Problem with Opening Pool

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Kmac3007

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May 19, 2013
10
Spring Lake, NJ
I'm a new pool owner (2nd season) and I have trouble with opening the pool for the first time. i could use some good advice.

I opened the pool this weekend and things went smoothly until a couple yesterday. Here's what happened.

When I opened the pool last Saturday there was a lot of dirt on the bottom of the pool and once i got that cleaned the water was pretty clear. i had the water tested a local pool store and these were the results:

CYA 60
TA 73
CH 105
Salt 1900
FC .4
TC .4
PH 7.1
Temp 62

They suggested I add 6 40# bags of salt, 20#'s of Balance pack 100 and Set the system on boost for 24 hours.

I did all 3 and when i tested the water on Sunday myself I had reading for of TC - 3, TA 110, PH 7.6 That's all I can remember.

I was reading about the BBB method on TFP on Sunday and I wanted to use that to care for my Pool so on Monday night i added 7 qts of store bought Chlorine non scented (contains - Sodium hypochlorite & sodium hydroxide) Next morning I tested the Chlorine levels and I was at about .5. Why did it drop I asked myself?

On Tuesday am wanting to get TA down i added about 18 oz of MA and that's when something went really wrong. A thin film of bubbles formed on the top of the water and increased throughout the day until it covered the entire pool by the afternoon - see picture attached.

I got rid of the foam by spraying with water but it came back shortly after.

I had my pool water tested again at the pools store just to make sure my readings were accurate and this is what they came up with:

CYA 60
TA 105
CH 80
Salt 3500
FC .5
TC .5
PH 8
Temp 71 (I had the heater on)

My tests results showed FC & TC to be .5 or less and PH to be 7.2.

They told me to add - 1lb Lo 'n Slo, 17pds of Balance Pak 300 and 2lbs of Smart Shock and turn on boost for 24 hours. I added the Smart Shock and turned on boost last night. Still the chlorine levels showed .5 this morning.

I got rid of the foam by spraying with water but it came back shortly after.

Can anyone help? What did I do wrong?
 

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Welcome to the forum :wave:

The reason the FC is dropping is because the pool needs to be shocked -properly shocked by following Pool School directions to the letter.

The foam is simply algaecide or other organics being oxidized. Following the shock process will take care of all of that.

The best thing you can do for your pool is order one of the recommended test kits. See comps in Pool School.
The fav around here is the TF100. Link in my sig.

Pool School is your new best friend. Big white button at top right of each page.

Post back with any questions.
 
Thanks for the info.

I don't really understand i just used over 7 qts of bleach to shock the pool on Monday and another 2lbs of Smart Shock last night. When I look at the Pool School directions for the shock process I see my shock FC is 24. What does that mean? 24 oz?

Sorry if I'm being stupid but I'm new at this and thought I had it down last summer but I guess I have a lot to learn.
 
If you spend some time reading Pool School and understand the relationship between CYA and Chlorine, things will start to make sense to you.

I suggest you start with ABC's of Pool Chemistry and keep reading until your head hurts! :shock: okay, there is a relationship between chlorine and CYA that you need to get some understanding of before you can really understand what we teach here at TFP.
pool-school/

Do some reading and post back. Someone will be around to help you. :)
 
In reading in the Pool school it looks like I should raise my CYA to around 80 up from 60 to hold onto the FC since I have a SWG?

I also receive a fair amount of sunlight so I'm assuming I should be at the higher end of the CYA range.

I wasn't able to test the CYA myself since I don't have any of the solution right now so I'm just going of of what they told my level was at he pool store for the CYA level of 60. i plan on ordering the TF-100 test kit now.

Am I on the right track?
 
Kmac3007 said:
In reading in the Pool school it looks like I should raise my CYA to around 80 up from 60 to hold onto the FC since I have a SWG?

I also receive a fair amount of sunlight so I'm assuming I should be at the higher end of the CYA range.

I wasn't able to test the CYA myself since I don't have any of the solution right now so I'm just going of of what they told my level was at he pool store for the CYA level of 60. i plan on ordering the TF-100 test kit now.

Am I on the right track?
Click to expand...
Do NOT add any more CYA until AFTER the shock process is complete. 100% complete, all three parts of the test. 60 is already awfully high for the shock process. Once things are clear and stabilized, if you want to raise it, go ahead.

Order the XL option for the test kit, because you'll be burning through a lot of reagents durting the shock process.
 
Thanks for the reply about raising CYA until after shock process.

Just got home from work and I tested the chlorine level and it went up to 1 from .5.

i will order the XL option like you suggested. The film on the water seems to be improving as well.

Thanks again
 
I shocked with liquid chlorine on Thursday morning 2.5 gallons and my FCC levels went well above 5 and the white film has disappeared completely. I've been running my pump since then.

