I'm having same problem with my pool and It's making me nuts and so are my 4 kids that want to jump in it lol when I first set it up and did the first treatment of what it needed it was good for about a week and then 0 Fc and its been a fight everyday. Tested pool a few min. ago and it reads TH 100 FC/Bromine 1/2 PH 7.5 TA 120 and CYA 40. It is also cloudy. I add stuff for algae once a week and the sides aren't slimy or anything. Iv also added 40 pounds of shock over the last 2 weeks. I also clean and backwash every few days. I would really appreciate any help because I'm about to give up on it :|
Pool is driving me nuts
- Thread starter BatesClan05
- Start date
Step one with cloudy water is to run your filter 24/7 and brush often to allow the filter to work.
You need to maintain your chlorine at a higher level no matter how often you have to adjust it. Hourly isn't excessive at first until you get it under control. Maintain your chlorine at the values recommended in the Chlorine CYA Chart For your CYA at 40ppm, that means you should try to keep your chlorine at 5ppm at all times, and raise it to 16ppm when the water is cloudy or green. The key is to never let it drop from the level you need, not even for a few hours.
There are a couple of good articles in Pool School:
Defeating Algae
Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis
Shocking Your Pool
Forget the powdered shock. It contributes to cloudiness. Use liquid pool chlorine or plain old 6% bleach. Post some details about your pool and we can guide you with amounts and adjustments.
You need to maintain your chlorine at a higher level no matter how often you have to adjust it. Hourly isn't excessive at first until you get it under control. Maintain your chlorine at the values recommended in the Chlorine CYA Chart For your CYA at 40ppm, that means you should try to keep your chlorine at 5ppm at all times, and raise it to 16ppm when the water is cloudy or green. The key is to never let it drop from the level you need, not even for a few hours.
There are a couple of good articles in Pool School:
Defeating Algae
Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis
Shocking Your Pool
Forget the powdered shock. It contributes to cloudiness. Use liquid pool chlorine or plain old 6% bleach. Post some details about your pool and we can guide you with amounts and adjustments.
It is 10,500 gallons vinyl pool from walmart 22X52 http://mobile.walmart.com/m/phoenix;jse ... l/19336126 is the link if it works
DCAG
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For your size pool, add one gal of regular 6% bleach, for now. That should get your FC up to about 7. After that you'll have to test daily to keep it up to 5, as John has said.BatesClan05 said:
How are you testing your water now?
Dan
I have hth 6 way test strips. What is a safe reading as far as FC for the kids to swim in? If I start using bleach do I stop using the puck in the floater?
DCAG
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If your CYA is 40, that's the recommended level. Using the pucks in the floater will only make it go up. Save the pucks and the floater for occasional use when you go on vacation. Use only bleach, or 12.5% liquid chlorine.
The test strips are not recommended. You should buy a good test kit - TF-100 or a Taylor K2006 - they will allow you to test accurately up to 50ppm.
Read Pool School a few times. (White button, top of page.)
It's safe to swim up to shock level, but to know that you'll need accurate test results.
Start with the links John posted above... that's a good place to start.
Dan
EDIT: What was the shock you used? Do you have any left, and can you tell us what the ingredients are?
The test strips are not recommended. You should buy a good test kit - TF-100 or a Taylor K2006 - they will allow you to test accurately up to 50ppm.
Read Pool School a few times. (White button, top of page.)
It's safe to swim up to shock level, but to know that you'll need accurate test results.
Start with the links John posted above... that's a good place to start.
Dan
EDIT: What was the shock you used? Do you have any left, and can you tell us what the ingredients are?
I use hth super shock n swim. I have one 1lb bag left and ingredients are calcium hypochlorite 52% other ingredients 48% and minimum available chlorine 49%
The CYA (aka stabilizer) is one of those "other ingredients". They are there to stabilize the chlorine in its powdered form. If you continue to use the bags of shock and pucks, your CYA will increase each bag you add to a point where you cannot keep it blue. As you add CYA, your chlorine become less and less effective. Last year I got to the point (using the bags and pucks) to where it essentially didn't matter how much chlorine I had, the algae was going to bloom and shocking the pool was going require several gallons of bleach each day.
Learn from my experience, just use the BBB tools recommended here. Liquid bleach/chlorine is your friend. A manageable amount of stabilizer (CYA) is what you want.
Learn from my experience, just use the BBB tools recommended here. Liquid bleach/chlorine is your friend. A manageable amount of stabilizer (CYA) is what you want.
BatesClan05 said:
Dan is absolutely correct about the above, but for safety's sake, I wouldn't let the kids swim if it's cloudy. If a kid goes under, you need to be able to see them.DCAG said:
Test kit is ordered and smy no I haven't let them in at all with the water being like it is they might make me mental sometimes but I'm not that crazy lol and tech I took it out and took the hose to it and much cleaner so I'll do that from now on. Thank you everyone for your help I'll be back when better test kit comes in
DCAG
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Actually, I think the HTH products in the blue containers (calcium hypochlorite) are not stabilized, so you could be fine on your CYA levels.
Dan
Edit: Just double checked. The red bags and the blue bags are the same, the red bags are super shock and swim...
Dan
Edit: Just double checked. The red bags and the blue bags are the same, the red bags are super shock and swim...
Waiting on test kit but I did put a gallon of bleach and my last bag iof shock in the pool yesterday. Brought FC up to 10 and at 3pn today it is down to 2 but the cya has dropped to almost 0 and it was 40 yesterday Grr I put almost 4lbs of stable. & conditioner 3 days ago
CYA does not drop off on it's own like that... it usually only goes down with a considerable replacement of water. How are you measuring the CYA?
I know the test kits arrive pretty quickly, so it shouldn't be long until you have control of your pool. I would just keep your FC up for now until your kit comes because your CYA number is very suspect and the BBB system is based on adding chlorine as it relates to how much stabilizer (CYA) is in your water. Hang in there.