Ok first off I need to appolozie for my pool ignorance. I bought a house over the winter that has an above ground pool. Apparently the old owners of the home never winterized it last fall. When all the snow and ice melted off of it I found that they never even took out the vaccum or hose. To give you an idea how bad this pool was there was an area where there were a ton of flies. I got out the net and found a dead bird. It was so green and gross you couldnt even see it. First things I did were get that vaccum out and skim everything off it I could. I also got the pump running and kept emptying the filter. My next steps were algeacide, shock, shock and more shock. I also started to leave a couple 3 in clorine tabs in all the time. I got it to start to clear up and it turned into a tourquois color. I could also see down maybe about 2 1/2 feet at that point. It was(still is) VERY cloudy. But after leaving the pump run 24/7 for a month It did start to clear up enough for me to see darker areas in it. I found thats where all the leaves were setting on the bottom. I got a new vaccum and went to town. I got out a ton more leaves. From there I hooked up the vaccum that runs by itself and that sucked out some more. But now its not getting hardly anything out. So I have to assume that just about everything has now been sucked out.
All along I have been testing it about everyother day. After all the shock and chlorine Ive been putting in it I finally got the clorine levels up. But the PH is very low. The test strips I have only have 4 readings on them. (Total Bromine, Free Chlorine,pH,Total Alkalinity) And the readings have generally been the same readings all along. Heres what they say.
Total Bromine- 10 (well the color on this usually comes out a little more blue than the 10)
Free Chlorine= 10 (but its been wavering between 3-10. I did just shock again last night)
pH=6.8 (Ive added some pH plus but it only brought it up to 7.2 as the highest)
Total Alkalinity=the latest was right in the middle between 80+125.
The old home owners did leave behind one of the test kits with the die stuff but I dont understand how to use it.
Please help me. Im at my wits end and Id really like for the neighbors kids to be able to use this when it gets hot.
Oh currently the pool looks kinda a milky lt blue color. Today though I CAN see the sides some to see the pattern on the sides and I can look across the pool and actually see the jet that the water comes back out through.
What next??? Can anyone help me or am I doomed to new pool onwer ignorance?
All along I have been testing it about everyother day. After all the shock and chlorine Ive been putting in it I finally got the clorine levels up. But the PH is very low. The test strips I have only have 4 readings on them. (Total Bromine, Free Chlorine,pH,Total Alkalinity) And the readings have generally been the same readings all along. Heres what they say.
Total Bromine- 10 (well the color on this usually comes out a little more blue than the 10)
Free Chlorine= 10 (but its been wavering between 3-10. I did just shock again last night)
pH=6.8 (Ive added some pH plus but it only brought it up to 7.2 as the highest)
Total Alkalinity=the latest was right in the middle between 80+125.
The old home owners did leave behind one of the test kits with the die stuff but I dont understand how to use it.
Please help me. Im at my wits end and Id really like for the neighbors kids to be able to use this when it gets hot.
Oh currently the pool looks kinda a milky lt blue color. Today though I CAN see the sides some to see the pattern on the sides and I can look across the pool and actually see the jet that the water comes back out through.
What next??? Can anyone help me or am I doomed to new pool onwer ignorance?