Need Help with Opening Pool

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That seems like a lot for this time of year up here. What temp is your water? What is your CC level? I am guessing the stuff you are seeing is algae, so I would keep above your minimum shock level until it's gone, or at least for a few more days to ensure it is not algae.

I would not up your CYA concentration yet until we are sure that you do not have algae. Even then I would wait until we are more towards summer to decide if/how much to raise CYA.
 
the other night when i did the overnight chlorine test, i passed everything. My CC level has been 0.5 or lower. I only need to use one drop when testing it and even then I think the one drop is a lot because the water is very light pink when testing it. I am pretty sure that the stuff I am seeing is dirt. There has been no more since the other day. I did not vaccum or brush the pool yesterday either just to see I there would be more. I need to have my husband try to clean the filter. My job is the chemical part of the pool. I don't have any idea about opening,closing or filter issues. My filter is reading 20, which is the norm as far as I know. If it goes up, I backwash it. It has been very windy around here the last couple days so pretty sure it is dirt. After all, if I pass my test, doesn't that mean I am in the clear? Do you think that if I have and extreme excess of FC and my cya remains the same, that there is just that much more FC no protected by the cya and the sun just "eats it right up"? I am waiting to see what the results are tonight. right now my FC is 8.5, CC is 0.5 or less. Not quite sure what the water temp is, but the other day before multiple days of 90's it was 65.
 
dbabz31 said:
After all, if I pass my test, doesn't that mean I am in the clear?
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You may or may not have passed the third criteria: "The water is crystal clear". If the "dirt" does not return I guess we will never know and you should be done then if you are still passing all 3 criteria.

dbabz31 said:
Do you think that if I have and extreme excess of FC and my cya remains the same, that there is just that much more FC no protected by the cya and the sun just "eats it right up"?
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It is possible, but (warning- this is a wild theory popping out of my head and probably not supported by science and unlikely to become fact) it also could have been algae that was most active and therefore most oxidized during the day and less active at night due to cold temps (hence that lack of FC loss at night)???

hmmm...yeah...I doubt it too :hammer:

Bottom line, unless you know from the past that you need higher CYA, I would wait until your more in the thick of the swimming season and are having trouble maintaining normal FC levels beforing thinking about changing it.

dbabz31 said:
I am waiting to see what the results are tonight. right now my FC is 8.5, CC is 0.5 or less. Not quite sure what the water temp is, but the other day before multiple days of 90's it was 65.
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Sounds like a good plan. Wow, your temp is getting up there quick! Hopefully you can be swimming soon!
 
Hi,

Are you sure the stuff in the bottom is actually being vacumed up and not just stirred up? I had a similar problem at the end of last year. I don't actually know what it was, but each time I tried to vacuum it up, it would just get stirred up and then settle down again a few hours later. It turns out that I hadn't properly isolated the skimmer box I was using, so my suction was no good.

I still don't know what the stuff was, but I think it was dead algae, since it showed up immediately following an algae outbreak.

Kevin
 
We now have a new problem. ph was 7.0 yesterday. I added a gallon of chlorine and turned on slide to aerate. Last night, my husband noticed that the pump was making a loud noise. He thinks that we need a new pump. How can we know if we need a new pump vs needing a part? Could this have been why we are getting sand even after vaccuming and trying to clean sand by flushing filter (from previous post)? Thanks for the help.
 
sorry, my ph was 7. my fc was low at the time so thats why i added chlorine and aerated. ph is now 7.6 and fc was 3 three i added some more chlorine after I vaccumed pool. I cannot figure out why I vaccum and it seems as though the dirt/sand comes back. Is there something else I can do besides what my husband already did? (he followed the instructions from a previous post about channeling or something like that). We have never had this much before. Is our filter not catching it? Waiting to see if we can fix bearings or just get new pump. Do you think that once pump is fixed it will help with dirt/sand? I know that the pump is still working right now, but just wondering what to do about all this. thanks!
 
If your pump is still running, fixing it won't do anything for the dirt problem you're having.

