Help idk what I’m doing lol

[Hawaiiandad5]

Bought my house last year and pool was already there. Opened it last year and struggled bad! Not sure how long it sat without being opened by previous owners so it took forever to clean it and get the old Crud out. Finally near the end of last season I got the water looking decent was cloudy pretty much the whole season . This year I want to do it right and get it looking beautiful but... when I opened it last weekend it was super green and pretty gross. I’ve vacuumed scrubbed vacuumed scrubbed added liquid chlorine vacuumed scrubbed added liquid.... and feel like I’ve non stop done this over and over and over... still green. I was using the cheap strips but just ordered the tf-100 kit from threats.com and am wondering what can I do in the meantime while I wait for it to arrive so I can get more accurate tests to finally figure this thing out. It’s an above ground 28ft round I believe 52” deep. The pump has been running non stop since I pulled the cover off been using socks in the skimmer to catch gunk and have two cartridge filters I just rotated and cleaned. Please help! If you need more info let me know and any and all tips and tricks appreciated. I haven’t been able to go through everything on the site yet cuz it’s a lot and I’m rather busy work kids etc etc lol but so far there is so much good info on here and I know that someone out there is gonna get me on the right track! Thank you

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum! Great job ordering a quality test kit.
While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.

I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[Hawaiiandad5]

Welcome to the forum! Great job ordering a quality test kit.
While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.

I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

So I got my test kit got everything tested and found out i should have done that way sooner. Pool is now a teal color.
Ph 7.4
Alk 80
Fc 53
Cc 53
Ch 375
Cya 50
how do I get it clear from here? Wait for the fc to come down? Everything else is good right?

 

[mknauss]

So let's confirm some things. The FC test, you used a 10 ml sample and it took 106 drops for the sample to go clear, correct?
CC - that is a separate test, did you do that test?

Consider running the FAS-DPD test for FC again. And read the SLAM Process

 

[Hawaiiandad5]

So let's confirm some things. The FC test, you used a 10 ml sample and it took 106 drops for the sample to go clear, correct?
CC - that is a separate test, did you do that test?

Consider running the FAS-DPD test for FC again. And read the SLAM Process

Yes 106 drops and yes did the cc it never changed color so that means no chloramines correct? If I’m reading instructions correctly that’s what it tells me. I’m gonna let it go for now and let the sun hopefully take some of the chlorine out and test again this afternoon cuz the pool is in direct sun almost all day.

 

[mknauss]

OK -- so CC is 0, not 53 as you posted. Great.
Can you fill out your signature? The information about your pool volume, type, equipment really helps us help you. You can see ours by turning your phone sideways, if you are on a phone. See Create Your Signature - Further Reading

Be sure when doing the testing, you hold the reagent bottle vertically, no or very slight pressure on the bottle, the drops should form naturally and drop off the tip, at a rate of about 1 per second.

TF-100's YouTube Channel

 

[Deb04]

Yeah, that’s a really high Chlorine level. Have you been adding anything to the pool? Any powders? Do you have a salt water generator? any Pucks? How much liquid chlorine have you been adding per day and what’s the strength of it? (6%, 10%, 12.5%, or something in that range. Should say on the bottle.)

 

[Deb04]

One more question. Are you sure you used a 10 ml sample and not 25ml. Either is ok (although your reagents will last a lot longer with 10), but if you did use 25, your free chlorine level is the far more expected 21.2.

 

[Hawaiiandad5]

The only thing I’ve added since recieving the test kit is baking soda to raise the ph. Prior to getting my test kit I was pouring liquid in every night because the test strips I had kept showing that it was only like 2ppm and the pool was super green. I do have a feeder but have not put any pucks in it and have turned it off and don’t plan to use it after reading some of the other forums. I created my signature and left it off cuz I don’t plan to use it although it is still hooked up since everything is hard plumbed to pool. Should that have been something I had added to my signature? Anyway, I was putting liquid chlorine 10% and had feeder on up til about Wednesday when I ordered the test kit I stopped putting anything in and waited til I got the test to do anything other than brush and vacuum. I used the 10ml that the directions say to use. Just tested pool again this evening and the results I got are
Ph 7.6
Alk 70
Fc 32.5
Cc 1
Cya 50
Ch 350
Pool looks a lot better. It’s blue but cloudy so I’m going in the right direction I think lol. Thank you guys.

 

[mknauss]

Only need to test FC now. pH test is not valid with FC above 10 ppm. SLAM level FC is 20 ppm.

 

[Deb04]

So, let the FC lower itself til it’s at 19 and raise it back up to 20. Continue that until you pass all 3 criteria,
1. crystal clear water
2. CC no higher than 0.5
3. Pass OCLTest.