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carolvk12

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Aug 3, 2012
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Hi My name is carol.. I have a 24x24 54 inch round above ground pool with a cartridge filter.. I just recieved my Taylor k 2006 test kit. Normally I go down to the pool store once very 2 weeks. In between I was just using some sticks to dip. It did seem when I compared what they found to be about the same so I havent had much worry. I ended up with very cloudy water about a month back. I figured it was due to not long enough filteration when the weather was so hot here over 100 degrees. I was running it for 7 hours. So I upped the filter time talked with the pool store guy and told him I could see the bottom when looking down into water but when under the water I couldnt see very far at all. very cloudy like something was hanging in the water. making it not sparkly on top also. so he said to use this super blue clarifier. I put it in and waited and I did find algae on the bottom it was like green when i toed it it would plume. We shocked it also. using 2 bags of shock( hypo cal) I did one more dose of the super blue clarifier (robarb) the next week and thought I had it good. water sparkled but it was still cloudy under neath. I went on vacation left my son to take care of it . well not such a good idea came home to the skimmer basket tipped and my pump runnin dry (thankfully it didnt burn up) and my water was turbid. very milky cloudy nasty. I set my pump to go for 24 hrs a day. I shocked it upon coming home with 2 bags of the cal hypo stuff. On July 23 pool looked bad greenish blue vacummed went to pool store he gave my algacide and ph reducer and liquid chlorine told me to shock 2 gals 12.5 percent added ph down 4 lbs and ran pump all night next morning brushed the pool added 16 oz of algecide(robarb) on the 28th of july had yellowish brown on center bottom of pool and littel spots on bottom sides. I vacumed it out . Now I havenot added any more shock chlorine since July 23. I tested my water today and it is the following
free ch- 8.5 (7 pool store said)
cc-.5
ph 7.0 ( pool store said 7.2)
alk- 90 (pool store said 90)
hardness-150
Cya- 60 (pool store said 70)
I have always seemed to hold my chlorine levels through this all. Today took off solar cover and more brownish yellow stuff on the bottom vacumed it out.
Is this dead algae? I am gonna shock it tonight i have 2 gallons of the 12.5 percent liguid. My gallons I think are 13593. I usually just say 15000 but I tried to calculate it today. I thought forsure I would be coming home from store with something to raise my ph and he said it was fine. It appears a little cloudy since we vacummed today Im sure what ever was on bottom some got mixed up in water..
I need advise. I have alot of trees blowing leaves wondered if maybe i could have phophates? I do own a bottle of some phosphate remover that came with my pool. oh btw my pool is from watsons. and u guessed it it has the chlorine feeder that uses the bacpacs.(trichlor) chlorine. I like the convience of the dispencer. I dont no if i would replace the mineral resivoir. it ran last summer for 1 month and i just used the same one this yr. I know I know nobody likes those things. Anyways alot of people here are having the same issues I am . What would make your water so cloudy underneath? sorry I probaly rambled on to long.
 
carolvk12:

Welcome to TFP :wave:

carolvk12 said:
I have always seemed to hold my chlorine levels through this all. Today took off solar cover and more brownish yellow stuff on the bottom vacumed it out. Is this dead algae?
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It's hard to tell if it's algae or something from the nearby trees. The target chlorine (FC) levels for a CYA of 60 is 5-7 ppm; for 70 it is between 5-8 ppm. If we assume that the free chlorine reading of 8.5 ppm held within the target range for your true CYA, and your CC's did not go above 0.5, then I doubt what you're seeing is algae and instead say that it's something blowing in from the nearby trees. However, if your FC dropped below 5 ppm at any point even for as little as a couple of hours, then it could be algae.

carolvk12 said:
I have a lot of trees blowing leaves wondered if maybe i could have phophates? I do own a bottle of some phosphate remover that came with my pool.
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The leaves and other debris from the trees could contribute to increasing phosphate levels. However, phosphates are a non-issue as long as you maintain proper FC levels for your pool's CYA. Since you already have phosphate remover on hand there's no harm in using it. Once it's finished, I would not purchase another bottle. Will not hurt your pool, but it will drain your wallet. Focus instead on maintaining adequate FC levels. Liquid chlorine or plain unscented bleach is the recommended chlorine source.

Algaecide is also unnecessary except in rare instances. Many are useless if you already have algae. If you do have algae, chlorine in adequate doses will kill it. See The Shock Process link in my signature for what to do if you confirm that you have algae.

As for the cloudy water, the cal-hypo shock contributed to that. Even when adding cal-hypo to a clean pool, the water will turn cloudy for several days. The cloudiness is the result of calcium in that formula of chlorine. It will clear gradually. This cloudiness is not harmful to swim in, though.

Your CYA is borderline high. I would not use any pucks that contain dichlor or trichlor as both will add CYA.
 
Thanks for the reply.. I didnt have the yellowish colored stuff til after I used the algecide and liguid shock. I was prior seeing some green algae but just shocked and ramped up my filteration it went away. Went in pool last night the water is cloudy underneath. I cant see very far when swimming under the water so I know there is something in the pool. I added one gallon of the liguid chlorine the pool man sold me. I was told to add 2 normally but my thought was my chlorine was already an 8 so I added one. Maybe I didnt need it? I will go look and see what is in that I hope it isnt cal hypo also. I dont no I dont want the water to turn green and if my cya is high I need to run higher free chlorine?? I think we are gonna vacum to waste if we can figure out how to do it when the sandy color stuff acumaltes again. then I will lose some of the cya in the water. My chlorine feeder is triclor tabs. what would I do instead? I would have to buy a floater thing then? and put what in it? I think I will add the phosfree at this point what do I have to lose. We have a row of hickory nut trees and becuz it has been so dry they have been dropping leaves alot. and i did notice some strange spots on some of the leaves this year. I normally try to keep the solar cover on to prevent the leaves from going in but it seems like when I cover it for a few days some thing goes wrong .. I dont know. will check water and repost . Ill check what kind of shock I have and what the phosfree is before I add.
 
liquid chlorine is called sparkle and shine sanitizer 12.5 percent sodium hypo chlorite

algcide was robarb super algi gon ( didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride)

And the phosfree is called pool perfect and phosfree says to add 2 cap fulls for 16000 gallons of water
 
Stick to the liquid chlorine. Algaecide is not required ... nor is worrying about phosphates. Just keep the FC up in relation to your CYA level.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short ;)
 
thanks I didnt bother have them check it at all because it just frustrates me anyways.. maybe I just need to run higher chlorine level becuz of cya levels? although my pool looks very cloudy today . I think I need to up my ph I am gonna retest and if I get 7.0 again I am gonna add something to up it. what do u suggest bakings soda or borax or washing soda?
 
backing soda raises TA not pH. Use borax or washing soda to raise pH.

Is your pH dropping? That seems pretty rare unless you are using solid chlorine.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short ;)
 
This sounds like a classic case of low chlorine in regards to CYA. It works for a period of time and then something changes - heat, vacation, whatever. When that happens the algae population grows considerably and after that things no longer work the way they used to.

The thing that is going to fix this is to properly shock the pool - as described in Pool School. For a CYA of 60 is the shock level is 24 - so you need to keep the pool at FC 24ppm until it clears to insure you kill ALL of the algae. As a heads up - you should expect the pool to get MORE cloudy while in the shocking process. This is all that green algae dying, turning grey, etc. The filter will take some time to get it all out of the water.
 

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My ph is lower because pool store guy had my use ph decreaser (4 lbs) before I added the algecide. I hesistated to dump it all in I first added only 2 pounds then read the bottle of algecide and it said that the ph needed to be lowered for it to work properly. sigh. so I went back and dumped it all in. I am sorry now. I vacumed pool friday afternoon. all sandy colored yellowy stuff mostlyin center of pool.I added one jug of the liguid shock 12.5 percent friday night. tonight i went down there and more yellowish stuff in bottom only this time i took a picture. I will try to post dont know how well you will be able to see. This was the small spots by edge that I could take a picture of. When I pushed my toe on it, it would disinagrate. I think we are gonna let some water out tomorrow and fill with hose water maybe the cya will drop some then?? and I wont have to keep chlorine so high.
 

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here is one more. They both dont look the same actual color they really are. The first pic are more like yellow ligt brown kinda like new wood color. this photo was a darker look
 

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Lowering your CYA from 60 to 40 isn't going to do anything to clean up your current algae problem. If you are maintaining the FC/CYA relationship found here - then the level of ACTIVE chlorine in the water is going to be the same.

This problem will not go away until you complete the entire shock process. The odd bottle of chlorine or the algecide you've added is going to be ineffective against a full bloom.

From your description it sounds like what is collecting at the bottom of the pool is dead algae. That's a good sign. But the chlorine is used up now and the algae is starting to grow back.

Don't worry about your PH, TA, CH, CYA, phosphates, nitrates, TDS or whatever else. It all looks fine - and none of it matters at this point. Concentrate on shocking the pool properly - The Shock Process
 
Ok my test results this am are
Free chlorine 11.5
Combines. .5
Ph 7.2

It took 2 drops base demand to go out up to 7.4

Now it is 10 am here do i add liquid chlornine to boost it this am or does the rule still stand to wait til night ? It is only goin to get to 77 today

Thank you so much

I need to have free chlorine at 24? Being sunday what would i buy at grocery store ?
 
Thank you to all who have responded! I used the pool calculator and figure out how much bleach went and bought it brushed the pool and added it in tonight ill check levels shut of my chlorine feeder and see what the morning brings if its dropped ill recalculate and add more ! I did buy a box of borax i think ill add some to bring ph to 7.5ish?? Unless u think i shouldnt it was 7.0 then today it showed 7.2 i think it should be a tad higher??
 
Chlorine is more effective at lower PH levels. 7.2 is the recommended starting PH for the shock process.

I wouldn't fret over PH as long as it's within a range of 7.2 to 8.0 Your PH is going to have a tendency to drift (if you're using pucks it drifts lower, if not it usually raises over time.) After a few weeks of testing you'll have a good idea of how your pool moves with time.
 
Ok so I lost 1.5 in my chlorine reading last night .. of to dump some more in. The stuff on the bottom is now looking greyish when it settles. Now I just broom the bottom and not vaccum correct?

fc..22.5
cc .5

Ill leave ph alone right now and just wait
 
also I am needing to order the r-0871 for my taylor kit 2006 Do I just order the small bottles? Or can they be refilled if I buy a bigger one? I am afraid I will run out of this using 40 some drops every time. I dont dare to recheck the chlorine until tonight as I wont have any left if I do. how would you go about gettin tip off with out messing up the dropper if I do?
 

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