Help making a plan to clean up the water

Jump to latest Follow Reply
S

Spdif48

Bronze Supporter
Jul 13, 2019
27
Turlock, CA
I bought a house with a pool and moved in 5 days ago. The pool has some issues. I am hoping y'all can help me to come up with a plan to clean it up.

Current TF-100 test results
FC: none
CC: --
pH: 7.5
TA: 270
CH: 1200
CYA: 160
The water temp is 84-ish making CSI 1.6

I was trying to get the chlorine level up by adding 4 gallons of 60 day old 10% Kemtek chlorine from Lowes but FC never got above 2. CC also got up to 2. I was worried the pH and TA was dong a number on the year old VS pump. 3 gallons of 14.5% muriatic acid added over 4 hours reduced pH from >8.2 and TA from 320.

Since I didn't get back to Lowes to buy more chlorine yesterday some green is definitely starting to show around the pool. Today I see a line of light green around the pool light which I take to be a bad omen.

Additionally I can't backflush the filter due to a multiport valve I can't trust to return to filter. A new one is on order but it'll be next weekend before i can install it.

What is a good plan to get this under control?
 
First as in before fixing and cleaning my filter?
Can I put 18000 gallons of water on maybe 400 sqft of lawn? If not the allows me to put it down the sanitary sewer if I schedule it with them. Searching for inexpensive submersible pumps from amazon turns up one that can do 14gpm at 10' of head. Will that make it down a 1.5" drain?
Speaking of head does the temp of the pool overcome the weight of the water with so much Ca and CYA so I can fill the deep end and pump the shallow end?
Do you use any flowmeters when you exchange the water in your pool?
 
As it will take a couple days to exchange your pool water, you should time it when you are going to replace the MPV.

I put my exchanged water into the sewer cleanout. I use a garden hose from the sump pump to the cleanout.

I doubt your fill water is that much cooler than your pool. But if it is 20 degrees or so cooler and you have no significant salt in the pool, then adding to the deep end may be the choice. But if the water temperatures are more equal, then adding water to the shallow end would be better.

I do not use a flowmeter. I get the system set up and balanced, then take one of the hoses and fill a 5 gallon bucket while timing it. That gives me a flow rate. Normally I get ~7gpm.

The exchange is not perfect. So exchange a bit more water than your calculations show for CYA reduction.
 
I have a pump on order. Stocked up on Chlorine once I found Home Deport was hiding the good stuff under the boxes from February.

I put the pool thermometer in a bucket of water out of the garden hose after watering the plants. It came down to 79. Going to be hard to keep the water stratified with only a 5 degree delta. I tied the pool thermometer to the Zodiac. I'll pull it up if I see it spending some time in the deep end. If it is significant;y cooler in the deep end I'll flip my plans around.
 
I've been adding 2 gal. 10% chlorine per day to keep the green monster at bay. I tried to start the exchange yesterday but my solution for slowing down my fill water to try to keep it stratified failed miserably. Who knew a towel could hold air underwater. Sadly I had skipped the last dose if chlorine and it showed It took 6 gallons to get it back under control.

Plan C, using a home depot bucket as a piece of large pipe, is working much better. I have two outlet hoses on the pump, one to a sprinkler on the lawn and the other to a utility sink that is the last drain before the sewer line heads out to the street. I'd like to avoid pulling the cap off the sewer clean out but I may not have a choice since my lawn isn't keeping up with whats coming out of the sprinkler.

Only 36.5 hours to go.

utilitypump.JPG
HoleyBucketBatman.jpg
 
Flow rate is 8 gpm using the bucket test. If this becomes a yearly exercise because of the calcium I am definitely getting a flow meter or the Toro flow gauge. Balancing the goes-inta with the goes-outa has been tough.

