Hello Forum members,
In December we purchased a foreclosed home with an in-ground Anthony gunite pool. The house had been unoccupied with the pool covered for 2 years up to the foreclosure. The bank foreclosed on the house and replaced the cover with the typical steel metal mesh just in time for all the surrounding trees to drop their leaves and fill the pool. This spring, the water was black, with no visibility, and smelled really bad.
After finding this forum (it’s really great!) I purchased a leaf rake, an aquabot, and a TF-100 test kit. Test results were:
FC -0
CC-0
TC-0
pH-7.5
T/A-190
CH-190
CYA-0
Many, many days were spent emptying leaves out of the pool and getting the pumps running. The only open water intake for the pump is the skimmer. I think there may be an intake at the bottom of the deep end, but it seems to be clogged or has a winterizing plug in it.
The pool was shocked starting with 4 lbs of dichlor, adding 2 additional lbs of dichlor and bleach as needed to keep the shock level at 11 or higher. During this time the pump was only run during the day and was backwashed every few hours.
After 4 full days, the chlorine level was stable overnight and after about a week, the pump could run overnight without stopping for backwash. During the entire time, the pool sides were scrubbed with a wire brush and the entire pool was cleaned with the help of aquabot.
The water smelled much better and I could see the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. However the water looked yellow on the shallow side and greenish on the deep side. I remeasured FC and CYA
FC-3
CYA-<20
Assuming this was tannin stained water, I added 4 lbs of dichlor to bring the pool back to shock level, added DE to the sand filter. Over the next several days, I added 2 lbs of dichlor and a gallon of bleach to keep chlorine levels over 13 in the hopes of eliminating the yellow color. The pump was running constantly over this time period and I connected the vaccum to the pump in order to draw water from the bottom of the deep end instead of the skimmer. The water color has remained the same. There has been a slight improvement in depth of visibility on the deep end ~6 feet.
Becoming impatient, I put about 4 gallons of pool water in a bucket and added a few cups of bleach to it. After 2 days, there was no visible improvement in water color in the bucket relative to the pool.
Current levels in the pool are:
FC-14
CC-1
TC-15
Should I continue shocking and filtering? Any additional advice or test recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
In December we purchased a foreclosed home with an in-ground Anthony gunite pool. The house had been unoccupied with the pool covered for 2 years up to the foreclosure. The bank foreclosed on the house and replaced the cover with the typical steel metal mesh just in time for all the surrounding trees to drop their leaves and fill the pool. This spring, the water was black, with no visibility, and smelled really bad.
After finding this forum (it’s really great!) I purchased a leaf rake, an aquabot, and a TF-100 test kit. Test results were:
FC -0
CC-0
TC-0
pH-7.5
T/A-190
CH-190
CYA-0
Many, many days were spent emptying leaves out of the pool and getting the pumps running. The only open water intake for the pump is the skimmer. I think there may be an intake at the bottom of the deep end, but it seems to be clogged or has a winterizing plug in it.
The pool was shocked starting with 4 lbs of dichlor, adding 2 additional lbs of dichlor and bleach as needed to keep the shock level at 11 or higher. During this time the pump was only run during the day and was backwashed every few hours.
After 4 full days, the chlorine level was stable overnight and after about a week, the pump could run overnight without stopping for backwash. During the entire time, the pool sides were scrubbed with a wire brush and the entire pool was cleaned with the help of aquabot.
The water smelled much better and I could see the bottom of the shallow end of the pool. However the water looked yellow on the shallow side and greenish on the deep side. I remeasured FC and CYA
FC-3
CYA-<20
Assuming this was tannin stained water, I added 4 lbs of dichlor to bring the pool back to shock level, added DE to the sand filter. Over the next several days, I added 2 lbs of dichlor and a gallon of bleach to keep chlorine levels over 13 in the hopes of eliminating the yellow color. The pump was running constantly over this time period and I connected the vaccum to the pump in order to draw water from the bottom of the deep end instead of the skimmer. The water color has remained the same. There has been a slight improvement in depth of visibility on the deep end ~6 feet.
Becoming impatient, I put about 4 gallons of pool water in a bucket and added a few cups of bleach to it. After 2 days, there was no visible improvement in water color in the bucket relative to the pool.
Current levels in the pool are:
FC-14
CC-1
TC-15
Should I continue shocking and filtering? Any additional advice or test recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
