Love your site and have been reading alot this past week; I'm convinced to take this into my own hands - have NEVER had a problem with our pool in the past 10 years until this year. Opened 2 weeks ago - could see the bottom, threw in the robot to clean up debris, and took a water sample to Leslie's for opening numbers. Zero chlorine (expected), but also CYA tested 0, CH 100, TA 50, pH 7.2. Followed Leslie's advice with new chemicals I've never had to use before including lots of Hardness and Alkalinity Up, Conditioner, and powder chlorine (not our typical one) that didn't seem nearly enough. It wasn't...Did the additions in theoretically the right order, and retested in between but they never gave me a written prinout of the retest values. Threw in, at their suggestion, 12 jugs of 12.5% liquid chlorine. Then 6 bags PowerPlus chlorine shock. Scrubbed sides and kept backwashing, but green kept growing. That was Week 1.
Day 5, however, the motor went out on the pump (weekend, of course), so the green slime sat 2.5 days just stewing, then we got 5 straight days of rain, so didn't waste money on chemicals when I kept having to drop the level by a couple inches daily. Clearly the algae is winning big time now.
pH now 7.8, but that's all I can measure until I get my test kit. Is there any thing I can do or shall I just wait to get real numbers to start with before I SLAM? I hesitate to take another water sample to the pool store or buy any chlorine - from the calculators, even if I have a normal CYA level, it seems I'm going to need something like 8 cases (32 jugs) of 12.5% choline on hand for this SLAM - is that true? We're almost at the point of draining and refilling as we think it will be cheaper. Need some advice and expertise, and next week when the kit comes, I'm sure some step by step inputs. Water temp now 82 degrees. Thanks!
Day 5, however, the motor went out on the pump (weekend, of course), so the green slime sat 2.5 days just stewing, then we got 5 straight days of rain, so didn't waste money on chemicals when I kept having to drop the level by a couple inches daily. Clearly the algae is winning big time now.
pH now 7.8, but that's all I can measure until I get my test kit. Is there any thing I can do or shall I just wait to get real numbers to start with before I SLAM? I hesitate to take another water sample to the pool store or buy any chlorine - from the calculators, even if I have a normal CYA level, it seems I'm going to need something like 8 cases (32 jugs) of 12.5% choline on hand for this SLAM - is that true? We're almost at the point of draining and refilling as we think it will be cheaper. Need some advice and expertise, and next week when the kit comes, I'm sure some step by step inputs. Water temp now 82 degrees. Thanks!