My fill water was 4 degrees cooler than the pool water so I added it to where the cool water hangs out. <- The lack of a temperature delta may be a problem.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I ended up running the pump long enough to do the whole 24,000 gallons

Filter deep clean and multivalve replacement completed without any major problems I have to fix now. The drain valve/cap for the filter is inaccessible but that can wait until the pad gets replumbed. I gotta direct the waste line to somewhere else soon though. I felt like Moana learning to sail after rinsing for a minute to settle the sand.

I vacuumed the pool to stir up the water and I was able to suck some green off the walls. After the exchange my test results are:
pH 7.8
TA 220
CH 550
CYA 60

Not great but I think I can make it work for the 2 months left in swim season.

I put in 5.5 gallons of 10% chlorine.
 
Brushed and vacuumed 98% of the green off the walls. This evening I saw something black had precipitated and settled in the deep end. I'll have to vacuum before work tomorrow.

The water has been clear but feels slimy.
 
Test and add chlorine 3 times a day. Brush in the morning. Vacuum at lunch. The green is all gone. Some black may be coming and going on the bottom, or my eyes are playing tricks on me. Bumped the pump up from 1000 to 1500 rpm and got higher CC results. Backwashed the filter tonight even though the PSI gauge hasn't gone up because that seems to be a solutions for many others who plateau during a SLAM.

3 FC and CC tests a day and a minimum of 42 drops per test means my R-0871 bottle is feeling light. Time to order a refill.
 
Thanks @Flying Tivo that'll get me by until the refill comes. Your comment also got me to re-read the extended test directions for the FAS-DPD test and saw that >10 the test error is +/- 10%.

My pool started from a typical too much everything except chlorine when I bought the house and the water has been clear. It turned sparkling a couple of days into the SLAM. The next milestone is for CC to go down. It has been close. Most tests the second drop is just to clear the faintest tinge of pink.

If the numbers improve after yesterday's backwash I am hoping to jump in on Saturday and brush a few areas by hand to see what is going on. After brushing and vacuuming this morning I may be seeing uneven plaster color in certain lighting conditions. Or my caffeine level wasn't high enough yet. Now there's a test I wish I could get from TFTestKits.
 
"See the light as it shines on the sea? It's blinding
But no one knows, how deep it goes
And it seems like it's calling out to me, so come find me
And let me know, what's beyond that line, will I cross that line?"
-Moana

IMG_2626.JPG

CC of 2. So far the end of SLAM is just a mythical place I've read about.

Hi ho hi ho its off to test and add chlorine I go hi ho hi ho hi ho...
 
Quick update, then a question.
Saturday morning poured in a gallon of Chlorine to raise the FC to 24, brushed and vacuumed then headed for the coast. Had a great time with the fam, got home after dark on Sunday.
Monday morning FC was down to 7.5 and thank goodness I let it fall. pH was off the chart high, CYA measured 40, down from 60. Did a full set of tests three times throughout the day as I lowered the pH. SLAMing to a FC of 16 will be much easier. I plan to backwash tomorrow after giving the water company a chance to read the meter after the holiday.

Here is my skimmer after 16 hours. Is this enough to account for a CC 3?
IMG_2637.JPG
 
I brushed, vacuumed then backwashed on Saturday. The pressure had increased from 8.5 to 9.5. The sight glass went from cloudy to clear in a couple of seconds. I kept going for a few minutes until my lawn couldn't hold any more water which meant shortening the rinse to a minute after prime.

On Sunday I pulled the light out of the niche. Nothing slimy inside, just a bunch of junk from building or re-plastering the pool.

niche.jpg

CC is trending down ever so slowly as I start the 4th week of SLAM.
 
Anyone here have experience doing a SLAM with a solar panels? They are the second to the last thing on my list of possible causes of high CC numbers. When doing a SLAM do you run your solar 24/7 or no different than normal?

I wrapped up week 4 of the SLAM with crystal clear water, OCLT between 0 and 1 for days and a CC that kept bouncing between .5 and 1. I left for a day and a half and come back to a FC of 3 (CYA 40 so at the min.) and a CC of 1.5.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply