shock level of chlorine overnight, then there is no living algae consuming chlorine.

Expect the cloudiness to clear slowly, that is mostly a filtering issue once you know for sure that the algae is not growing still.
 
Just checking in to let everyone know our pool is getting clearer by the day! I can easily make out the liner design on the bottom now :)

The FAS-DPD test kit arrived on Monday so the overnight test was performed that night. I'm happy to say the pool passed w/ no loss in FC and the CC at .5 ppm :whoot: So, I didn't add any chlorine yesterday morning and this evening added enough to bring the chlorine level back up to 4. Is that right? This was the mid point on the Pool Calculator.

Here are my latest numbers BEFORE the chlorine addition:

FC 2.5
CC .5
PH 7.7
TA 86
CH 207
CYA 29

Should I also go ahead and add a 3" puck in the floater?

Needless to say, we're all very pleased :-D Now we just need the night time temps to come back up so we can get in some more pool time before the summer ends!

Thanks again to everyone for your help & support through this process! I couldn't have done it without you!!!

:cheers:
 
Are you sure your CYA is 29? Doesn't seem to calculate right if it was ~90 and you drained 1/3 of the water that it would drop all the way to 29. How are you testing this? So I'd be a little leary of using the tabs/pucks.
 
The latest results are from water testing at the pool store. This number is consistent with their last test after the pool drain which was 27.

I'm not 100% on the CYA ~90 before the pool drain. I had it tested at 2 different pool stores within a 1/2 hour period a few days before and the one came up with a CYA=65 (this is the same place that came up with the latest test results of 27 & 29) and the second CYA=82. The 90 came from the at-home test kit on the day of the drain. I have a hard time reading the CYA test included in the test kit.

Thoughts?
 
Cecilia - I haven't gotten a solid handle on the CYA test yet either. I pour the test solution back into the bottle and repeat at least 3 times. I actually found that my 8 year old daughter "reads" the test more consistenly than me so I let her tell me when the dot disappears...lol...must be my old eyes!
 
Here's a link to the Taylor site with pics of the CYA test:
http://www.taylortechnologies.com/ChemistryTopicsCM.ASP?ContentID=44

You'll get confident in your results after a few times. You can use a tablet or two if you want (if you confirm CYA at 30ish) just keep in mind they are acidic and will lower PH and TA so monitor those levels and keep them in check with Borax/Baking Soda respectively.

Continue testing your FC daily and keep it in the proper range for your CYA level to prevent algae from returning.
 
Whoops!

I realized when I did the CYA test today that I was performing it wrong. I was counting the number of drops as the level of CYA. :oops: If only I had an 8 year old around to help me like Peter!

The CYA is definitely under 30; it's up to the top of the tube.

I'm going to add in a couple of pucks. The PH could stand down to come down a bit, but I'll probably need to increase the TA level soon.
 
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