Pool is in trouble

[Lori06]

Hi all,

Please be gentle with me - my husband and I bought our first house last summer and thought we could handle the pool ourselves. However, we can't get it looking great since we opened it. I've never owned a pool and my husband grew up wiht an above ground pool. It's currently bluish with a touch of green and extremely cloudy. I bought the K-2006 test kit in hopes someone on here could assist. We have been pouring in liquid chlorine every few days and have kept 2 chlorine tabs in each basket (along with a bunch of other chemicals from the pool store we've put in), but can't seem to keep the level chlorine up and after it rained straight for the past few days I think the pool has just turned into rain water! Its a 25,000 gallon in-ground pool.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

FC - I think 0 (kit came out as .5ppm)
CC - I think 0 (kit came out as .5ppm)
pH - 7.6
TA - 90ppm
CH - the test showed negative (blue)
CYA - I'm confused - the water never turned cloudy and was crystal clear - the black dot never disappeared.

I think I covered all the bases I should have. If I'm missing anything, please let me know.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

What you need is The Shock Process.

You have a primo test kit, now all you need is a bunch o'bleach, some stabilizer (aim for 25 now, after it's clear you can raise it some), and patience.

A little inspiration:
pretty-black-pool-t58442.html
first-time-pool-owner-t61565.html
a-little-encouragement-for-those-with-algae-and-new-to-bbb-t57137.html
frog-filled-green-swamp-to-oasis-work-in-progress-t48213-20.html be sure to look at page 2
before-and-after-t36785.html
a-final-picture-set-of-how-well-the-bbb-method-works-t33199.html

You don't need mega-blaster-hyper-shock-miracle-powder nor any algaecide. Kill the algae, kill it all dead, with bleach and you'll be fine.

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[alanpaul]

Lori06,

Do use the Shock Process, as Richard320 suggests. It works, it takes all the guesswork out of clearing your pool, it's inexpensive, and it'll teach you the basics: what you've not done quite right, and how to fix it.

No algaecide necessary. Just a simple balanced chemistry that's right for your pool, based on your test kit results.

But for you, really, you must do the Shock Process. It's not a product. It's a protocol. See Pool School, above right.

You'll use the online Pool Calculator to find out precisely what your pool needs based on your test results (no guessing!). :-D

And please, read Pool School several times (it's a lot of info and takes a few reads to assimilate), and very soon you'll be in charge and in control of your pool, at very low cost, and you will feel confident and secure.

Any questions, just ask. You'll find the administrators and most members here are very helpful, and very encouraging!

 

[Charlie_R]

@ richard320:

Where do you get all these cool graphics?

@ Lori06:

I with third the remarks by richard320 and alanpaul. Shock process per pool school, and learn to trust your own test kit readings.

Do post your test results here several more times as you go through the process of clearing your pool. It will help us to help you.

 

[scott.MI]

Was any of the chemicals from the pool store a stabilizer or sometimes called conditioner or Cyanuric Acid?

If your doing the CYA test correctly (half pool water and half R-0013 then if its clear you have 0. I think the Taylor kit is 7ml of each.

Here's a video to see what it would look like, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxaqoW-_MCs

If you did it correctly and it was clear, you have zero and you NEED to get some in there....want to get to 30 for now. Without this your chlorine will not last long with any sunlight.

Get familiar with http://www.poolcalculator.com/ http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/

especially the shocking process. http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool

 

[4knights]

Was any of the chemicals from the pool store a stabilizer or sometimes called conditioner or Cyanuric Acid?

If your doing the CYA test correctly (half pool water and half R-0013 then if its clear you have 0. I think the Taylor kit is 7ml of each.

Here's a video to see what it would look like, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxaqoW-_MCs

If you did it correctly and it was clear, you have zero and you NEED to get some in there....want to get to 30 for now. Without this your chlorine will not last long with any sunlight.

Get familiar with http://www.poolcalculator.com/ http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/

especially the shocking process. http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool

Thanks for the YouTube video link!!! One of the mods needs to link these to pool school

 

[scott.MI]

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/ChemistryTopicsCM.ASP?ContentID=44

http://www.troublefreepool.com/extended-test-kit-directions-t25081.html

 

[alanpaul]

Where did Lori06 go...? You remember Lori. She started this thread....

 

[Charlie_R]

Hopefully getting her pool cleared!

 

[Lori06]

I'm sorry. I didn't disappear! My husband added the stabilizer this morning and then the chlorine. I have my husband rereading all of the pool school stuff. Will update when we retest. Thank you all so much!!!!

 

[Lori06]

Hi again,

We added the stabilizer on Saturday - mixed it with warm water to dissolve it and then added 2.5 gallons of liquid chlorine that afternoon. My husband added another 2.5 gallons or so Sunday morning and will add more this evening. I tested this morning and found the following:

FC: .2 ppm (but the water turned pink with only two scoops of the powder, whereas on Friday it took a ton of the powder to turn it pink)
CC: .6ppm
CYA - it's still not registering and the solution doesn't look cloudy at all. I read it takes about a week to show if you use the powder stuff though, so in the meantime I'm thinking we will just keep adding the chlorine.

Also, I brushed the bottom of the pool this morning, which we have been doing every few days, but is it better to just vacuum the bottom (though we can't see it) or continue brushing? Brushing stirs up some junk on the bottom but I also read that you should brush so the stabilizer doesn't sit on the bottom. Not sure which is the best course to take.

I'm trying to have patience but this is hard! My husband leaves for work at 5 AM and gets home around 8 PM, and I'm pregnant and trying to avoid lifting the heavy chlorine jugs and using too many chemicals. However, I have faith that you guys will help us get a clear pretty pool and we will finally understand it all!

