The only problem with that is that 10% can actually be anywhere from 0-12% bleach as it ships at concentration stronger then the label and then degrades into salt water over time.
It's best to do this with a solid chemical.
Frustrated Pool Owner
- Thread starter eglenn1964
- Start date
It's best to do this with a solid chemical.
Thanks for your insight neighborI am new at this too. I just want to say hang in there. Read all of the pool school stuff, then read it again. That test kit will make everything so much easier. I put off buying one, just kept dumping bleach in and testing with strips for about 3 weeks. Once I got the test kit, my pool was clear in about 4 days. Follow the advice here. Don't deviate. I keep the PoolMath page open all day. lol If you can, I recommend keeping a spread sheet. I have columns for the date, time, tests, pool temp, and notes. I note the amount of bleach I add and the time as well as when I vacuum or clean the filter. I also note if it was a very cloudy or rainy day. I don't plan to do this forever, but while I get the hang of it, I think it is a good idea to keep track of what I do and how that affects things. Once my chlorine is down to maintenance levels, I will track pH, etc for awhile.
Also, you might want to go ahead and buy more of the R-0871 drops. If you SLAM your pool, you will go through the drops very quickly. I ran out on Day 5 and am waiting for more. This will make more sense when you have your test kit, but I test using 10mL of water and 1 scoop of powder, so I have not run out of that yet. But, if you use more water, you will need more powder, so you might want to order more of that too.
Also, you might want to go ahead and buy more of the R-0871 drops. If you SLAM your pool, you will go through the drops very quickly. I ran out on Day 5 and am waiting for more. This will make more sense when you have your test kit, but I test using 10mL of water and 1 scoop of powder, so I have not run out of that yet. But, if you use more water, you will need more powder, so you might want to order more of that too.
Great Post Marie2375. If you do the spreadsheets it is a very nice way to look back and see trends. Most are too lazy (that was me) or overwhelmed. One more thing was too much until they started to understand everything and wished they had.
If you do get more r-0871 I would recommend checking out the prices at TFTestkit.net and not only that but the XL option (which is both r-0870 and r-0871) which is the powder and the drops you use most often to test FC. If you do I would highly also recommend getting a 50 ppm standard solution for CYA and extra CYA reagent R-0013 which will give assistance to getting the accuracy of CYA more precise (not needed, but helpful to me). Also I recommend the Speedstir which is a battery operated mixer when you are mixing 2 reagents together, it takes the swirling out (see video of testing) but again these are luxuries. Feel free to price shop them also, but usually the shipping is what jacks the price up so consolidating the shipping helps. You will understand more when you get your kit and should have enough reagents for a short while.
I know you are getting a lot thrown at you at once eglenn1964, but as you read and learn it will become easy, and much cheaper than when you went to pool store. The kit saves money in the long run because you are not guessing what is going on you are scientifically managing your pool. And you will have a sanitized pool you and your family can swim in and be sure your not spreading germs. It puts a whole new light on what you think when you go to someone elses pool or hotels, water parks ect. What is lurking in the water.
If you do get more r-0871 I would recommend checking out the prices at TFTestkit.net and not only that but the XL option (which is both r-0870 and r-0871) which is the powder and the drops you use most often to test FC. If you do I would highly also recommend getting a 50 ppm standard solution for CYA and extra CYA reagent R-0013 which will give assistance to getting the accuracy of CYA more precise (not needed, but helpful to me). Also I recommend the Speedstir which is a battery operated mixer when you are mixing 2 reagents together, it takes the swirling out (see video of testing) but again these are luxuries. Feel free to price shop them also, but usually the shipping is what jacks the price up so consolidating the shipping helps. You will understand more when you get your kit and should have enough reagents for a short while.
I know you are getting a lot thrown at you at once eglenn1964, but as you read and learn it will become easy, and much cheaper than when you went to pool store. The kit saves money in the long run because you are not guessing what is going on you are scientifically managing your pool. And you will have a sanitized pool you and your family can swim in and be sure your not spreading germs. It puts a whole new light on what you think when you go to someone elses pool or hotels, water parks ect. What is lurking in the water.
PB said tile in pool was blocking main drain plus the main drain was not open all the way. I can now see portions of the deep end. Still waiting on test kit. Had a small bag of this tile pulled from pool. He said there is easily another two bags or so. Since can't see the bottom of pool said once clear he will scoop the rest out.
Algaecide is more of a preventive, and won't clear an active algae bloom. Plus, many algaecides contain copper, which can stain your pool and turn your hair and fingernails green. We strive to keep copper out of our pools.
Depends on what he used:
Copper based algaecide. Is actually fairly good at killing and preventing algae. But. It turns hair white and will stain your pool. Once it's in the water, you can't get it out without draining. So we never would recommend copper.
Polyquat: 'poly (something) something' on the label. Is good at preventing algae from growing
But won't really help when you already have algae. Lots of people here use it as an "insurance policy" if they go away for awhile or when closing for a long winter. Generally if your actively maintaining your pool, it's not useful as keeping proper chlorine works better. It's not really harmful except it might eat up a little bit of chlorine a little faster. Pool companies use it because then they can get away with higher cya, lower chlorine and generally only have to come once a week. Polyquat is expensive though!
