Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please.

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moneytastesbad

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Jun 16, 2009
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Hi there, Due to work I have not been able to get the pool open this spring. In late June I was going to start, but the motor on my pump was bad, so I had to order a new one and find the time to replace it. Well that finally got done.

On July 4th, I finally started trying to clear up my swamp.

My pool is about 30,000 gal, in ground, Lazy L, 3 skimmers + floor drain, 4 returns, Hayward Sand Filter and 1.5 HP pump.

So, here I am a week and a half later and the pool is still a light cloudy green color.

I have been keeping the Chlorine up around 24 ppm for the last 1.5 weeks - the lowest it has dropped is down to around 10. I am using 8.25% bleach and adding the amount recommended by the Pool Calculator.

My most recent (5 mins ago) test results for PH is 8.2 and TA is 70. I know the PH is high and the TA is low,

I am thinking about using floc to clear this thing up, but wanted to see what you guys suggested first.

What really blows, is if I don't get this thing clean soon, I am leaving for vacation the last weekend of this month and all my time and energy will have been wasted because I will be back to square one when I return.

Any help and input is appreciated.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

You must SLAM the pool. The article on how to do that is in Pool School and should be followed to the letter. Your pool will clear.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

My CYA was 90 when I checked it last week, but I have not checked it since. I am using the TF-100 Test Kit. I have not conducted an Overnight test yet.

I will read about SLAM and give it a try.

Thanks everyone!!
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

moneytastesbad said:
My CYA was 90 when I checked it last week, but I have not checked it since. I am using the TF-100 Test Kit. I have not conducted an Overnight test yet.

I will read about SLAM and give it a try.

Thanks everyone!!
Click to expand...

Sorry, i shouldn't really have suggested doing the OCLT yet as your green water tells us you need to continue to SLAM your pool. If you haven't been around lately the shock process has recently been renamed to SLAM.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

OK, just read the SLAM page, and that is exactly what I have been doing for the past week and a half. Only the past couple days I have only tested and added bleach once a day because I had my freaking well pump go out on me so my past 3 days have been consumed with getting that fixed.

But even though I only tested/added once a day, I still never got below 10 ppm FC.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

With a CYA of 90, you need to bring you FC to 35 PPM to get to a solid shock level based on the PoolSchool chart. This is more aggressive than the poolcalculator but will work faster on a swamp.

Can you cost effectively replace half the water in you pool with clean, metals free water?
 

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Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

Your CYA is 90ppm ... that means to be following the SLAM process you are maintaining the FC at 35ppm ... right? Dropping
down to 10ppm is way too low while SLAMing.

Looks like techguy and I thought the same thing.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

Oops... that was a typo.... my CYA was 40 BUT, I just tested it again, and after adding water from the hose, plus the Crud load of rain we have had, the CYA level is now under 20!!! (I filled the tube all the way to the top and could still see the black dot).
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

And, no... replacing half the water is not a cost effective option. I have a well, and the cost of having water hauled here is out of our budget. We had to do that a couple years back when we replaced the liner and it cost more for the water than it did for the liner.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

Then assume you have a 20CYA for your SLAM values. You could add more CYA but I would leave that until after you are clear and have passed your OCLT. a CYA of 20 makes for much more palatable FC levels, 10 FC. As long as you stay in the 10-12 range during the day and bump it to the same before bed, you will make good progress. Unless find the 12FC is consumed really quickly (less than a couple hours) you should be good.

Are you home during this process or is this a before/after work project? Weekends are great time to stockup on CL and SLAM it hard, every hour, on the hour.

Just read you comment, since your CYA was a typo.. you are fine.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

techguy said:
Can you cost effectively replace half the water in you pool with clean, metals free water?
Click to expand...

So we know you don't need to replace your water due to high CYA, have you tested metals for metals in your pool water?

Is your water a clear green, or a cloudy green?
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

So, not sure how long it has been down to 20, but I have been keeping the FC around 24 since I started the process. Should I stop going that high? Is it going to hurt anything besides my wallet?

I have been home most of the time the past week, but I return to work on Monday. The first day, I checked and added every 30 mins for the first 3 or 4 hours, then once an hour till I went to bed. The next day I checked every couple hours, and since then 2 or 3 times a day with the exception of the past 3 days that I have been working on my well.

Is this really going to just be a matter of patience, or is there anything I can do to speed up the process. The past few years using the BBB method I went from pond to clear in around a week.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

harleysilo said:
techguy said:
Can you cost effectively replace half the water in you pool with clean, metals free water?
Click to expand...

So we know you don't need to replace your water due to high CYA, have you tested metals for metals in your pool water?

Is your water a clear green, or a cloudy green?
Click to expand...


I have not tested for metals.

The pool is a light, cloudy, green.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

If it is consuming less and less FC each day, you are getting closer. In the end it get to be about how quickly your filter gets rid of the dead green stuff and clears your water. You may get to the point where you h cloudy water that is not consuming FC. THis is last stage of active killing process and in the middle of the filtering process.

Sand filters can be slower to filter out fine debris. When you get your FC completely under control, you can consider adding DE 9see Pool School on how to do it). When you add, you may need to babysit your filter as pressures can rise quickly.

Dumb question, do you have any leaves or other debris on the floor of the pool? If you do, vacuum them out ASAP.

Unless you have green, pink or yellow deposits in your home toilet or sink, you may not have metals issues to deal with. Pool stores can be useful in testing for metals.
 
Re: Id love to get this pool open before fall!!! Help please

If CYA is 20, 24 ppm FC is too high and could hurt the equipment over time. Your shock level is 10, try to stay around that maybe targeting 12-13 at the most to give more time before topping it back up. Even at 40, the 24 target was a bit high - were you looking at the mustard algae levels on poolcalculator.com? Those aren't recommended until the last 24 hours of the process.


- Sent using Tapatalk
 

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