Hi,
New member here as over the past few days, I seem to have found the place where I can get some good help and learn everything I can absorb (not saying I don't hit info overload easily with my ol' brain). We have an 18' x 52" Ultra XTR frame pool, with a new AQUA-TROL AG CHLORINE GEN. added last week, replacing a cheap sea breeze (?) SWG my daughter previously used on her smaller Intex pool. That old SWG kept our pool beautifully clear last summer, and again this year from when we opened it and got it clean and clear earlier this spring. However, that old SWG suddenly stopped working, but it took us newbies awhile before we figured out that it's cell had died, and I could not find it's cell available anywhere. Thus, we finally purchased the new Aqua-Trol SWG. However, by the time we got this in place about a week ago, our pool was full of algae and the first thing we did was add a gallon of a copper free algaecide to it, which seemed to work quite well... pool water was clearing. We worked hard to vacuum and skim as much of the algae out as possible and put the SWG going... only to find that our salt reading was off the charts. (Hubby had added a LOT of salt to the pool before we realized the old SWG was no longer generating chlorine, so the HIGH reading did not surprise me at all.) With the salt reading off the charts, we turned the generator off, and first drained about 1/5th of the water from pool and refilled. SWG still read 'HIGH' so the next day we drained about 50% of the water and again refilled, and it finally had an actual reading (3,400) and started generating chlorine. However, as we are on a well, with lots of minerals, we woke the next morning to find a really putrid brown pool. The SWG still showed a reading other than 'HIGH', this time 3,700. PH, based on one of those test strips, was still reading about 7.25-7.5. but Alkalinity read at the high end of the chart, 240. Seemed positive steps forward, but we still needed to deal with the brown water and high Alkalinity, so, not knowing or understanding pool chemicals, took a sample to the pool store and their readings showed FC=3; TC=3; pH=7.8; Total Alkalinity=250; Calcium Hardness=320; CYA=0; Iron=0; Copper=0; Phosphates=500 and Salt=3700. They recommended we add a total of 24.75 lbs of Leslie's Dry Acid to the pool over the next few days (1 lb every 4 hours) which we faithfully did ... with my having the overnight shift, which I have to say was not as much fun as when I had two weeks of the overnight shift on our foal watch just a month before... at least then the end result of my lack of sleep was two beautiful, healthy foals. Night before last, I did add the 1 gallon of pool water condition, which Leslie's pool store had recommended as well. As of day before yesterday our Alkalinity level tested out (at pool store) to be at 120, and based on a strip test this morning, I believe it's still around that or a bit lower. Yesterday morning the water had lost all of it's extreme brown look (LOTS of filter cleaning over past few days) and water was then looking mid-green, but we had a lot of algae to clean out. We spent yesterday doing a lot of vacuuming and sweeping of the pool to get as much of the algae out as possible, and the water had really started looking better. At one point, I did turn the SWG back on, knowing that our salt reading would very likely once again move into the HIGH reading, which it did and I once again turned off the SWG. However, at some point during the day, the pool suddenly went to green once again - not as severe, but green none the less. At first I presumed it was because there was a lot of minute particles of algae floating around with all the vacuuming and brushing we had done, so we kept the pump running and kept changing/cleaning the filter every couple of hours. However, this morning the pool is still green... can barely manage to see the bottom. Before we do anything else I want to ask you all, what you recommend? So, a couple of questions (I know, finally - promise my future posts will be much shorter... just thought you'd want history to this point.)
Question 1: What test kit do you recommend we buy so that we are not reliant upon pool store testing? Would think we really need one that can do a good number of CYA tests since from what I read, that is really a crucial reading for keeping things overall balanced. But would want to be able to test all that you feel is important as well.
Question 2: What should be our next steps on clearing the current green and getting everything in balance?
I really look forward to your advice and promise not to be so long winded in the future. Also promise to track down the test kit I should get once you give me an idea on which one(s) I should be looking for.