Anything else: generally just a waste of money
Clarifier can gum up the filter. And usually doesn't do much anyway
Bottom line: best, cheapest algaecide is chlorine at appropriate levels. Best clarifier is filtration and time.
Copper based algaecide. Is actually fairly good at killing and preventing algae. But. It turns hair white and will stain your pool. Once it's in the water, you can't get it out without draining. So we never would recommend copper.
Polyquat: 'poly (something) something' on the label. Is good at preventing algae from growing
But won't really help when you already have algae. Lots of people here use it as an "insurance policy" if they go away for awhile or when closing for a long winter. Generally if your actively maintaining your pool, it's not useful as keeping proper chlorine works better. It's not really harmful except it might eat up a little bit of chlorine a little faster. Pool companies use it because then they can get away with higher cya, lower chlorine and generally only have to come once a week. Polyquat is expensive though!
Anything else: generally just a waste of money
Clarifier can gum up the filter. And usually doesn't do much anyway
Bottom line: best, cheapest algaecide is chlorine at appropriate levels. Best clarifier is filtration and time.
Sounds like you're going to need to not let your pool boy add anything to your pool, ever again. If you want to let him do the skimming, vacuuming, emptying the skimmer, backwashing, and so on simply because you don't feel like doing it that's fine, but keep him out of the chemistry side of things.
All you need to do is get chlorine up with liquid bleach to start killing algae. We won't know how high chlorine needs to be until we know CYA level though.
All you need to do is get chlorine up with liquid bleach to start killing algae. We won't know how high chlorine needs to be until we know CYA level though.
Do get the pool guy to give you an education about how your equipment works backwash, pump to waste if you ever want to do a partial drain ect. and how your pool is plumbed so you can follow how the water flows through the system from start to finish. Understanding that makes trouble shooting much easier. Only problem he may see, is that his days may be numbered because it takes very little work to manage a pool once you know what to do and set up a system, probably will take more time to manage him, and will be harder for you to write the check. You will also save a lot of money because not only will you not be paying him, your main ingredient will be bleach (or liquid chlorine) I pour between 1-2 quarts in each day about $1.25 of cost per day. And pool will be clean so will not need to worry so much about algae. And If chlorine levels ever fall too low and you get a little you will recognize it quickly and get rid of it in a few days and probably won't affect your swimming time at all.
Here are the results from the pool store today. My K-2006 test kit should be delivered today.
FC 1
PH 8.1
TA 122
TC 1.5
CH 58
CYA 22
FC 1
PH 8.1
TA 122
TC 1.5
CH 58
CYA 22
We don't put much confidence in store testing, but it's a place to start. With what appears to be low CYA and CH, you have the luxury of being able to use solid forms of chlorine for a while, but if you don't already have it on-hand, you might want to stock up on some plain ol' bleach. Not splashless, not scented nor outdoor. Just plain bleach. You'll also want to bump that CH number (I got my last supply on Amazon) and some muriatic acid to bring your pH down.
Acid and bleach don't play well, so I try to get them in separate trips. If you buy them at the same time, be aware of that and handle carefully / keep them apart. If you go to Lowes or Home Depot, look for a plastic storage bin large enough for gallon bottles and use them to keep them apart.
Acid and bleach don't play well, so I try to get them in separate trips. If you buy them at the same time, be aware of that and handle carefully / keep them apart. If you go to Lowes or Home Depot, look for a plastic storage bin large enough for gallon bottles and use them to keep them apart.
If you trust those numbers, ypu could add some muriatic acid to lower your pH closer to 7.5. And then I'd add a gallon of bleach to get your FC up some. But I wouldn't do anything to CYA based upon pool store testing. They are terrible at that one.
Just for giggles, take your water to another pool store and compare the results.
Just for giggles, take your water to another pool store and compare the results.
I would totally ignore those numbers unless you took a sample put it in 3 different bottles and took them to 3 different pool stores and got the same numbers, I would still be suspicious. When I 1st started with TFP I was very anxious to get started only a week away from the 4th and we (my wife) invited like 50 people over for a party. I had already been at this for 3 weeks getting pool stored. I finally found this site, Chem Geek convinced me this was scientific and the industry was ignoring studies done in the 70's that CYA has a direct relationship on oxidizing level of FC (reminds me of smoking and the tobacco industry, took them 50 years after the info was available to recognize that smoking is hazardous to your health). I ordered the TF-100 the shipping said 7 days but by the 2nd day I was so impatient I went and got water tested again at pool store, they were trying to sell me phosphate remover, algacide, acid and other things, I knew enough that I only bought the acid, went home and added what poolmath told me to based on thier #. By the time I finished adding that 2nd day, the TF-100 kit was delivered and I did full test on everything. PH was 6.8 but that was off the chart it was more like yellow. I added I believe 3 or 5 times the amount to go from 6.8 to 7.0 before I got the 7.0. So it delayed my slam and could have damaged my pool and thank god the pool was in no condition to swim in. But this is how most pools are being operated.
Agreed with above. The only thing I'm convinced of looking through this thread so far is that this pool probably needs calcium and chlorine. We just don't know anything else yet.
I'm going to ask a strange question, do you have any 3" chlorine pucks? They MIGHT be useful if your pH is actually that high and you can deal with some stabilizer.
I'm going to ask a strange question, do you have any 3" chlorine pucks? They MIGHT be useful if your pH is actually that high and you can deal with some stabilizer.