Bottom of Pool is Dirty Everyday

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If you have algae it's too late for algaecide. Algaecide is a preventative and if you do choose to follow the way we maintain our pools the level of chlorine in the water will remove the need for a preventative. It can't get started if you are maintaining your pools chemical levels correctly. Algaecide may contain metals or other things depending on the brand and it's not a good idea to add it to your water.

What specifically are you using to "shock" the pool ??

You might want to add the pool info into your signature as outlined here -- > http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/165-getting-started Makes it easier for us to answer questions without going back through posts or pages looking for the info ;)

You would be better served in following our procedure to SLAM (shock) http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl the pool with liquid bleach for the number of days needed to make sure you're water is algae free and sanitary and then maintain a proper chlorine level in relation to your CYA/stabilizer level. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/128-chlorine-cya-chart-slam-shock

We can try to help using the pool store results but it's not the most efficient as what we've found is the pool stores don't seem to have repeatable accuracy.

At some point it will be necessary for you to do your own testing and to do that properly you would need to purchase a FAS-DPD kit. We recommend the TF100 or K2006.
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html
http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Complete-FAS-DPD-Water-K-2006/dp/B0002IXIIG
They are expensive but they are what you need to test your own water and think of the gas money you save not running to the pool store and on top of that not buying the 20-40 dollar bottle of "try this" and see if that works for your problem or the one, two or three maintenance chemicals they say you need to correct this, that and the other.
 
Your CYA is out of sight, and your chlorine is much too low. You also have a lot of copper that will be a problem if you have any blond-haired swimmers.

To really get a handle on it, you are going to need to drain a lot of water from the pool to lower the CYA to the reasonable range. You might be able to get by with elevated chlorine levels per the Chlorine CYA Chart , but you absolutely need to stop using any stabilized chlorine products. That includes tabs and dichlor or trichlor shock.
 
IF , , , IF the pool store is correct it is unlikely you can shock the pool. CYA is a chlorine stabilizer and when you are as high as you are you pretty much can't put enough chlorine in. Unless you are using bleach or liquid pool shock (bleach) then each time you shock you are adding CYA TOO !! It's just making the problem worse and worse.

Look at the chart. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/128-chlorine-cya-chart-slam-shock The higher the CYA level the more chlorine you need to add to do the same thing. You and the guy next door each have a 30K gal pool. You toss in 1 lb of shock and so does he but his CYA is 40. His goes to work eating algae and organic material and sanitizing the water but yours is just going to sit there doing little to noting.

I'm not one of those people who goes either or, pool store or us but in this case if the pool store is giving you this advise "Pool guys said I didn't need to add anything except to vacuum and shock the pool due to the algae problem." with those results and you listen to them I don't think we can help you until your pool is green and you give up on the pool store for advise.
The table doesn't go that high but if you had your CYA down to 100 you should have 12ppm FC daily and no less than 7 to prevent algae and keep the water clean. Water looking clean and being sanitary, free from bacteria and such are NOT the same. At 2.4 FC there's no telling what might be living and breeding in that water.

Even if you had a salt water generator that CYA is just crazy and that would be the first thing to address as you have to dump and dilute you water to get that number down to something realistic. As it stands now the first thing you would need to do to get control over your pool is dump about 70% of the water IF that pool store CYA test is accurate.
 
Sorry, haven't read all the reesponses.
Im thinking you may may "X" crud too fine for the filter - what you think is "clean" is just the X amount of stuff in suspension; overnight, with the water calm, it settles back to the bottom.
I use the ultra-deep blue stuff sold as clarifier (or whatever - as long as the bottle is clear, you'll see the stuff. This causes the ultra-fine stuff to clump together - the clumps are big enough for the filter to grab.
Just grabbed a bottle - it reads "pool time Super Water Clarifier".

I find tey lie about dosage (or I cannot do enough math to calulate volume of a pool) - I use about twice the recommended dosage.

in my experience, it does get rid of dead algae and similar organics.

Good luck.
 
CYA at 142 - have you been using the handy littel pucks? Those contain both chlorine AND CYA - the chlorine goes away in time; the CYA just sits there. It is stone stable (it REALLY shouldn't be).

