Have been shocking for 10 days now...won't clear up

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Shpigford

Shpigford

0
Apr 19, 2011
50
Birmingham, AL
10 days ago our pool was a nice thick green. Now, it's no longer green, it's just cloudy. I can see about 3-4 feet down.

I've kept the pool at an FC shock level of 12 for 10 days now and it just doesn't seem to be clearing up at all.

Here are my test levels as of this morning:

FC - 9
CC - 0
pH - 7.4
TA - 80
CH- 125
CYA - 30

The FC of 9 is because I'm loosing a few ppm at night. I added the appropriate amount of bleach right after I tested to get things back up to 12.

I've added about 30 gallons of 6% bleach over the past 10 days. This is the first time I've shocked the pool, so I'm not really sure what's realistic as far as how long it should take, but it sure feels like it's taking too long.

Any ideas?
 
Your almost there! Keep brushing and shocking! You need to be able to hold FC overnight, or lose very little(.5-1)! It was green so there is lots to eat away. Keep vacing the dead stuff up!
 
Just got to go slow and not stir it up. It will get better! And going to higher side of the shock side is not a bad thing. But you still need to not lose FC overnight. No matter what level you are at. Higher levels will speed up the killing of algae faster.
 
IME, the reason it is taking so long, is you're not getting the FC high enough, and keeping it there.

I take pool's to a minimum of 20ppm of FC (I know CYA/FC says 13/19(MA) )... you don't have a picture, so I can't tell how bad it is, but the 1st time you hit it, the chlorine is generally gone in 20-30 minutes or less and you need to step on it again right away.

For the process to go faster, you must step on it every time the FC drops down below that 20 number. This loss is almost immediately for the first several adds. Once you're pounding it, you find that subsequent adds will take longer and longer periods for the FC to come down.

You also need to make sure there isn't any larger crud along the bottom - as this will suck your FC pretty quick and make the battle harder.

I know we don't generally recommend flocculat here, but once everything is dead (pool is blue-white, but still no visibility), throw in some "Drop Out" or "Drop & Vac" per directions and after three hours shut off the pumps. After 12-24 hours most of the white will drop to the bottom, and you SLOWLY vacuum it to waste (saves tons of back-washes). The water will still have some cloudiness to it, but most of the dust will settle - once you remove it, then put the filter to work.

Also going against you is the sand filter - using this alone will take a very, very, very, very... very long time to filter out this stuff - which is why once it is dead, making it drop to the bottom and vacuuming it to waste will reduce the time you'll wait for the SF to do its part of the job.

- Jeff
 
Floc, is a waste of money in this case. Patience is the best floc! I know you want to move forward be if you rush it you will be doing it again during the swimming season and you don't want to be down during that time!
 
maxepr1 said:
Floc, is a waste of money in this case. Patience is the best floc! I know you want to move forward be if you rush it you will be doing it again during the swimming season and you don't want to be down during that time!
Click to expand...

We do a LOT of green-and-cleans (somehow, we get a lot of these... at least a dozen this year already alone), and I will politely disagree. Our average turn-around time is 24-48 hours to go from dark green to clear. The worst one we had was clear in 5 days.The ones that take longer are because,

  • a) too much crud in the bottom, or
  • b) impatience - not waiting for the floc to settle
  • c) a combination of a and b...

If the algae is dead, using a sand filter will take forever to get all of the dead algae out. You can filter for a week or more before you get it clear... or, you can significantly reduce the amount of dead algae by having it cling-together and drop to the floor - and vacuum it to waste.

Keep in mind, this isn't the same floc that you get from Leslie's (superblue, or whatever they call it), its designed for dropping materials in suspension to the floor - not for using the filter to get it out.
 

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We do a LOT of green-and-cleans (somehow, we get a lot of these... at least a dozen this year already alone), and I will politely disagree. Our average turn-around time is 24-48 hours to go from dark green to clear. The worst one we had was clear in 5 days.The ones that take longer are because,

a) too much crud in the bottom, or
b) impatience - not waiting for the floc to settle
c) a combination of a and b...

