green pool...help

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lboyle1

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Mar 23, 2013
10
Galveston, Tx
My husband and I have just purchased a home with a pool and we are new to pool ownership. When we had the water tested the CYA levels were through the roof. We have done 3 drains, 1st a foot. Next day 2ft. Next day 1ft and finally got the CYA level around 90. During this time we realized the pool had zero chlorine in it and started growing algea. I think we got an algea bloom. We started shocking with bleach but have found no pool store that carries a way to test higher than 5. how do when know how much cl we have added. We have ordered the FAS-DPD test but it is not in yet. Any suggestions. Also, the ph is climbing due to the high amount of CL. Should we add any muratic acid to lower it during the shock or just keep adding liquid bleach. Any other insite would be greatly appreciated!! :)
 
First, when you say you ordered the FAS-DPD kit, do you mean you ordered just the chlorine test, or the whole (5 way) test kit? I would wait for you kit to come in and test the CYA yourself. If it truly is 90, it is not going to be easy to shock. You will have to keep the chlorine at 23. That is a lot of bleach. As to your other question, the pH test is invalid when Chlorine is >10, which yours may be.
 
Welcome to TFP!

What test did you use for the CYA?

Do you have a SWG? If not, I would suggest replacing more water to get closer to the recommend range of 30-50ppm.

With the high CYA, you will be dealing with very high FC levels to go through the shock process (you are following that method from Pool School right?)

Note that the pH test reads artificially high when the FC >10ppm. Just ignore the pH until the FC is less than 10ppm. Usually you want to let the pH before you start the shock process.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short ;)
 
If you mix an amount of pool water with 2x the amount of tap water (distilled would be more accurate), 15ppm becomes 5pm.

Personally, I've always had problems reading the OTO test color, but it should give you a rough idea of the CL level.

Robert
 
Just to follow up on what the others have said, I suspect you have at least one more round of drain and replace water in your near future. Also which test kit did you order? While you wait on it (hopefully one of the good kits) the best you can do is blindly dose with bleach and hope to keep things half way in check, don't over do it, but try to add some chlorine until it at least shows up on your current cheap test. This will not cure the algae bloom, but may at least keep things from turning into a complete swamp.
 
I wanted to thank all of ya'll for your insights. Much appreciated!
1st, I ordered just the chlorine test kit from the trouble free pool website. I had just purchased here locally from Leslie Pools their complete kit. I was basing my CYA on the level that Leslie pools told me it was. I did however check it myself when I got the kit home and my reading did say that it was lower like around 65-70. Yes, I am following the method from Pool School to shock the pool. I did do the dilution test with distilled water and that has given me a range to at
least work with until my kit comes in. Thank you. I may have added to much cl, but today the pool is not green and looking better
 

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keene3b07 said:
I have a question. How long has it been since you started the shock process and how many gallons of bleach have you added?
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We started the shock process on last Thursday five days ago. I'm not sure how much bleach we added. I will go look at the bottles and get back. It was a lot and I think I may have added way to much since I was just winging it while waiting for my cl test kit to arrive. I was trying to get the levels to around 30ppm since I was told my CYA was 90
 
You have a fairly small pool. Given how little it will take to drain 1/2 your water to get CYA down to 45, I strongly suggest you do so. I'd do it before you go further with shocking so that you don't have to use so much chlorine to get the shock process done.
 
okay, counted the bleach bottles. We used 6 bottles of bleach the first night. Next day added 6 more. Both these were the walmart brand at 8.25%. Then later that day or maybe the next started adding liquid CL from the pool store at 10%. We added a total of 11 gal. of the liquid shock intermitently that day and into Saturday. I hadn't figured out how to test the CL levels using a dilution, until Sunday. So I was totally winging it and wanted to hit it hard up front. I still do not know what my CL levels are but from by dilution guesstimate they are pretty high. my kit is in route.yay!! My pool was no longer green starting Sunday morning and is slowing getting a little less cloudy each day. We have been running the filter non stop since we started the shock. Do we need to continue to do that? I have added NO more CL since Sat night since think I may have done an overkill
 
lboyle1 said:
Do we need to continue to do that? I have added NO more CL since Sat night since think I may have done an overkill
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Keep running it and keep the FC level up until
1) The water is clear
2) Combined Chlorine is .5 or less
3) Overnight Loss is less than 1.0

You need to keep it up until you get the test kit. If you let up, the algae will start reproducing faster than you're killing it and all the bleach you've poured in will be for nothing.
 
Richard320 said:
lboyle1 said:
Do we need to continue to do that? I have added NO more CL since Sat night since think I may have done an overkill
Click to expand...
Keep running it and keep the FC level up until
1) The water is clear
2) Combined Chlorine is .5 or less
3) Overnight Loss is less than 1.0

You need to keep it up until you get the test kit. If you let up, the algae will start reproducing faster than you're killing it and all the bleach you've poured in will be for nothing.
Click to expand...

Okay, I was going to turn pump off but will now keep it going. Thanks. My cl levels are still very high. I've been testing every day with the dilution method. So haven't needed to add any yet. Will test again this evening.
 
The pressure should be going up if you are catching stuff. What does the gauge read when the pump is off? If it does not read ~0 psi, then you need a new gauge. It is important to know when to clean the cartridge!
 
Hope the following pictures will help as well. This is my most recent battle. I know it was not that bad off, but after a few days this is what it looked like after following the instructions here.
 

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linen said:
The pressure should be going up if you are catching stuff. What does the gauge read when the pump is off? If it does not read ~0 psi, then you need a new gauge. It is important to know when to clean the cartridge!
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When we turn the pump off it goes down. We went ahead and put in a clean filter while rinsing the other out. The old one didn't look too dirty. I really thought It would of had a lot more stuff on it. The pool does continue to look more clear every day. We did add some more CL yesterday to continue to keep it at shock level. Hoping to get my test kit any day for the CL. Also, I went ahead and rechecked my CYA levels again with my kit and I'm getting that they are between 65-70. Not 95 like the pool store said.
 

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