Someone PLEASE help me....Heck of a bad summer with pool and

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KeepingItCleanDJ

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Jul 20, 2007
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After 5 years of this pool, I had the worst summer ever keeping it regulated...got mis diagnosed with yellow algae then went to 3 different pool places and given conflicting advice....had brown metal stains ruin my liner pretty much, until i found this site....and got the stains to go away thanks to Vitamin c fix....

trying to winterize now....and here are my numbers...by the way I keep water in pool and run pump during freezing temps

23,500 gal...18x36 vinyl
Heyward sand pump with new sand
FC 4.5
Ph 7.7
240 Alk
Hardness 1200

all numbers according to my aqua chem test from walmart

please email any response to [email protected]

thanks so much in advance.....
Please dont tell me it is time to drain pool....thats what the pool place said.
 
OK, I'll 'step to the plate' and give you the terrible news - that calcium of 1200 is 1000 - 1200 ppm too high :evil: Sorry :!:

The only way to lower the calcium is to ... drain a substantial amount of the pool water :(

With your liner pool and the colder temps, I would drain the pool until there's 6" of water in the shallow end, going further could cause catistrophic liner shifting :( This will not even do a 1/2 water replacement (if my calculations are correct, it'll remove a little over 12,000 gallons), and then you have to keep in mind the calcium which may be in the refill water. Even a 1/2 water replacement with no calcium in the refill water would keep you 'out of balance' and another partial drain and refill would be in order :(

I'm not a 'calcium saturation' expert, but I've run the numbers via my Watergram and that's what I've come up with, perhaps someone more saturation savvy will come along.
 
Which version of the Aqua Chem test do you have? Is that the drop based six way test kit? Or something else? (I think they also make test strips.)

Having CH levels up over 1000 can be problematic, but that can be managed without replacing water, particularly with a vinyl liner. Getting the level down by replacing water is the best solution, but there are ways to deal with it if that is impractical. Where your numbers are now, assuming they are right, I would expect you to be getting some calcium scaling. If you lower your TA and PH you can prevent any future scaling.

Like duraleigh, I am a little unclear on what you are asking for help with.
 
I suggest you get a good test kit, either the Taylor K-2006 (the cheapest source appears to be here for $50) or the TF100 test kit from tftestkits.com here where you get 36% more volume for tests at a cost of $68 if not a lifetime supporter of TFP. That turns out to make these two costs roughly comparable though the TF100 will test CYA down to 20 ppm instead of 30 ppm and also has an OTO chlorine test in addition to the FAS-DPD chlorine test while the K-2006 has acid/base demand tests that most people don't use.

The Calcite Saturation Index (assuming a Cyanuric Acid, CYA, of 30 ppm -- you didn't give that level) is +1.0 which is very over-saturated and would normally lead to scaling and/or cloudiness. So either your tests are giving wrong values or you've a serious problem with the TA and CH being way too high. As was pointed out, the CH can be reduced through dilution while the TA can be lowered through the procedure I outlined in this post

Richard
 
JasonLion and Duraleigh

I don't close down my pool because I dont want to refill the water every year. My pool has a light green tint to it. It seems as if we are not going to have winter here in north Georgia this year....yesterday's high was 68 degrees. We are in a LEVEL 4 drought so adding water would be highly frowned upon. The test kit I use is the aqua chem 6 way from walmart....el cheapo.

Stupid question here....what does scaling look like? Because I am not sure if I am having the issue or not.

And as far as what I want accomplished...I just want to have "normal" looking water again. I can see the bottom of the pool, so it isnt cloudy. Just greenish tint, and this crazy hardness level is driving me crazy.
 
the green tint to your water is almost surely algae. Chlorine is the cure for that....lot's of it. You don't post your CYA level so, without that it's hard to say how high you should bring your chlorine to effectively kill the algae. Post that CYA number and you'll get some good advice on the proper level of chlorine.

The CH is totally unrelated to green water. There are two ways to reduce CH (and to my knowledge, only two):

1. Partial drain and refill until your CH gets down below 500 or so. Not very practical in your drought conditions.

2. A water softener will pull CH from your pool. The residential ones are hardly designed for the volume your talking about and I doubt there is a commercial service in your area to do this like you could find in Arizona or California.

If it were my pool under your circumstances, I would keep the pH down around 7.0 to minimize any scaling and get some chlorine in there to get rid of the algae. Next, I would ignore the CH issue until your drought conditions abate and you are capable of replacing some water. I would also figure out how your CH got that high to begin with so you could prevent it in the future.

PS - Scaling will precipitate out on to the hard surfaces (ladders, etc.) of your pool as a whitish, hard to remove mineral deposit. Sometime along the waterline as well. Whether you have it or not, you are a prime candidate for it and keeping your pH in the 7.0 range will be helpful until you can get the CH reduced
 
The vitamin C treatment takes metal stains off of the walls of the pool and puts the metals into the water instead. There is no straightforward way to get rid of the metals completely so it is best to add some sequestrant to make sure the metals stay in the water and don't get deposited back on the walls of the pool as new stains. In rare cases metals in the water can also give the water a clear green tint, which the sequestrant will clear up. There are many brands of sequestrant that will all work. I am fond of Jacks Magic products, but there are less expensive ones which have the same active ingredients.
 

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Thanks Jason!

As, the Thanksgiving season, has passed, I am blessed with many things. And, as strange as it may seem, I am THANKFUL for a great website with great people here at TroubleFreePool.com. May your Christmas season be joyous.

I will work on the seques. and juice up the chlorine levels!
 
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