If the algae is dead, using a sand filter will take forever to get all of the dead algae out. You can filter for a week or more before you get it clear... or, you can significantly reduce the amount of dead algae by having it cling-together and drop to the floor - and vacuum it to waste.

Keep in mind, this isn't the same floc that you get from Leslie's (superblue, or whatever they call it), its designed for dropping materials in suspension to the floor - not for using the filter to get it out.


I would have to say that if the pool is cleared up in 24-48 hours is that all you have done is remove the suspended algae. But in that amount of time you haven't killed it. So you spend the next week to two still in shock! The key is vacuuming to waste, SLOWLY and stirring it up on the bottom. And maybe doing small sections at a time and stopping to let it settle. There is plenty of proof positive that this system works just look here in this forum! No sense wasting money on Floc, IMO.
Shpigford, is water temp ready to swim?
 
maxepr1 said:
I would have to say that if the pool is cleared up in 24-48 hours is that all you have done is remove the suspended algae. But in that amount of time you haven't killed it. So you spend the next week to two still in shock! The key is vacuuming to waste, SLOWLY and stirring it up on the bottom. And maybe doing small sections at a time and stopping to let it settle. There is plenty of proof positive that this system works just look here in this forum! No sense wasting money on Floc, IMO.
Shpigford, is water temp ready to swim?
Click to expand...

No. Again I respectfully disagree. If you can maintain shock-level for 24 hours, and at the end of that period CCs are near-zero and FC isn't dropping rapidly, the algae's dead.

I'm not disagreeing that the method here works at all - It's what I use (basically). Shock till FC holds overnight. The "trap" most people don't understand is they'll take it to shock, walk away, test in the morning, shock again, etc... We're on-site multiple times per day/night keeping the level at shock or slightly higher the whole time.

But most of our customers don't want to wait 10 days for the water to clear, so instead of fully relying on the filtration systems, we get most of it out by using Drop&Vac to get it out of the water column and onto the floor.

It's really tough to vacuum using braille, if you can't see the bottom.
 
taekwondodo said:
maxepr1 said:
I would have to say that if the pool is cleared up in 24-48 hours is that all you have done is remove the suspended algae. But in that amount of time you haven't killed it. So you spend the next week to two still in shock! The key is vacuuming to waste, SLOWLY and stirring it up on the bottom. And maybe doing small sections at a time and stopping to let it settle. There is plenty of proof positive that this system works just look here in this forum! No sense wasting money on Floc, IMO.
Shpigford, is water temp ready to swim?
Click to expand...

No. Again I respectfully disagree. If you can maintain shock-level for 24 hours, and at the end of that period CCs are near-zero and FC isn't dropping rapidly, the algae's dead.

I'm not disagreeing that the method here works at all - It's what I use (basically). Shock till FC holds overnight. The "trap" most people don't understand is they'll take it to shock, walk away, test in the morning, shock again, etc... We're on-site multiple times per day/night keeping the level at shock or slightly higher the whole time.

But most of our customers don't want to wait 10 days for the water to clear, so instead of fully relying on the filtration systems, we get most of it out by using Drop&Vac to get it out of the water column and onto the floor.

It's really tough to vacuum using braille, if you can't see the bottom.
Click to expand...

taekwondodo, I have to commend you if your guy's are that vigilant! I would be willing to bet that 85% of the pool guys out there wouldn't do that! I would also say that 85% don't know how to shock a pool either!
 
maxepr1 said:
taekwondodo, I have to commend you if your guy's are that vigilant! I would be willing to bet that 85% of the pool guys out there wouldn't do that! I would also say that 85% don't know how to shock a pool either!
Click to expand...

Reason #1 for the vigilance: I get paid for it :whoot:

And I'll agree with you that most don't have a clue about water chemistry, other than what's generally available... I know many pool guys that tell me that when they see a bomb, to dump phosphate remover in the pool.
 
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