New to Pool School

[lattedah]

Hi everyone..Sept 1st. purchased a house with a pool , spent way too much $$ that first week getting the chemicals from the local pool store to balance the water as the previous owners had only shocked the pool once a week since July. Was able to enjoy the pool through Sept , maintained water balance..and was educating myself via pool school about the BBB method for next year. I had to go out of town for a week which was extended to an additional week and came home last Friday to a green swamp. Read in school about shocking the pool with liquid bleach so on Friday night we treated the pool with 8 bottles of clorox and had the pump running 24/7. late Saturday afternoon was still a deep green..hubby wasn't putting much faith in the liquid clorox so he purchased 5 lbs of Aquachem Shock with algae killer.
I swept the pool down Sunday morning, added the shock and swept the pool again. After reading here all weekend I have ordered the TF-100 test kit but Sunday test strips was all I had on hand.
Before adding Aquachem shock my FC was 5 and TC was 10, TA 240 , PH 8.4 , TH 500. Aquachek calculator prescription was to add shock..which is what convinced hubby to use something besides liquid bleach...Anyway..Sunday evening water was a much lighter shade of green and test strip results were TC 10 , FC 10, ..everything else was the same , I imagine TA and PH are too high to test accurately with the strip. This morning water is a cloudy light blue.. test strip had the same readings.

My question is what should I do now ? Just leave the pump running and wait for my TF 100 kit arrives to properly test to know what I am dealing with or take a sample to the pool store and start dealing with bringing the PH and TA in line ?

yes, we have stumbled in our pool maintenance but after finding pool school I have scrapped the idea of shutting the pool down for the winter , so this novice can gain experience testing and maintaining the water for next year..

any advise is greatly appreciated

 

[dmanb2b]

Welcome to TFP

Ordering the TF-100 you will find was the best decision you ever made. Liquid chlorine...aka bleach and powdered shock do the exact same thing, they add chlorine. The powdered/puck versions are stabilized and contain either cyanuric acid (stabilizer, which will eventually over stabilize the pool) or calcium (which tends to cause scaling). Bleach does not add any of those.

Anyhow, you can keep adding bleach to keep the progress you have made thus far, but if you have ordered the kit, I would just wait for it. Dave ships them rather quickly and you will have reliable results once you get it. IMHO most pool store results are no better than what you are doing with strips...as most of the store use...gulp...strips :?

Anyhow, post those tf100 results as soon as you can and we'll gladly help you out getting the pool under control

 

[lattedah]

thank you dman..i will keep monitoring the water as I have till the tf100 arrives and will post as soon as I test.

 

[lattedah]

Good morning,

pool water is a cloudy grayish blue, skimmed the leaves out of the pool, brushed the sides and bottom..this did not seem to stir anything up. Backwashed the filter water was cloudy for a few seconds then ran clear. tested the water again this morning with those blasted test strips.
TC 10
FC 10
TA 240
Ph 8.4
TH 500

it appears the TC & FC are holding steady at 10 since Sunday evening . Could this be correct or just the result of the strips limitations ? I imagine the TA and PH are higher as well ?

while waiting on the tf100 kit , do I still need to run the pump 24/7 ?
should I have the chlorine floater with sticks in the water ( put 4 sticks in Monday afternoon ) ?
there is something called a pool frog sitting connected to the pool and filter. Did not notice the frog before due to an old Hayward filter sitting in front of it. DH hauled that off and lo and behold we discover the pool frog. I researched and found info on the pool frog. I am thinking this is not something we will be using with the BBB method ?

thanks in advance for replies

 

[dmanb2b]

I would stop using the floater until you are able to test CYA with the Tf100. It can take a sand filter upwards of 1 week to filter out dead algae. I'm a little concerned around your PH reading as well, as high PH and high CH/TH can cause calcium scaling which could be adding to the clouding issue. Keep filtering as much as possible and you could also use floc, or add a little DE to your sand filter to speed up clearing.

As long as your FC remains high, PH will tend to read falsely high, so I don't want to see you over adjust, but you should still try to get PH to 8 or below by dosing with some muratic acid. The key at this point is to keep adding liquid chlorine to maintain FC and then post a full set of results as soon as you get the kit. I'm guessing, but it is very possible your FC is much higher than 10, but you will not be able to confirm until you have the fas-dpd test done that comes in the TF100.

Filtering dead algae with a sand filter can be a chore, but keep at it...it sounds like you have made progress...milky blue is better than milky green

 

[lattedah]

thank you for the reply. I will take out the floater and add a pint of muratic acid and will test the ph in the morning

 

[lattedah]

Yeah ! Kit has arrived ! pool water is cloudy blue. I tested the water twice to make sure I was testing correctly..

FC 7
CC 0
TC 7
ph 8.2
T/A 410
CH 230
CYA 100

I punched the numbers into the pool calculator but am not sure I understand the instructions to balance the water

Appreciate any help..thanks in advance

 

[duraleigh]

Hey,

I would suggest you start by getting your pH in the correct range. Using muriatic acid, add enough to get your pH down to around 7.4 or so. (Your TA will come down some, too)

Secondly, tell us where you live and when your swim season ends.......then we can get a good plan of how to approach your CYA which is too high.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

When you were testing the TA, were the drops smaller than with the other reagents? Sometimes a static charge builds up on the tip of the dropper; if that's the case, wiping the dropper tip after every couple drops will give you a much lower (correct) number.

 

[lattedah]

the TA drops were smaller and I wiped the tip of the bottle..but I will retest the TA to double check the number

 

[lattedah]

am located in Beaufort South Carolina.. we will not be swimming till next spring

 

[duraleigh]

Since your swim season is over, I would suggest you leave the CYA alone 'til Spring. It should come down on it's own somewhat and you can adjust as necessary when it's time.

Ditto what MITS said about the TA test. That'll go away soon (usually a week or so) and your drops size should be the same as the others. I would not be too concerned about those results because you're closing the pool.

Pretty important to get your pH down sooner rather than later.

How have you been chlorinating?

 

[lattedah]

I retested the TA and had my son retest after me , I must of missed a couple wipes on the tip or its all in the swirl...

TA 308

I have not added any chlorine since Sunday when we added the Aquachek shock .took the floater with the 4 chlorinating sticks out of the pool on Tuesday.

please tell me drinking the untested pool water will not make a person sick. Was cleaning up from testing on the table..phone rang, dogs are barking at a stray dog in the yard , and my daughter and son decided that was a good time to chase each other through the house ..and I picked up the wrong glass of water off the table and took a big drink ! tasted okay, but the thought of drinking the pool water is grossing me out ! lol

 

[acroy]

LOL - you're fine