New pool owner - Shock worked, Floc not working

[shawmcbigdis]

Hello, we purchased our house last winter and with it the 24' above ground pool. It was closed for the winter when we moved in, and the previous owner took good care of it (we saw it opened when we first looked).

However I stupidly uncovered it 2 weeks ago and just let it sit before I did anything, hoping the rain would fill it back up so I didn't' have to add any water. Well of course in those 2 weeks it turned into a green mess. I have a kids b-day party in less than 3 weeks that this has to be ready for, so I shocked it @ nights ago, and woke up yesterday to no green, just a deep blue that I couldn't see through, I assume this is what most people call cloudy. So back to the pool store and got a 5 pound can of floc. Per the instructions I got the pH up high where it needs it for the floc (really high actually, about 8.2). Put in 4 pounds of floc, and set filter to circulate for about 1.5 hours, then switch it to filter. Floc went in about 6PM last night.

Wake up this morning, and it's not much different, I can see through the first few inch's/maybe a foot of water, but still very dense, for lack of a better word.

So that is problem one, why doesn't the floc seem to be working and settling to the bottom?

Other issue comes in when I was scrubbing down the sides of the pool last night after adding the flock, I slipped and almost fell in (pool is sunk have way into ground and deck built around it) and caught myself using the brush I was holding. Which of course broke the end of the brush, and it would seem cut a hole in the liner . So now I have a pool I can't see through the water on with a hole in it, and crazy high chlorine levels from the shock 2 nights ago. So my 2nd question is, is the water safe for me to be submerged in for a few min's while I patch it, and when I am down there, do you think I will even be able to see the hole? Man I wish I had just fallen in.

Thanks

 

[tim5055]

Welcome to TFP!!

Do you have a test kit to even see what your levels are? It is safe to swim in a pool that is below shock level, which is based on the CYA level. But to kow those two numbers you need a TF100 and at least include the XL option. That will give you what you need while you are clearing the pool, and probably enough reagents for a couple of years normal use.

Now, with that being said - If you can't see the bottom, the pool is not safe to be in. If you were to get into trouble underwater people outside would not see you in distress.

We generally cut off a full drain and refill at a 5,000 gallon pool. But, if you are really looking for it to be ready in three weeks I'm feeling that is your best option. Drain & clean. Patch the hole and refill.

Even if you drain and refill, you will need the test kit - so get it ordered.

 

[kimkats]

What he said LOL

Kim

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to the forum. Too often this is the case with flocs, so we usually suggest not using them. Sometimes they make things worse.

 

[shawmcbigdis]

So actually, after I turned off the pump, nearly everything settled to the bottom. I was able to hook the vacuum directly to the pump and set the filter to waste to get most of the stuff out, and then drain the pool down about half way.

It took me almost an hour of crawling around, but I finally found the whole and used the patch kit to patch it. Those thing are super annoying and hard to use. So the first patch I tried, didn't have enough of the glue around the edges and I couldn't get it to go down, so before it really started to cure, I peeled it up and tried a smaller patch. Well that's when I realized the first patch had already started to etch into the liner, so pulling it up was probably a really bad idea. So I made another large patch to put over the small one and the area that had been effected by peeling up the first one. I used a liberal amount of the glue on this one, and had a heck of a time getting it in place. It had bubbles that I couldn't get out. I was annoyed, and decided to stop before i did any more damage.

I put a piece of tape on the wall to mark where the level was, and sure enough came out this morning and it is still leaking. looking down into the pool, it looks like there might be another hole right next to the one I patched, just outside of the big patch. I'm not sure if I just missed it yesterday, or if I caused it when removing the first patch.

So I am going to try the peel and stick patch today, and will hopefully have more luck with it.

But the good news is, the water looks good. Of course I'll need to get everything in order once I fill it back up, but at least the algae and cloudy-ness is gone.

 

[pooldv]

Alright! Hooray for forward progress!

 

[shawmcbigdis]

So the peel and stick appears to have worked. Those are so much easier to use than the glue kind. I have no idea how they hold up, but hopefully it's good enough.

So I filled the pool back up and checked the levels. FC and CC, were right at about 2, but CYA was a little low at 30, and total ALk and pH were both low (60 and 6.8). Added an Alk boost last night. And when I get home form work today I will see what things look like.

I also ordered a CT-100 test kit last night, right now I'm using the test strips and a home depot test kit. So hopefully now I can get good info and get everything in order using just he BBB method.

 

[tim5055]

I don't know how big the patches are that you added, but generally a patch over a patch (one bigger than the one below it) makes a good system to keep it from leaking there in the future. We will be awaiting your test results.

 

[shawmcbigdis]

tim5055, hopefully you are right, because I ended up with a patch over a patch over a patch. And probably some more. The package was only $2, so I used 4 out of the 5 patches it came with to make an overlapping patchwork of patches.