The weather has been bad here in Nj so I haven't notice a drop in the FC level below 5 which is the highest I can measure with the Taylor 2006 test kit I have.

I was wondering since the suns out the kids will want to swim today, can they or are my FC levels to high?

Thanks for the help!
 
Kmac3007 said:
The weather has been bad here in Nj so I haven't notice a drop in the FC level below 5 which is the highest I can measure with the Taylor 2006 test kit I have.
Click to expand...
You must not have the Taylor K-2006 kit if you can't measure above 5 ppm FC. I'll bet you have the Taylor K-2005 instead since that has a DPD chlorine test where you compare shades of pink/red against a standard and it only goes up to 5 ppm. You really should get a FAS-DPD chlorine test kit and can get that at TFTestkits. You would then be able to measure higher than 5 ppm and also measure more accurately and easily by simply counting drops until the color changes from pink/red to clear.
 

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Just checked - you're right I have the 2005. I ordered the TF-100 Kit last week but haven't rec'd it yet. Hopefully it comes on Tuesday.

Chem Geek - do you think the kids can swim tomorrow weather is going to be nice? The pool looks great nice clear water.
 
Dilute your pool water sample by mixing 1 part pool water with 3 parts distilled water (if you have it; tap water if you don't) for a 1:4 dilution and see what you get. If it's under 5 ppm, then your chlorine level is below shock level and the kids can go swimming. With your 60 ppm CYA, you should have the FC in the ballpark of 5-9 ppm (so 1/4th dilution would be around 1-2 ppm), but if it's higher yet below shock level that's OK and it will continue to drop.

You didn't really go through the full shock process, but without the right test kit to accurately check on the amount of FC drop overnight, we'll just assume you're OK since the pool is clear, doesn't smell, and you've got chlorine in it. When your test kit arrives, you can check on the overnight chlorine loss as the last step. Worst case, you'll just need to shock again if there's still something growing in the pool or using up chlorine (beyond normal loss rates).
 
Hi Chem Geek,

Rec'd my TF-100 test kit today and this is what I came up with when I tested the water:

FC - 11
CC - 0
TA - 130 (Pool store readings were 105 last week so I'll test again in the am just to be sure)
CYA - 20
PH 7.6
Salt 3200

Pool water looks beautiful. Kids swam yesterday wet and cold today, but tomorrow 85 degree weather is forecasted.

I'm performing the overnight Chlorine test tonight so i'll post results in the morning. If the test is good and I'm not losing Chlorine do you think the shock process is complete? By what I'm reading it seems like I got the levels up high enough to kill the bacteria and organic materials in the water, No longer am I experiencing any of the white bubble film on top of the water,

If the shock process is complete, I plan to lower my TA to about 70 using MA and get my CYA up to about 70. Can I do both at the same time?

I hope I'm on I on the right track?

I shocked the pool last Thursday morning so I guess my CC levels must have been pretty high. I performed two DSP tests tonight to make sure I was testing the water properly and I arrived at a CC of 11 each time. The weather was lousy both on Fri & Sat no sun at all and it rained all day Tuesday.
 
Sounds like you are on the right track :goodjob:

You can add the CYA and work on lowering the TA (using the process in Pool School) at the same time ... assuming your OCLT works out.
 
Check my levels this morning, here are the results:

FC - 10
CC - 0
TA - 110 - 120
CYA - 20

I made a mistake and had my chlorine generator running at 60% during the shock process. Explains to me why my chlorine levels may not have dropped as i would have expected. Lowered it to 0 for the time being to see what happens - is that the right thing to do.

Tonight I'll work on lowering the TA and raising CYA.

Stay tuned.
 
You can lower it to zero (turn it off) so that it doesn't throw off the results of the OCLT which you can read about here pool-school/overnight_fc_test

I am assuming that you think you are done shocking, the water is clear, and you are ready to confirm that with the OCLT.

If you just want to get your FC down turn it off and monitor till it drops where you want it. When are you going to raise CYA.

I personally would do the OCLT to prove to myself all is well, then start on CYA.
 
Thanks everyone for your help in gettings things settled with my pool. Now i'm in the process of dialing in my CYA and down my TA to get things right.

Just one thing i don't quite understand - if I have to schock the pool this summer for any reason would I have to bring it to such high levels that are represented in the CYA / Chlorine Chart? Also when i shock to such high levels will it close the pool until the levels come down? Since I keep the SWG on by mistake when I shocked I don;t have any idea how long it took for my FC level to hit shock level and then drop to 3-5 FC range.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks again!
 
If you have to shock, you will have to reach the level of FC in the chart. Keep in mind that if you maintain the pool you'll never have to shock. Even if you do though, you can swim up to shock level. You should really shut the swg off if you have to shock, but if you leave it on it doesn't really hurt anything.
 

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