New member here as over the past few days, I seem to have found the place where I can get some good help and learn everything I can absorb (not saying I don't hit info overload easily with my ol' brain). We have an 18' x 52" Ultra XTR frame pool, with a new AQUA-TROL AG CHLORINE GEN. added last week, replacing a cheap sea breeze (?) SWG my daughter previously used on her smaller Intex pool. That old SWG kept our pool beautifully clear last summer, and again this year from when we opened it and got it clean and clear earlier this spring. However, that old SWG suddenly stopped working, but it took us newbies awhile before we figured out that it's cell had died, and I could not find it's cell available anywhere. Thus, we finally purchased the new Aqua-Trol SWG. However, by the time we got this in place about a week ago, our pool was full of algae and the first thing we did was add a gallon of a copper free algaecide to it, which seemed to work quite well... pool water was clearing. We worked hard to vacuum and skim as much of the algae out as possible and put the SWG going... only to find that our salt reading was off the charts. (Hubby had added a LOT of salt to the pool before we realized the old SWG was no longer generating chlorine, so the HIGH reading did not surprise me at all.) With the salt reading off the charts, we turned the generator off, and first drained about 1/5th of the water from pool and refilled. SWG still read 'HIGH' so the next day we drained about 50% of the water and again refilled, and it finally had an actual reading (3,400) and started generating chlorine. However, as we are on a well, with lots of minerals, we woke the next morning to find a really putrid brown pool. The SWG still showed a reading other than 'HIGH', this time 3,700. PH, based on one of those test strips, was still reading about 7.25-7.5. but Alkalinity read at the high end of the chart, 240. Seemed positive steps forward, but we still needed to deal with the brown water and high Alkalinity, so, not knowing or understanding pool chemicals, took a sample to the pool store and their readings showed FC=3; TC=3; pH=7.8; Total Alkalinity=250; Calcium Hardness=320; CYA=0; Iron=0; Copper=0; Phosphates=500 and Salt=3700. They recommended we add a total of 24.75 lbs of Leslie's Dry Acid to the pool over the next few days (1 lb every 4 hours) which we faithfully did ... with my having the overnight shift, which I have to say was not as much fun as when I had two weeks of the overnight shift on our foal watch just a month before... at least then the end result of my lack of sleep was two beautiful, healthy foals. Night before last, I did add the 1 gallon of pool water condition, which Leslie's pool store had recommended as well. As of day before yesterday our Alkalinity level tested out (at pool store) to be at 120, and based on a strip test this morning, I believe it's still around that or a bit lower. Yesterday morning the water had lost all of it's extreme brown look (LOTS of filter cleaning over past few days) and water was then looking mid-green, but we had a lot of algae to clean out. We spent yesterday doing a lot of vacuuming and sweeping of the pool to get as much of the algae out as possible, and the water had really started looking better. At one point, I did turn the SWG back on, knowing that our salt reading would very likely once again move into the HIGH reading, which it did and I once again turned off the SWG. However, at some point during the day, the pool suddenly went to green once again - not as severe, but green none the less. At first I presumed it was because there was a lot of minute particles of algae floating around with all the vacuuming and brushing we had done, so we kept the pump running and kept changing/cleaning the filter every couple of hours. However, this morning the pool is still green... can barely manage to see the bottom. Before we do anything else I want to ask you all, what you recommend? So, a couple of questions (I know, finally - promise my future posts will be much shorter... just thought you'd want history to this point.)
Question 1: What test kit do you recommend we buy so that we are not reliant upon pool store testing? Would think we really need one that can do a good number of CYA tests since from what I read, that is really a crucial reading for keeping things overall balanced. But would want to be able to test all that you feel is important as well.
Question 2: What should be our next steps on clearing the current green and getting everything in balance?
I really look forward to your advice and promise not to be so long winded in the future. Also promise to track down the test kit I should get once you give me an idea on which one(s) I should be looking for.
Last edited:
