FC not increasing - am I doing something wrong?

[alexbrugs]

Our friends recently purchased a house with a neglected pool that is 21000 gallons - pump was broken and when we opened the tarp it was a nice dark green with all sorts of debris inside. I offered to help and got the pump replaced without any issues however am really having a hard time starting the slam process.

When we opened the pool it tested 0 FC and 0 CYA. with a Taylor 2006 kit. To start I wanted to get FC to 10 and see if it would hold after 10 mins before adding in stabilizer and boosting to SLAM levels. However I cannot get the FC to go past 3 after many attempts and have been testing 10 mins after application - at this stage we've added roughly 12 gallons of bleach and have been unable to get a reading close to 10 so Im really getting frustrated at this.

We later took it to be tested at the pool store and got the following results. They recommended that I buy some strong granular shock product since our liquid was weaker however I didnt really buy into that - Im afraid we have some bigger underlying issues

Here are the test results they showed
FC: 1.2
CC: 11.48
CYA: 9
Ph: 7.2
CH: 86
Copper: 0.6
Iron: 0.3
Phosphates: 818

Any help on where to go from here would be appreciated - just trying to not waste money on more liquid chlorine when its been really hard to find.

Before adding chlorine


18hrs later after adding bleach

 

[tim5055]

You have the poster child pool for CYA to Ammonia conversion.

- Opening green pool

- "0" FC

- "0" CYA

Pouring in chlorine it goes away quickly.

The solution is water exchange or continue to pour in chlorine. Do not go with the pool store advice. The granular will have CYA in it and could just continue the conversion to more ammonia.

You are showing copper in the water, so i would start with at least a 50% water exchange to get rid of a lot of that.

After that continue with the chlorine until it begins to hold. Once you have FC holding, you can add CYA to 30 and start the real SLAM.

If after a trip to the pool store you were still holding 1ppm FC you may be close to eliminating the ammonia.

 

[alexbrugs]

Thank you - Ammonia was my concern also but was not expecting to be using this much liquid chlorine. I hope our hardware store still has plenty in stock.

What was frustrating when I mentioned my concerns to the pool store about ammonia, they acted as if I was speaking another language and claimed I just needed their stronger granular product.

For the copper they did suggest a metal remover product. Would that be effective or should I still look at draining?

Thanks for the help! I guess I'll see what the owners want to do

 

[Texas Splash]

For the copper they did suggest a metal remover product. Would that be effective or should I still look at draining?

Those products don't remove copper, they only keep it in suspension so it doesn't change the water or cause staining. Then they wear-off and you have to replenish it all the time. So they get you to come back and buy more. The best was to control metals is to remove them via a water exchange as Tim noted. You'll be happier you did. Welcome to TFP!