Our ‘25 pool open has been a doozy—we’ve had some years that the pool needed considerable “attention”, but this is our first full-on, Ogre inhabitable, swamp. I suspect ammonia because:
-The water had a rancid sewage smell.
-0 CYA, 0 FC (which is actually typical when we open)
-adding liquid CL (12.5%), looked like I had poured jugs of milk into the water.
-after adding CL, test showed little or no CL and VERY high CC:
(I’d never seen it that red and didn’t even bother counting the CC)
-The CL seemed to disappear VERY quickly (so much so, that I questioned the age of the CL, test reagents, and my sanity)
I would add 2 gallons and test 30 minutes later…0 CL
Here’s how I procededed:
I got the pool up to SLAM level (10 ppm) and held it there the best that I could.
By day 2, the water was milky blue and not CL holding overnight:
Day 3, (and probably 30 gallons of CL) it lost only 50% free chlorine overnight. For most of the day, I tested and treated the water diligently (every 15-30 minutes as the sun set).
Day 4, looks like progress!! 9.0 CL in the am, 1.5 CC
At this point, I addressed the 0 CYA by adding 5 pounds (sock method) aiming for a target of 30
That brings us to this morning.
CL 9.5
CC .5
ph 6.8
TA 70
After 24 hours, the CYA had dissolved. I took two readings; first one I’d call 10; 2nd was 30.
The pool is clearing but still cloudy:
At this point, I’m continuing the SLAM using 12 as the CL target.
ph was coming up (7.0) however I went ahead and added 2 pounds of Borax.
ph now reads 7.2, (but at a CL of 12 I don’t know if that’s accurate)
I haven’t vacuumed or backwashed yet, just brushed the walls and bottom a couple times per day.
Current test results:
CL 11
CC .5
ph 7.2
TA 70
CYA 30 (at room temp, but didn’t retest since this afternoon)
Water temp 58
Questions:
-am I going at this the right way?
-given water temp and the high CL, are my results reliable? (All fresh reagents except Alk)
-does this sound like ammonia was in the water?
I’m at a loss for why the pool was in this bad of shape. I didn’t add algaecide when I closed (and haven't in the past). There are no clumps of debris anywhere, but there was a layer of “dirt” everywhere on the bottom (an unusually large amount).
In my opinion, that layer of dirt is the outlier. We got hit by two big downpours in late Feb and early March. It actually made the news because our cars would end up covered in a film of blotchy reddish mud. They called it “mud raid” which blew north from Texas. Anybody heard about or know more about this?
Thanks!
Bill
-The water had a rancid sewage smell.
-0 CYA, 0 FC (which is actually typical when we open)
-adding liquid CL (12.5%), looked like I had poured jugs of milk into the water.
-after adding CL, test showed little or no CL and VERY high CC:
(I’d never seen it that red and didn’t even bother counting the CC)
-The CL seemed to disappear VERY quickly (so much so, that I questioned the age of the CL, test reagents, and my sanity)
I would add 2 gallons and test 30 minutes later…0 CL
Here’s how I procededed:
I got the pool up to SLAM level (10 ppm) and held it there the best that I could.
By day 2, the water was milky blue and not CL holding overnight:
Day 3, (and probably 30 gallons of CL) it lost only 50% free chlorine overnight. For most of the day, I tested and treated the water diligently (every 15-30 minutes as the sun set).
Day 4, looks like progress!! 9.0 CL in the am, 1.5 CC
At this point, I addressed the 0 CYA by adding 5 pounds (sock method) aiming for a target of 30
That brings us to this morning.
CL 9.5
CC .5
ph 6.8
TA 70
After 24 hours, the CYA had dissolved. I took two readings; first one I’d call 10; 2nd was 30.
The pool is clearing but still cloudy:
At this point, I’m continuing the SLAM using 12 as the CL target.
ph was coming up (7.0) however I went ahead and added 2 pounds of Borax.
ph now reads 7.2, (but at a CL of 12 I don’t know if that’s accurate)
I haven’t vacuumed or backwashed yet, just brushed the walls and bottom a couple times per day.
Current test results:
CL 11
CC .5
ph 7.2
TA 70
CYA 30 (at room temp, but didn’t retest since this afternoon)
Water temp 58
Questions:
-am I going at this the right way?
-given water temp and the high CL, are my results reliable? (All fresh reagents except Alk)
-does this sound like ammonia was in the water?
I’m at a loss for why the pool was in this bad of shape. I didn’t add algaecide when I closed (and haven't in the past). There are no clumps of debris anywhere, but there was a layer of “dirt” everywhere on the bottom (an unusually large amount).
In my opinion, that layer of dirt is the outlier. We got hit by two big downpours in late Feb and early March. It actually made the news because our cars would end up covered in a film of blotchy reddish mud. They called it “mud raid” which blew north from Texas. Anybody heard about or know more about this?
Thanks!
Bill
