Newbie to TFP

[speicte]

Moved into our new 15 year old house in August with a pool, hottub and decorative waterfall. Got a few months of swimming in before winter. Bought the house knowing I would need to resurface the pool as I can see a few cracks and the finish is faded. Thought I would resurface this spring, but now I may wait. Unfortunately, I didn't take great care of the pool over the winter (mild California winter, no freezing) just adding chlorine tabs. Last week, the weather warmed up and bang....algae bloom! Went out yesterday to a sad green pool that even had some water-skeeters on it. Cleaned the filters and dumped a few pounds of shock in the pool last night. Been reading the website today and will be buying your test kit. Gonna stop by and pick up gallons of bleach to start SLAMming the pool. Still trying to clean out leaves as the pool sweep isn't doing much good. Wish me luck

I grew up with a pool, that I tested when I was a teenager then my parents got a pool service. I actually didn't plan on buying a house with a pool due to the maintenance but hope this forum will make it palatable. My kids are young (7, 5, 4) and I know we will get a lot of use out of it.

I need to buy a leaf vacuum or something manual since my pool vac isn't doing much good. Not sure if it is lack of pressure or what but it barely moves on the bottom of the pool and I still have a ton of leaves i am trying to get up.

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: An auto vac will not be effective on a LOT of leaves. Time to invest in a big, sturdy leaf net. The flimsy ones at Wal-mart won't cut the mustard, either. YOu'll need one like the commercial guys use....then you can use your auto-vac once you get the leaves out of the way.

 

[speicte]

Bought the leaf vac yesterday hooked into the garden hose. Worked pretty well, but couldn't see the bottom of the deep end after stirring things up.

Dumped 4 pounds of shock in two nights ago and 6 gallons of 8% bleach in last night and ordered the TFT100 kit. Looked marginally better this morning and will keep dumping bleach in until the kit arrives and I can test the level. Will clean out the pumps again tonight after work and I think I need new filters but will wait until I get this pool clean. Not afraid of overshooting right now and have no idea what my CYA levels are but assuming very low. Its embarrassing how green it got and so quickly...

 

[Casey]

Unfortunately, I didn't take great care of the pool over the winter (mild California winter, no freezing) just adding chlorine tabs.

I'm going to say your CYA may be higher than you think because of your admitted use of Tri-chlor pucks. Lets see what the TF100 says when you get it. Please post your test results asap!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

I would urge you not to add "pounds" of any more chlorine without knowing your chemical levels and whether or not you can deal with the side-effects. Using "gallons" of chlorine is fine as long as your FC level stays within reason.

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on taking control.

 

[gwc]

Post you test numbers as soon as you get the test kit and have time to run the tests.

 

[speicte]

Post you test numbers as soon as you get the test kit and have time to run the tests.

Got my TFP kit of Friday but was gone all weekend. Will be testing tonight and post results.

So far, reading through the posts and education sections here, I was not afraid to start to tackling the algae and I have killed most algae now and have cleaned the filters twice. Finally looking much much more clear. The water finally smells like some chlorine has been added and the waterbugs are gone. I added all the chlorine below over 5 days along with 6 pounds of shock. I may have overshot, but I haven't recirculated the spa water in yet and that is green as well.

 

[Casey]

Can you please and

 

[speicte]

OK. Did the tests today. Results:

FC - 60
CYA - 100
Alk - 140
Ca - need to recalculate since I saw the update after I did the test

Looks like I overshot my Shock FC target of 39 by a little. But I hadn't done much with the green spa so introducing this unchlorinated water should help bring the FC down a bit. I turned on the filter to do both now and mixed all the water. I also turned on the waterfall to help get rid of some extra chlorine. Will retest tomorrow.

the pool with waterfall running: (pool looks more green in the pic than it actually is):


spa very green before I mixed it with the pool water. (Pool looked like this last week!):


Looks like I have some more reading to do...

 

[Isaac-1]

With CYA that high I suspect a major water replacement is in your near future

 

[Casey]

Did you try a dilution test on your cya? It may be higher than 100. You should consider a partial drain/refill.

BTW... nice pool!

 

[speicte]

Well, if I need to drain it then I will get it resurfaced. One of the reasons I neglected it this winter is because it needs to be resurfaced. Instead of doing it now, I was hoping to wait until the fall.

You can see the moddling on the first stair in my pic. We bought the house knowing it would need resurfacing soon.

No other way to bring down CYA? I will try to test diluted for a more accurate number. I pulled out the pucks.

 

[jblizzle]

Only other way is paying for a company to do a RO Treatment (which is only available is very limited areas) and that costs at least as much as replacing the water.

 

[speicte]

Just a followup...got the pool clear with tons of chlorine FC around 60 and 3 filter changes. Drained a portion of the pool probably 20%. But as stated above, CYA levels are very high. After a couple of weeks, chlorine dropped to around 5. Kids are swimming in it.

So, I decided to just resurface and start fresh. Some rust is showing through the plaster and there are some cracks. Don't want to risk further damage.

I have learned a lot from the website and plan to tackle pool maintenance myself. Now I need to read up on new water chemicals. ..

 

[jblizzle]

I did not understand ... so you are draining and resurfacing the pool?

If not, and if the CYA is over 100ppm still, then you need to be maintaining the FC over 7ppm as a minimum.

I am just not clear what is going on at this point.

 

[speicte]

Sorry for not being more clear. The chlorine level dropped from 60 to about 5 in 2 weeks. CYA levels were still well over 120. I had the pool replastered today over a 2 week period and am starting over with fresh water from scratch. I will try and maintain it now with the help of this website, but I need to so slow since the plaster isn't cured yet. The pool is about 4 feet deep with water as I write this.