How long to clear this up?

[Dieter]

We're about to find out! NASTY!

I guess that's what you get with a record setting unseasonably warm winter and a spring that starts off in the 80s and 90s. Pool was still quite clear when I peeked under the cover at the end of winter. I'm hoping that a long enough shocking will get it in line. Gonna be a looooot of chlorine.

 

[jblizzle]

This thread is starting out GOOD with pictures!!!

::

 

[mpacheco72]

I wanna see what it looks like after the first round of bleach!

 

[duraleigh]

Don't dive in headfirst with that bleach just yet. It looks like you have a lot of solid material to scoop out of there before you put the bleach in it. Get everything you can.

Then, check your pH and get it around 7.2-7.4 or so.

Now you can start the shock process.

 

[Dieter]

Those pics were taken before we got some electrical problems fixed today. Now the filter and pumps are up and running and we're clearing everything out. I'm hoping that tomorrow I can start seriously managing it and we can be swimming in two weeks.

 

[solincia]

I had to admit, I love these green to clean threads... bring on the pictures, and good luck!!

 

[Isaac-1]

Where are you located, it seems like I have seen that pool before?

 

[Richard320]

A day or two less than last year's cleanup....since you've had practice.

 

[Dieter]

Some progress overnight but this stuff is really stubborn. Brushing not doing anything yet, but hoping it's not stained to the point I can't brush it off.

 

[Richard320]

Some progress overnight but this stuff is really stubborn. Brushing not doing anything yet, but hoping it's not stained to the point I can't brush it off.

Organic stains take a couple weeks to bleach out. And all your chlorine is busy killing green stuff right now.

 

[8corneflakes]

oh boy, I'm gonna follow this thread!

 

[Dieter]

4th

to the

6th

Lookin better. Still VERY cloudy in addition to the green, but at least the green monster is receding. Can barely see a foot or two deep.

Unfortunately ran out of r0871 so had to order some more for the TF100. DOH.

 

[mpacheco72]

It's improving!!

 

[Dieter]

One more day. Two days ago I couldn't remotely see the bottom. Threw in this dive toy and could see it 3 ft deep.

Got new bottle of r0871 and re-tested.

FC 8.0
CC 0.0
pH 7.8
TA 140
CH 290
CYA 0(!)

I tested the CYA a couple days ago and must have got an errant reading because of the particulate floating in the water. We did add a couple inches of water as well. The rest of the readings are pretty close to what the pool showed most of last summer.

Need to go get some CYA immediately and lower the pH a tad. Also going to get a trichlor puck and see if I can't get these stains on the step to lighten. It honestly looks like virtually the entire pool floor is stained like crazy. I've been told there's a pool party here on the 19th, so I'm hoping to sort it by then. Eek.

 

[mpacheco72]

Compaared to what you started with that's a huge improvement. Keep chugging along.

 

[Dieter]

Organic stains take a couple weeks to bleach out. And all your chlorine is busy killing green stuff right now.

Hey Richard, do you think it's possible that the worst of the stains may be gone in 12 days? Also, since I seem to be having a successful battle with the algae for now, is there any specific level I should be keeping the FC at to help remedy surface stains?

 

[Richard320]

Organic stains take a couple weeks to bleach out. And all your chlorine is busy killing green stuff right now.

Hey Richard, do you think it's possible that the worst of the stains may be gone in 12 days? Also, since I seem to be having a successful battle with the algae for now, is there any specific level I should be keeping the FC at to help remedy surface stains?

Just maintain FC.

We used to get all kinds of leaf stains in the pool at a summer camp I worked at in the 80s. They were gone in a week or so.

 

[Dieter]

4th

6th

9th

Just added 2 gallons of liquid conditioner. That stuff is painfully expensive per jug, but I don't want to be adding granulated conditioner and limit my ability to continue backwashing the filter. Also want to keep it on the low end because obtaining shock levels in a 50,000 gallon pool makes lugging 20 jugs of chlorine back and forth impractical. Slow going, but I've probably backwashed 3 times and vacuumed 3 times. Brushing it every chance I get. Overnight chlorine loss was just about 1.5-2. Still managed to brush a little bit off underneath the pool light.

Sand filter is slow going. Seemed to help a little by placing the upturned vac at the bottom and running it off one of the skimmers instead of the main drain. The main drain on this pool has always seemed to do a pretty poor job of circulating the water through the system.

No progress yet on stains fading.

 

[Dieter]

Good news bad news.

Good news is I went outside this morning and could see the floor drain in the deep end, which is 9+ feet. Still shocking because I can now see some areas I was missing during brushing because the pool was so cloudy.

Bad news is virtually the entire pool floor and much of the sides has these stains on them, and scrubbing with various brush types is doing nothing to alleviate them. They haven't really lightened at all after a ~week of shocking.

 

[duraleigh]

Focus on one project at a time. Get your pool chemistry up to speed and get comfortable with maintaining it for a week or so and then address the stains.