The only fix for over-the-top CYA is drain and refill. If you are in a drought area, please let the pool go until water is again plentiful.
If there is enough water: drain about 60% and re-fill.
 
What chlorine do you guys use if the tabs are bad? I guess I might be battling algae for the rest of the summer because I definitely don't want to drain my pool. I appreciate everybody's advice though. I'll definitely use the suggestions here instead of the pool store.
 
I get liquid pool shock (bleach) from fleet farm. It comes 4 gals to a case for 9.99 and it's 12.5%. Some get Clorox from Target, Walmart, ... or Walmart Great Value or Whatever Aldi carries.

Bleach will come in different sizes and different strengths. Some 6%, 8%, 12.5% ... that percent stength is the actual bleach that you are buying and the balance is pretty much water. To compare price to see what is a good deal you need to know the size, the strength and the cost and you can use this calculator to find out what you are paring per ounce of bleach. Otherwise it just drives you crazy trying to do it in your head. http://poncatechsquad.com/Dan/Chlorine/

DO NOT get scented, splash-less or something fancy. They have been know to foam and cause problems. "Concentrated" on the label is OK as it's just stronger bleach in a smaller container.

In the end you will need to drain the pool to correct the CYA. Well that or if it's available in your area, reverse osmosis filtering. http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/77729-Reverse-Osmosis-to-remove-CYA
 

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Wal-Mart and Home Depot both carry 2-packs of 10% at a price roughly the same as household bleach - and 10% beats 6% everytime. Wal-Mart does sell a "concentrated" bleach (8%), but they sell it in smaller jugs, so the effective chlorine content is the same as a gallon of 6%. Slightly easier to handle, but no gain for our purposes.
 
I get the same dirt looking stuff in the pool and when it's touched it turns into a green poof of dust. It's algae. You likely don't have enough chlorine like some others have said. Post test results so they can help you. You can put DE or cellulose in your sand filter and run the pump for 24 hours to trap the algae.
 

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You could check pool stores for liquid chlorine. My local Leslie's and Ace has 2.5 gallon containers for a little over $4 each. Ace seems to fill their's daily (I'm not sure about Leslie's). Avoid any bleach or chlorine from stores like Lowe's and The Home Depot as they probably don't restock often, and bleach dies with age. Also, my local Lowe's stores their liquid chlorine outdoors in the garden center, which is a no no.
 
Well well well. I just found out the root of all the problems in my pool. My wife, and she admits it, told the pool store that our pool is 30,000 gallons. Our pool is 21,200 gallons. So we've been getting the wrong test results all along. So since it's that much off, this makes my ca way over the top.
Geez.
Eddie
 
The size of your pool won't alter the test results one bit. It will change the amount of chemicals needed to change your various levels. As was said before your free chlorine level us WAY too low for your cya level.


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And your CYA level is WAY to high for a pool. Might be time to take a sample in and get a new set of results. Curious if they come up with the same CYA level. :testresults:
 
If you don't want to drain, just let it sit until evaporation takes care of the water level.
The stuff at both Wal-Mart (you can believe they turn over stock) and Home Depot are in just-barely-legal "ventilated" (the corners to no seal completely, so the are 1/4" x 1/4" holes as "vents"). I suspect a Haz-Mat thing. Anyway, the W-M is in white cardboard, HD is in natural brown. The point being that both protect the chlorine from sun (which is the big problem for chlorine decomposition, IIUC)

p.s. - Fleet Farm is located in northern midwest. Not worth the drive for most of us.

Might check with local farm supply - what do farmers use chlorine for? I can't imagine dumping it in a watering trough for livestock...
 
CYA doesn't evaporate. As the water evaporates you simply end up with a higher concentration in the remaining water and when you add some water to bring you're level back to normal you dilute it and you're back to the same concentration you started with. Backwashing will dump some CYA out but will take a long time to put a dent in a really high CYA level.

Depending on the farm, milking operations use a lot of bleach (chlorine) for sanitizing milking equipment. Other farm operations, no clue. So checking a farm supply store would be a worthwhile call. I was just letting him know various places to go to get bleach, not recommending Fleet Farm as anything special or trying to say it's a national chain. Same as people talking about Leslie's Poolmart, I'm sure they know it's not national but it's where they shop so it's what they mention in their posts, not worth the drive for a lot of us. ;)
 
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