Have you held a sock over the return while vacuuming to see if it's indeed coming back out the return? If not I'd try that. There may be something wrong in the filter.
 
any ideas as to what would be wrong with it? Is there a time frame as far as changing the sand? I know some people have changed theirs,but I have also read that there should never be a need. As far as the sock, what exactly are you talking about? Is there a pool sock or can I use a nylon or something?
 
dbabz31 said:
any ideas as to what would be wrong with it? Is there a time frame as far as changing the sand? I know some people have changed theirs,but I have also read that there should never be a need. As far as the sock, what exactly are you talking about? Is there a pool sock or can I use a nylon or something?
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I am new here this year also, but have owned my pool for over 20 years. I havent opened mine yet, but I have been deep cleaning my sand filter. But I had to do it much longer than 15 minutes, then I would drain it, dip trash off the top, fill it up, and flush it again. The first day I did this, the filter had to drain overnight. Yesterday when I did it, filter drained in about 15 minutes. There seems to be a conflict on whether changing sand is necessary, but as for me, I am going to try it this way first.

I am also curious about the sock thing :?
 

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Think of it this way. The sand at the beach has been there for millions of years with water running over it and it's not worn out so a few years in a pool filter isn't going to hurt it. There are circumstances where the sand catches stuff that can't be cleaned off and then it needs to be changed but that's not common.

They make skimmer socks but a lot of people use socks or stockings. You just stretch them over the skimmer basket and let the toe go into the basket so it catches the small debris.
 
Although in this case the suggestion by Bama earlier today was to hold the sock over the pool return jets (not the skimmer basket as he just stated) while someone else is vacuuming to see if the dirt is coming back to the pool instead of being caught in the filter.
 
its that time again: need help making sure that my htought processs of opening my pool is correct.
FC 0
PH 7
TA 30
CYA less than 30

We have not opened the pool yet. Am I thinking right that we need to get PH up before we can shock?
If we add ph increase, or aerate, can we do that along with turning on some sticks to get some chlorine and cya in the pool?
I cant remember the importance on TA. will look that up again.
Any suggestions as to what to do first?
Thanks
 
dbabz31 said:
its that time again: need help making sure that my htought processs of opening my pool is correct.
FC 0
PH 7
TA 30
CYA less than 30

We have not opened the pool yet. Am I thinking right that we need to get PH up before we can shock?
If we add ph increase, or aerate, can we do that along with turning on some sticks to get some chlorine and cya in the pool?
I cant remember the importance on TA. will look that up again.
Any suggestions as to what to do first?
Thanks
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Yes, adjust pH first, because the pH test is doubtful when the FC is at shock levels and you won't be testing or adjusting it during the shock process. Use soda ash or borax to raise pH. The low TA can be easily fixed once the water is clear with baking soda.
 
What could cause a false low cya? yesterday it was under 30. today i did the test and it is anywhere from 80 to 100! does temp of water or old testing solutions have anything to do with it. we thought we had really low cya because I could see the black dot when the chamber was full. So we added some pucks and set the dial at 2 over night. I thought we wouldnt even see a difference for about a week. the only other thing my husband did was add a container of "shock" which we figured would not change the cya that much. We are going to vaccum to waste this afternoon and then it is supposed to rain, so we will retest all levels tomorrow and start over. But I was wondering what could cause a false low cya test. I did the test 3 times yesterday and 3 times today.
Thanks. really hoping that we do not have to drain pool. We generally keep our cya a little higher due to the fact that the pool is in direct sun all the time.
 
For the cya test, bring the pool water sample up to 70 degrees first...but I still wouldn't think that would make the difference between 30 and 80. Also, having bright sunlight (needed) verses cloudy light makes a huge difference. I would review the extended test kit directions for any other clues and make sure you mix it really well. Then let us know your new results.
 
I did the test the same way both times. We are vaccuming the pool tonight and going to dump chlorine in. We are supposed to get about and inch of rain tonight. I will retest cya once water is room temp. I will retest all numbers and post later. thanks.
 
I am confused as to why my cya or how my cya can be so high when we just opened it and we did not use sticks or pucks all summer last year. How can this be? When we close the pool for winter, the cya should be less when we open it due to the replacement of water via snow/rain. 2 years ago we had trouble with high cya, drained the pool and refilled twice. Then last year, never used anything that would add cya to pool due to readings around 80 I think. So where is the cya coming from?
current readings

FC=5
CC=1
ph=7.1
cya=90-100

plan is to dump 10 gallons of 12.5% bleach in tonight and see what happens. and aerate with slide also.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
dbabz31 said:
So where is the cya coming from?
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The only sources of cya will be trichlor, dichlor, or straight cya. How big was the "container of shock" that your husband added?

10 gallons is a little high for your pool, I would shoot for more like 5 gallons to go from 5 to 26 ppm FC with 12%. 10 gallons will raise you to 47 ppm, which is way to high.
 

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