First of all, Great Site and Forum! I am so thankful when I find a place that is accurate and is actually trying to help people without any other motives.
Anyway, here is my story and dilemma:
I am renting a house that has an 20k IG Vinyl pool with a TA60 Sand Filter and 1.5hp 1.1 sf pump. The house was a foreclosure so the pool was not kept up (for how long I can only guess 6 months to 2 years). When we got here it was murky, cloudy, and green. Our landlord is not the greatest about getting our requested repairs done so I felt that doing this pool thing myself could really give me a great learning experience. Long story short, I got shocked the pool, got all the levels up, and replaced the sand in the filter (by spending some serious $$$ at the pool store), and the water was still very cloudy. After the pool store guys wanted me to buy everything under the sun I decided to find a better way, ergo TFP! I decided to floc the pool. I vacuumed out a HUGE amount of dirt and leaves. So much that it blocked my pump basket about 5 times. After all that I finally had my sparkling pool!
Two weeks ago I accidentally let the FC get to .5ppm I quickly shocked it again (perhaps not correctly) and kept it at 3-4ppm . Since then I started to notice a blue-greenish haze develop. It grew and grew until I decided to floc again, and vacuum to waste. Once I did this it was back to clear. However, for the past 4 days it has slowly started to haze up again; and green/yellow/brown debris have settled at the bottom and walls of the pool. Also, for two weeks now the filter pressure has rarely changed (20psi), even when I vacuum up what I thought was leftover dead algae. Right after I changed the sand, though, it wouldn't take much for the filter to get to 40 at which point only a trickle of water would come out of the return jets.
BTW, before I found TFP I bought a product called "Chlor-Brite". It has 55% available chlorine. I have quite a bit left so I would like to waste all of this before I go buy bleach. I now use the BBB method except for the chlorine powder that I still have.
I'm pretty sure I still have living algae and I plan on shocking and vacing once again. I wanted to post my #s and get expert opinions, and since I'm new I would really like to learn as much as possible. Is there any chance this is a filter problem? Thanks for all your help!
FC = 3
CC = 0
PH = 7.5
TA = 80
CH = 120
CYA = 60-70
FYI: pretty sure pool has a leak, needs frequent water hose fill ups. When pump is turned off water comes out of skimmers, shoots out of pool pump basket lid, and air can be heard entering pump filter area. Don't know if these have anything to do with anything, but just thought I'd add 'em just in case.
Here are some pictures: Pool Pics
Anyway, here is my story and dilemma:
I am renting a house that has an 20k IG Vinyl pool with a TA60 Sand Filter and 1.5hp 1.1 sf pump. The house was a foreclosure so the pool was not kept up (for how long I can only guess 6 months to 2 years). When we got here it was murky, cloudy, and green. Our landlord is not the greatest about getting our requested repairs done so I felt that doing this pool thing myself could really give me a great learning experience. Long story short, I got shocked the pool, got all the levels up, and replaced the sand in the filter (by spending some serious $$$ at the pool store), and the water was still very cloudy. After the pool store guys wanted me to buy everything under the sun I decided to find a better way, ergo TFP! I decided to floc the pool. I vacuumed out a HUGE amount of dirt and leaves. So much that it blocked my pump basket about 5 times. After all that I finally had my sparkling pool!
Two weeks ago I accidentally let the FC get to .5ppm I quickly shocked it again (perhaps not correctly) and kept it at 3-4ppm . Since then I started to notice a blue-greenish haze develop. It grew and grew until I decided to floc again, and vacuum to waste. Once I did this it was back to clear. However, for the past 4 days it has slowly started to haze up again; and green/yellow/brown debris have settled at the bottom and walls of the pool. Also, for two weeks now the filter pressure has rarely changed (20psi), even when I vacuum up what I thought was leftover dead algae. Right after I changed the sand, though, it wouldn't take much for the filter to get to 40 at which point only a trickle of water would come out of the return jets.
BTW, before I found TFP I bought a product called "Chlor-Brite". It has 55% available chlorine. I have quite a bit left so I would like to waste all of this before I go buy bleach. I now use the BBB method except for the chlorine powder that I still have.
I'm pretty sure I still have living algae and I plan on shocking and vacing once again. I wanted to post my #s and get expert opinions, and since I'm new I would really like to learn as much as possible. Is there any chance this is a filter problem? Thanks for all your help!
FC = 3
CC = 0
PH = 7.5
TA = 80
CH = 120
CYA = 60-70
FYI: pretty sure pool has a leak, needs frequent water hose fill ups. When pump is turned off water comes out of skimmers, shoots out of pool pump basket lid, and air can be heard entering pump filter area. Don't know if these have anything to do with anything, but just thought I'd add 'em just in case.
Here are some pictures: Pool Pics