Thank you again for all of your help!!

 

[yeggim]

We need to know how much and what kind of stabilizer (liquid or granules) was added.
Also, what strength is the liquid Chlorine?

 

[scott.MI]

If your fighting organics, or amonia, you need to test and add more than once a day.

To start with, you should use pool calculator and at the bottom after entering your gallons figure out how much CYA you will get from how much stabilizer you added and just treat it as if it is there.

Next you need to test, and use pool calculator to figure out much chlorine you need to add to take your pool to Shock levels based on your assumed CYA levels from above. http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock

This is very important....you need to test and add chlorine more than once a day. In the beginning you should start testing every hour. How often you test will be based on how fast or slow your chlorine levels are dropping. If they have dropped a lot after 1 hour, you should test every half hour. If your only dropping slightly below shock levels 1 hour is good, if your still in shock level you can go to 2 hours.

Your job is to get your pool to shock level as many times in the day as you can and keep it at shock levels as long as possible. The more time your water is at your shock level, the better.

 

[scott.MI]

FC: .2 ppm (but the water turned pink with only two scoops of the powder, whereas on Friday it took a ton of the powder to turn it pink)
CC: .6ppm

Unless your doing the more precise test, your drops should be multiplied by .5
Now, there is a test that does measure in .2

So not sure if you FC is .2 or .5 or your CC is .6 or 1.5. Check which test your doing and make sure its the one that you multiply drops by .5

 

[Lori06]

Thanks Scott!

My husband added the granules of stabilizer (he had some left from the previous owners and used that until we could get out to purchase more). I'll check with him tonight to see exactly what he added. We also bought the 5 gallon liquid chlorine from Namco. I didn't write down the % but from googling it, it looks like it's 12.5%

I'll have to check the exact amounts with him of what was added. How do people test so frequently? I'm at work for 9 hours a day and my husband is gone 15 hours a day. I'm not complaining, just not sure how anyone does all of this when working full time. I can ask my father to come over today to add more chlorine, but he doesn't know how to test or anything.

Thanks for the insight into the FC - I followed the amount for the .2 test but I will do the .5 one this evening.

Thank you so much for your help!!! I'm embarrassed to admit how clueless I am on this!

 

[scott.MI]

Its a lot of work to get it clean and clear, but once clean its easier, and after time you can learn your pool and get an idea of what needs to be added daily and cut back testing

 

[vanessadickson]

Hi Lori06, I just wanted to throw out there a time-saving tip that has made my testing like a 2 minute process or even less. If this somehow interferes with the test outcome, Im sure one of the experts will correct me.

I found the greatest time waster during testing is that I was constantly gathering test water into a testing tube, finding I had too little or too much, relevelling, and going back and forth to a table to pour in reagent droplets and record results on each kind of test. Instead, I found a very clean squirt bottle that I use to gather the pool sample, and then just sit at a table and use it to squirt to the correct levels in the test tube thingys for each test. I also use my squirt water to rinse between tests. My bottle is about the size of a regular shampoo bottle. Much quicker to do, and with a squirt bottle you can easily pour in just the right amount for a test the first shot.

Just an idea, lots of us are really busy too and feel your pain! Trust these guys, once it gets balanced you will LOVE your pool, not hate it like I did before I discovered this site. Happy Baby!!

 

[Lori06]

Thanks so much Vanessa! My husband and I were just saying last night how much we hated the pool! I have hope we will start to enjoy it though. The two days we planned on working on it, there were thunderstorms the entire day...figures! Great idea about the squirt bottle - I do the exact same thing with wasting time....thats what seems to take forever!

As for the pool - we haven't done much since the weekend. However, we're both home early Friday and all weekend, so we'll start the shock process then. I think we need to add more DE powder too, as my husband backwashed it a bunch and we haven't added any all season. I just can't wait until the day we fully understand the pool and are confident with it. These days it's just the elephant in the room that we pretend isn't there!

 

[vanessadickson]

Cant take credit, I got that tip about the squirt bottle from someone else on this site.

Have heart, in May 2012 I was lobbying my husband to fill in the pool. We spent over $3000 on the pool the previous year, just in chemicals and paying someone to open and close it. Not sustainable, and not worth it, especially with our 5 kids all grown. Plus when you live on a farm, who needs the hassle of running a sample into town constantly when the pool turns crazy colors.

I told hubby Id agree to one more year, but this time I was going to learn what all those chemicals were and what our pool store was giving us for the money. Turns out, after using this site in 2012, I found the answer was: for our money the pool store was giving us a money pit.

So last year, using the methods on this site, I balanced and adjusted the pool myself, and spent less than $300, with virtually no algae incidents once balanced. This year, it was a snap! Pool was sparkling about 7 days after opened, only had to spend one weekend monitoring/testing intensively to get my TA right, and my results have been perfect as follows for the last couple weeks so Im only spot checking chlorine/pH/alc about every 4 days or so, also usually look at it periodically to make sure its still sparkly and no slimey feeling on walls.

80 Alk
220 Cal.
3 chlo. (I put in salt water system, TOTALLY worth it, so chl can be low)
60 CYA
7.4 pH

...and I did this working more than full time, with a husband working 7am till 8pm every day! Message to you is DONT LOSE HEART! YOU CAN DO IT !

Key is to learn the chemistry (read, read, read), test yourself, and don't add crazy stuff, just whats on the website at Pool School. Good Luck! ---V

 

[Lori06]

You just brought a smile to my face!!! I feel like we're in such a similar situation. This weekend will be our dedicated time to the pool and then fingers crossed it will all turn out okay! Thanks so much for the encouragement!