I bought my house in June of 2013 and we moved in right around July. I had a pool inspection done and the pool guy told me the pool was a 16' x 32' Grecian and was roughly 25,000 gallons. I was told the pool had a new liner, new pump, and new filter sand. There is a pile of sand in my backyard which I can only assume was the old sand. The pool was sparkling clear when we moved in and we maintained it with Walmart/pool store chemicals. We had a basic OTO kit from Walmart as well. We'd have the occasional algae bloom, but would shock it and vac whenever that occurred. It seemed to be working fine. I decided to close the pool (which I probably shouldn't have done living in Mobile, Alabama). I put in a closing kit from Intheswim.com, put a cover on it for the winter, and turned the timer down to three 1 hour intervals per day. I can't recall, but think we closed it around mid-November. Fast forward to March 30, 2014. We got lazy and pulled the cover off without pumping off the water or clearing the leaves. I'm still kicking myself for that. This is what it looked like:
I tried to rake out as many of the leaves and pine needles as possible, but given the color of the water, it's impossible to see down to the bottom of even the shallow end. We got an Ultimate Opening kit from Intheswim.com, but before we used it, I took a sample of my water to Leslie's. They tested the water and the results were:
FAC = 0
TAC = 0
Alk = 50
pH = 7.0
Base Demand = 2
Phosphates = 200
I ended up buying some more shock (9 lbs 73% calpho), Green to Clean, and Soda Ash. I folllowed the instructions they gave me, added some Algaecide in the process. I ran the filter 24 hours a day for several days. I used skimmer socks and have backwashed twice so far. I also ended up shocking the pool again (6 lbs 68% calpho) last weekend and putting four 3" chlorine tabs in my floater. At this point, I'm running the filter 6 hours a days now from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. This is what my water looks like now:
It's been cloudy like this for over a week and I decided I don't wanna keep throwing money at this pool without some help, so I found this site, started reading pool school, and bought a TF-100 kit & Speedstir. So now I come to you all begging for any help you can provide. I tested the water today and here are my results:
OTO = 1-2 ppm
pH = 6.8
CYA = ~30-35 (two tests, the first test I thought it was 50-55)
CH = 170-200
Alk = 80-100
FC = .5-1 ppm
CC = .5-1 ppm
TC = 1-2 ppm
Seems like I need more chlorine and need to raise the pH. Of course, due to the cloudiness of the water, I still can't see the bottom of the pool so I'm raking blindly. Occasionally I'll pull up a few more leaves and pine needles, but for the most part I end up coming up empty. Until I get the water clear, I can't really be certain that I've got everything out of it. Pool Math seems to state that I need one jug of 8.25% bleach, 324 oz. of Borax, 35 oz. of Stablizer, and 177 oz. of calcium chloride though I'm leery of adding calcium to the water. Any idea as to what I can due to clear my pool up for the season?
Kevin T
I tried to rake out as many of the leaves and pine needles as possible, but given the color of the water, it's impossible to see down to the bottom of even the shallow end. We got an Ultimate Opening kit from Intheswim.com, but before we used it, I took a sample of my water to Leslie's. They tested the water and the results were:
FAC = 0
TAC = 0
Alk = 50
pH = 7.0
Base Demand = 2
Phosphates = 200
I ended up buying some more shock (9 lbs 73% calpho), Green to Clean, and Soda Ash. I folllowed the instructions they gave me, added some Algaecide in the process. I ran the filter 24 hours a day for several days. I used skimmer socks and have backwashed twice so far. I also ended up shocking the pool again (6 lbs 68% calpho) last weekend and putting four 3" chlorine tabs in my floater. At this point, I'm running the filter 6 hours a days now from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. This is what my water looks like now:
It's been cloudy like this for over a week and I decided I don't wanna keep throwing money at this pool without some help, so I found this site, started reading pool school, and bought a TF-100 kit & Speedstir. So now I come to you all begging for any help you can provide. I tested the water today and here are my results:
OTO = 1-2 ppm
pH = 6.8
CYA = ~30-35 (two tests, the first test I thought it was 50-55)
CH = 170-200
Alk = 80-100
FC = .5-1 ppm
CC = .5-1 ppm
TC = 1-2 ppm
Seems like I need more chlorine and need to raise the pH. Of course, due to the cloudiness of the water, I still can't see the bottom of the pool so I'm raking blindly. Occasionally I'll pull up a few more leaves and pine needles, but for the most part I end up coming up empty. Until I get the water clear, I can't really be certain that I've got everything out of it. Pool Math seems to state that I need one jug of 8.25% bleach, 324 oz. of Borax, 35 oz. of Stablizer, and 177 oz. of calcium chloride though I'm leery of adding calcium to the water. Any idea as to what I can due to clear my pool up for the season?
Kevin T