New pool/swamp owner!!!

[Cmross97]

Hello everyone! This is my first post but I've been lurking on here waiting to close on my house. So I finally closed and I'm the new owner of a aprox 38600 gallon inground pool. Pool has a vinyl liner, hayward sand filter, hayward propane heater, and super pump. The pool was closed aprox 2-3 years ago and hasn't been opened since. I took the loop lock cover off yesterday to find a nice dark green/black swamp, complete with tadpoles and frogs and who knows what else. I have been using the leaf rake and I am amazed at how many leaves got in even with the cover on. Anyways the pool guy is coming tomorrow just to show me how to operate everything(same guy who previous owner used so he is familiar) since this is my first pool. I already spoke to him and he is aware that I'm going to use the BBB method. I have 5 boxes of borax and 15 gallons of 8.25 bleach on hand, still need to get baking soda. I had the water tested yesterday:

Fc: 0
Ph: 6.0
Alkalinity: 0
Calcium hardness:0
Cya: 8

So I e read some stickies and posts on here so I have an idea of what to do any other tips or suggestions are MUCH appreciated.

Also is there a way I can test the heater without buying a giant propane tank, it's a hayward 400k btu and I don't want to buy the propane if the heater needs $$$ to repair thanks!

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: How did you test your water? All pH tests worth a darn only go down to 6.8 or so.

 

[Cmross97]

I brought it to the local pool store, figured I'd subject myself to some high pressure salespeople lol. On the paper it says 6.5 but she said their computer won't display anything lower and mine was about 6.0

 

[itsme_bernie]

I'm not as much of a pool guy yet, but I do know something (not everything) about boilers. I don't now if there is a way to test your boiler without propane. I had propane at a previous home, and don't remember (never tried) to hook up a small propane tank in place of the house size one. I'm sure it is totally, in an official manner, not allowed by the propane folks, or your home owner's insurance ... But I think you need propane in there to find out.

 

[Cmross97]

Ok so a week later and the pool is still greenish gray, some improvement has been made. I can we the floor of the pool the whole shallow end and about 2-3 feet of the dropoff to the deep end. Pump has been running 24/7. I changed the sand in the filter wed night and I thinks it's working a little bit better. Chlorine is a above 10 24/7. Shouldn't this be cleared up more by now?

 

[duraleigh]

How are you testing your FC? Is your CYA still "8"?

 

[Cmross97]

Using the tf100 kit I cannot get cts to show up, but last time pool store tested it was 18, daily I use the test strips and have been using tf100 kit every other day, I just use strips for the chlorine.

 

[Richard320]

Throw the strips away. You have the best test kit available at your fingertips.

Raise CYA level 10 PPM or so to get it to 30 and then raise the FC level up to 12 or even 15 and keep it there by retesting and adding more every two hours. THEN you'll start seeing some progress.

 

[Cmross97]

Ok so I added 4lbs of stabilizer to the pool, cya is now showing up when I test it but its showing that it's still below 20. The chlorine held at over 10 overnight, it was 13 when I woke up and prob 16 last night. Pool has cleared up some since yesterday but not a whole lot.

 

[Cmross97]

Chlorine stayed above 10 all day without adding ANY chlorine. I brought it up to about 16 last night and now probably 22 hours later its at about 11. Should it be using more is is that about accurate?? I'm adding more now to bring it back to about 15-16

 

[Richard320]

Chlorine stayed above 10 all day without adding ANY chlorine. I brought it up to about 16 last night and now probably 22 hours later its at about 11. Should it be using more is is that about accurate?? I'm adding more now to bring it back to about 15-16

Are you still measuring with test strips?

How does the water look?

 

[Cmross97]

Chlorine stayed above 10 all day without adding ANY chlorine. I brought it up to about 16 last night and now probably 22 hours later its at about 11. Should it be using more is is that about accurate?? I'm adding more now to bring it back to about 15-16

Are you still measuring with test strips?

How does the water look?

No more test strips. Water looks a little bit better I can see more of the drop off clearly. I'm getting discouraged quickly though. It's been NINE days, and with my 2hp pump running 24/7 I know I'm gonna have an extremely high electric bill, and my pool still isn't near swimable

 

[Richard320]

Okay, that usage sounds actually a little low. Just keep the faith and keep the FC level up at shock level. If it's greyish instead of green, it might be time to improve the filtering ability. pool-school/add_de_to_a_sand_filter

 

[Cmross97]

Ok I'll get some de tomorrow, I have added it two times before the first time the pressure went up really high really quick, second time I didn't put enough de in. I was also thinking about vacuuming to waste also.

 

[Cmross97]

Ok so I added about 2 cups of de to the skimmer, when I do psi goes up from 22 to 23. About an hour later the pressure is over 30. So then I added less about 1.5 cups psi goes up to 22.5 and samething an hour or so later and the pressure is over 30. If I keep doing this I'm gonna be out of de quickly!!! On a side note I vacuum ed the pool to waste and now I can see the floor of the deep end 9' pretty clearly. This has been 2 weeks now of the filter running constant and prob $400 in electric doing so. How much longer do I keep doing this and how do I get the water to be crystal clear now?????

 

[jblizzle]

Sounds like the DE and filter are working ... they are supposed to catch the stuff in the pool resulting in a pressure increase.

Just keep the faith, maintain shock FC level (does the CYA still show less than 20ppm?), and keep cleaning out the filter.

Also realize that you only have to do this once ... sure it is painful, but you will now have a crystal clear pool for as long as you own the house. If you want to blame anyone ... it is the previous owners that left this happen

Side note ... might want to consider replacing the pump motor with a 2-speed variant to save some of this money on electricity