Emptying my pool

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saidm718

Member
Dec 17, 2023
6
Baton Rouge
I have a few problems going on. My 40,000 gallon pool about 35-40 feet in length and 15 feet wide, not rectangular looks more like a "Y" shape but oval. It's losing about 1/4 inch of water over night, so even without evaporation. I have SLAM'ed it three times in the past week, and it is still green. I cleaned the filter out of all algae and this sucker was incredible hulk green the 80's version the dark green, not neon green before slamming it. I used the amount of chlorine that the pool calculator asked for one time which is 4 gallons of 10%, with cyanuric acid at 30, and added 4 bags of HTH shock. The strip was dark purple a couple of hours after I added the chlorine (yes will buy the more advanced kit), the next night the strip was white, no chlorine. I then raised the cyanuric acid to 40-50 and used 8 gallons of 10%, read somewhere to use double what the pool math calculator tells you to use, the strip has been a dark purple for a couple of days now but it lightened up a bit, and I saw the cyanuric acid is getting a little lighter. I added 3 bags of HTH schock and 9 gallons of 7% regular clorox. Today the strip continues to be dark purple on the chlorine end. For the past three days the pool color only cleared up very little on the shallow end. The deep end is so green I can't see anything past the surface of the water. It's like looking a tinted mirror it's such a deep green. I brought a pool guy, explained all this to him. He said he wants to drain it, pressure wash, and start over. What do you all think?

About the leak, I have a company coming out soon to take a look at it. I do understand that by adding water when it falls below the skimmer line that I am diluting my pool. I have not added water ever since I started the latest round of SLAMing.
 
Welcome to TFP! :wave: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but everything you've done above was a waste of time and money. :( Very frustrating I'm sure. :brickwall: HTH shock will do nothing. Increasing the CYA (a couple times) resulted in requiring a higher FC level to properly treat the algae. Clorox bleach is known to have fabric softeners and create problems in the water. Test strips, well, they're not even worth the paper they are printed on. At the end of all of this, you haven't really performed a TFP SLAM Process, and you can't until you order a proper test kit. You need either a TF-100, TF-Pro Series, or Taylor K-2006C. Without one of those, you can't properly do the SLAM Process and everything else is just guesswork.

In your area, I would not drain that pool. In fact, with the water table high in that area, I might never lower it more than halfway unless a contractor was doing the work and was prepared to insure it if it tried to float.
 
Texas Splash said:
Welcome to TFP! :wave: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but everything you've done above was a waste of time and money. :( Very frustrating I'm sure. :brickwall: HTH shock will do nothing. Increasing the CYA (a couple times) resulted in requiring a higher FC level to properly treat the algae. Clorox bleach is known to have fabric softeners and create problems in the water. Test strips, well, they're not even worth the paper they are printed on. At the end of all of this, you haven't really performed a TFP SLAM Process, and you can't until you order a proper test kit. You need either a TF-100, TF-Pro Series, or Taylor K-2006C. Without one of those, you can't properly do the SLAM Process and everything else is just guesswork.

In your area, I would not drain that pool. In fact, with the water table high in that area, I might never lower it more than halfway unless a contractor was doing the work and was prepared to insure it if it tried to float.
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Do you believe the pool might crack because of lack of pressure?
 
saidm718 said:
Do you believe the pool might crack because of lack of pressure?
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If you have a plaster/gunite pool, it might crack and/or float up from the water pressure below. We all know LA has a very high water table, especially southern LA.
 
Ok, so i emptied it, and it is currently 2/3 filled with water. I did know about the risks of floating and the hydrostatic pressure threat etc. etc. I took my chances, and I have a pool guy who has emptied dozens of pool per his communication and has never seen that happen but has heard about it. Now that it's a fresh pool. Where do I start. I bought brand new filters.
 
Thank you very much. I am thinking about converting it to a saltwater pool. Just wondering if salt water pools are that much convenient, and from what I understand are that much cheaper to maintain in the long run. Then why do most people not convert their pool to saltwater? I understand there is an upfront cost, but most individuals who own a pool would be able to cover the upfront cost after say saving for a year or two, and then it would pay for itself, right? Am I missing something? Am I incorrect in this assessment?
 
saidm718 said:
Just wondering if salt water pools are that much convenient, and from what I understand are that much cheaper to maintain in the long run.
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MUCH more convenient. You don't have to buy chlorine each week, store them, or carry bottles of chlorine to the pool each day. A few years ago (before COVID), it was estimated that someone who purchased an SWG would see them break even in that investment if it lasted about 5 years or so as compared to the cost of chlorine. Today, bottles of chlorine have almost tripled in price. While SWGs went up as well, I think they are a better value in the long run.

saidm718 said:
Then why do most people not convert their pool to saltwater?
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Totally personal choice. The up-front cost being perhaps the initial factor making them hold back, the other the thought of having someone install it if they aren't able/willing to do it themselves. Then, there are people that simply don't understand a salt pool is just a regular chlorine pool with some salt added (which all pools have anyway) to help the cell work properly.
 
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