Hiya Total noob here =) Would love some advice.

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Honey

Honey

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Jun 1, 2007
24
Austintown, Ohio
Hiya thanks for letting me join the forum I am very happy to have found you. Hopefully I will learn a lot here and will be able to help others someday :-D

For the past few days I have been researching ways to start up a pool. I have been reading post after post here and on the other forums associated with this one. Trying to make heads or tails of this.

Here's the story, last summer my sister (she's also my next door neighbor :-D ) bought an AG 24ft X 52' Vinyl lined Aluminium sided pool. It has a sand filter. We live in northeast Ohio.
It was clear for a month or so and the rest of the summer not so much. She closed it real late and dirty... her other neighbor has a large tree in his yard and as you can image I have been blindly scooping leaves (piles) off the bottom since we have tried to open it this season. She doesn't want to drain it and start over because her funds are low. Since reading the posts on this site I have decided that I will take over the cleaning and am hoping to correct the damage if possible with the wealth of information here.

Just not sure how to begin.. I don't know what CYA is except that she didn't put any in when closing. Or since opening. I don't think she has ever used whatever it is :oops:
She used algecide several times but is out of it now. The very first time she put it in, the water went from green to blue/grey but never clear enough to see the bottom. That was about a week ago and since then she has used store bought shock stuff a few times and the pool has now turned really dark green... the filter is running 24/7 and we are backwashing 3 times a day. I am brushing daily and scooping leaves out but doing it all blindly because you can't see the bottom.
She is out of shock which is just as well because I would like to use the BBB method from now on.

She purchased a testing kit but it won't arrive until next week and I was hoping to get started on it this weekend, I have been thinking about just throwing a bunch of bleach in there to kill the little nasties and keep on brushing and vacuuming.

So what do you think?
Grateful for any kind of response =)
Thanks for listening,
Honey

PS I can't figure out how many gallons the pool is. :oops: :oops:
 
I think your pool is about 13,500 gallons, cause it sounds like mine...I have a cartridge filter so I won't be able to help you with that.

But here's what I've learned in the 2 weeks I've belonged to this wonderful forum: run the filter 24/7 and keep adding bleach and after a week or so it will clear if you keep brushing/scooping/vacuming. But without knowing the test numbers, it's hard to say because you do need to know your CYA. Can you take a sample of water to the pool store or buy strips at least, or go to wal-mart and get the HTH 6 way test kit in the pool aisle? it was about $15. Do you know when your test kit will arrive? Good luck, and don't be overwhelmed, I was near tears the day I discovered this fine group of folks and I was lounging in my pool not 30 minutes ago :).....
 
Getting some kind of a test that can measure chlorine, PH, and hopefully CYA will help a great deal. WalMart, Lowes, and Home Depot often have something you can get by with. Even the cheapest OTO test kit will help, though you may need to use the shotglass method to test for higher chlorine levels.

Without knowing the CYA level it is difficult to guess how high you should go with the chlorine level. As a start you can go to 10. Once you know your CYA level you might be able to go higher.

Try bringing the chlorine level up to 10 every evening, get what leaves and gunk out that you can, and remember to backwash/clean the filter occasionally.

Get a good test kit, be consistant in testing the water and adding chlorine and the pool will be back in no time (well a week anyway).
 
Hi thanks for the support I am chompin' at the bit to get started hehe, the kit should arrive Monday or Tuesday so I will test it then.

What is CYA, I see everyone talking about it but can't find the answer to that... must be general pool knowledge that I don't have :oops: :roll: hehe
 
Well I couldn't stand not doing anything, not having a proper test kit I am really just taking a shot in the dark but Friday I started putting bleach in the pool, and knowing my sister never used a stablizer I followed some advice on another post and I went to our pool store and bought some CYA (wal mart was out lol) and I followed the instuctions on the back for the amount but put it in a sock and tied it on the ladder. Through out the day I used the OTO cl tester yesterday and today sweeping and vacuuming... that is all I have done today all day lol and now that it is evening WOW am I sunburned :oops:
Good news is this morning before the CYA I could make out the bottom of the pool, still very green but lighter then thursday and friday morning. With that same kit it showed my ph at 7.5 I propbably want to knock that down a bit since I am trying to clean it right? I have some stuff that simply says Ph minus. will that do?
The testing kit only measures the cl to 10, so I imagine it is useless. But I could tll when it was under ten and guessed how much I would need to get it up. Then I tested it later and it turned orange instead of yellow hehe.
I am grasping the concepts anyway so when the real kit comes I should be able to sort out the rest :wink:
I was just excited to see it changing because I really thought we needed to drain it. I believe I have all of the leaves off the bottom now.
Of course I have worked so hard on it today and now it is starting to storm lol. :roll:
Thanks for listening to my babble :oops:
Honey
 
Your pH is fine, leave it alone for now.

To get your test kit to read over 10, mix 1 part pool water with 1 part distilled water. (use a shot glass to get the equal parts, or a tablespoon, or whatever)
Use the mixed water to run your test, and multiply the results by 2. Now you test measures up to 20ppm. If you still cannot get a decent reading, try 1 part pool water to 2 parts distilled and multiply your results by 3.

Keep up the good work! Also keep scooping the junk off the bottom and vac'ing to waste if necessary to get rid of the big junk. If you are not vac'ing to waste, make sure you check the filter pressure and backwash as necessary when your psi rises.

Did your sister use pucks or tablets to chlorinate last year? if so, there is probably some CYA in the water... take care not to add too much, since the only way to get rid of it is to partially drain your water! :shock:
 

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I took the sock of CYA out until I can test it. It rained all night and is still there is a light drizzle, but I couldn't let that stop my progress.
The pool is still green in color but I could clearly see the bottom, I had the "leaf rake" net out because I saw what I thought were small piles of leaves and when I pulled them out... it was only one leaf hehehe. That showed me that I could see clearly to the middle of the pull and all of the steps on the ladder...clearly....green, but visible.
I could also see the little bits of algea and dirt like rolling around on the bottom so I vacuumed in the rain. I am sure my neighbors think I am nuts...but I am just bound and determined.

I am so proud of myself for the progress, I can't imagine how excited I will be if the green goes away.
I can't tell you how happy I am to have found you guys :-D

The middle of the pool is hard to cleanthe vacumm attachement doesn't seem to want to stay down.
I am guessing the water isn't safe for me to get it and vacuum the middle right?
 
If you are still seeing green water, you either don't have enough chlorine or you have metals in your water. Enough chlorine should turn your water blue within minutes if it isn't metals causing the green. It will immediately start to kill the algae and it will get cloudy from dead algae.
 
I have one of those cheapy testers for cl and ph
I used the method with the shot glass but had to use 2 parts distilled water and 1 part pool water.
it was the perfect shade of 5-10 so I multiply by 3 and that means the cholrine is between 15- 30 right?

I just took that test. but 3 hours ago I added 2 of the 1.4 gallons of bleach so I'm sure it'll test high =)

and metals? I don't even want to know what to do... lol ... I will pray for this to work first =)

Thanks for the reply =)
Honey
 
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