To circulate or not - is the question

[toofast]

so long story, but we are a new inground fiberglass pool owner...14K gallons. pool went in last year and was filled, but filtering equipment won't be finished till end of May. (thank you hurricane sandy).

my water was nearly crystal clear all winter, just did the normal things to close, (oh, no cover either as concrete work was delayed as well),

we don't have a don't a trees, so only a few handful of leaves.

NOW the question is what should I try to do to keep it as clear as possible for the next few weeks. Temps are climbing into the 70's and lots of sun during the day. I put a few gallons of "bleach" after thaw, but now I know I gotta do more.

The question I really have is should I rig a way to circulate the water, while trying to get PH/Chlorine someone in line. I can use a sump pump and garden hose to get the water moving around. or would that just stir up some problems and make it worse.

Am I better to just dump in a bottle of bleach a week until the filters get hooked up, etc.
Any other questions or advice will be taken!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

Yes, keep some chlorine in there. The sump pump will work to a degree, but brushing -especially with something like a wall whale - will probably keep things mixed up better.

I can't say how much bleach to add without test results. You do have a test kit, don't you? If not, read up on what you need and order one today.

 

[toofast]

Yep I have a Taylor 2006C on order and should arrive any day.

I don't have a brush yet, but I will get one ASAP!

 

[toofast]

Ok, did my first test - already had 1G of Bleach 6% in.

FC 2.2
CYA 0 of course
PH 7.5 (not bad)
TA 90 (not bad)

I guess my main question is should I try to raise the CYA without any practical pump, or should I just brush and dump some bleach in to try and keep FC around what say 4 ?

With temps in the 60-70 for next 10 days, just don't want to have all heck break loose, pool is pretty clear to be honest.

 

[jblizzle]

With no CYA in the pool, the FC is going to drop fast and you probably should not go over about 3ppm.

The granular CYA is just not going to dissolve very well with no flow. You could get the liquid CYA and mix it into the water, but it will cost a little more money.

 

[Richard320]

Ok, did my first test - already had 1G of Bleach 6% in.

FC 2.2
CYA 0 of course
PH 7.5 (not bad)
TA 90 (not bad)

I guess my main question is should I try to raise the CYA without any practical pump, or should I just brush and dump some bleach in to try and keep FC around what say 4 ?

With temps in the 60-70 for next 10 days, just don't want to have all **** break loose, pool is pretty clear to be honest.

It pains me to say it...but perhaps a floater with trichlor pucks would be appropriate here. You'll still need to stir things up.

Or.. you could rig that pump up and have the hose spray on the sockfull of CYA granules.

Without any stabilizer, the sunlight will destroy your chlorine at an alarming rate.

 

[linen]

What temp is the pool water averaging? Is the pool covered with an opaque cover?

 

[toofast]

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh nooooooooooooo on the tri-chlor

It is not covered and I do not have a temp reading (just realized I could use my grill thermometer to test)

Days are 50-65 now and nights around the same.

I will work on getting a temp and posting.

 

[linen]

Well most likely then you need to get bleach in there to at least keep the algae at bay (and cya to keep the FC protected from the sun). If you have to do it without a pump to circulate, use Richard's idea of the whale brush or use something like a canoe paddle to really mix it in. For cya, I agree with jbliz, liquid may be your only choice, but stir stir stir.

 

[toofast]

Ok gang thanks as always. Gonna rig my home made float and go find myself a bit of tri-chlor to keep things at bay. We have a few kayaks, so great idea on using the paddles to keep things slightly stirred up.

 

[linen]

What temp is the water running at in the evening and morning?

 

[toofast]

Got my thermometer - it is about 67 degrees at 9 PM this evening...that is in the shallow end. I will find some rope and move to the deep end this morning. Rigged a home made float - with 2 pucks of trichlor floating around this evening. Brushed the walls as well...it is going to be in the 80's later this week, even though 55 right now.

 

[Isaac-1]

You might want to look at getting a small pool slime bag / polishing bag that you can connect to the hose on your sump pump to get a little filtering done while you wait. Also I would go ahead and work on getting the water balanced now since you have a good test kit.

Ike

 

[Durk]

We ran pools with zero CYA for decades with no problem. I get shot down every time I mention it, but it is true. We didn't even have test kits.(Yes, really.) We just hit it with a daily dose each night (Cal-hypo) because we knew all the FC was gone. Sure, 3ppm FC with zero CYA will eat up cotton bathing suits, but you won't get any algae. Despite what everybody says, we didn't get sick, either. The pool will probably not get a lot of use at 67°F so just suspend sanitizer paranoia until your filter gets here. I'd throw in a floater with 4 or 5 pucks and supplement with bleach, if needed, to get to 3 ppm each night. TriChlor is a pretty efficient way of adding CYA (and probably the cheapest).

Figure 30 oz. of tabs per floater load, and each refill gets you about 9 ppm CYA. You should be up to 30 by the time your filter is ready to go and you can return to your modern, approved BBB pool management program, having visited a 1960's pool program in the meantime. Don't wear cotton in the pool--it will fade fast.

EDIT: Since I was questioned on it by a mod; let me be clear: I do not recommend zero CYA operation in an outdoor pool as normal operation. I moved to CYA shortly after it became available in the 1970's. I'm just saying, if you have to do it temporarily, with daily attention, you won't get algae and your kids won't die of dysentery.

 

[toofast]

Thanks guys...I don't think we will be swimming before the filters go in anyways...we have a nice think layer of dirt all over the bottom. Clean dirt from construction, but nevertheless.

Oh and it was 62 degrees in the shallow end this AM - super cold night. Testing the deep end and I bet it might be a bit warmer

I will rig up an additional floater and continue to slowly work on the balancing act. Just for fun I will post my readings as I continue to make adjustments.

Once again thanks all for your help! What did we do before forums, oh yeah get ripped off by pool stores.

 

[linen]

If you use pucks keep a close eye on it. It will only take 12.5 3inch (8 oz) trichlor pucks to get up to 30ppm cya.

 

[toofast]

Ok will do...I will only use the few that I bought and keep a close eye.

 

[Slime Bag]

You will want to circulate the pool water especially after adding chemicals. The method that Issac-1 mentioned would help two-fold as you would be circulating and filtering at the same time. You could then use the Slime Bag to attach to your return line port after you get your pump installed and running.