First, let me say that I've been reading so much on TFP and I love the information. We just sat up our first pool and I've enjoyed learning about it and more about water chemistry (I'm a high school chemistry teacher).
I wondered about an issue I'm having with my water clarity, but first some background information. We live in a small rural community in NE Missouri and I have to done about 30 mins to an hour to get to any store that has pool chemicals. I have been anxious to see up the pool so the water can start to warm up as well. So I filled the pool with municipal water and added chlorine bleach to raise the initial FC level to 10. I was trying to "shock" it before I had a test kit because I was afraid of algae growing in it in the couple of days before we would get to the store.
I have found TFP yet and so I bought algaecide at the store. Also, after adding chlorine bleach the water was slightly yellowish-brown looking, so I bought some clarifier. I added the algaecide, waited an hour then added the clarifier. Now we have a little rust-colored scum collecting on the underside of the solar cover near the outflow port (is that what you call it?). The water doesn't look significantly clearer (I added the clarifier yesterday). Any ideas on what to do? I hope I didn't screw up!
I did get a cheap test kit but my FC is over 5 ppm ( gauging from the kit color scale, how cloudy its been and that I've kept the solar cover on non-stop I'd assume it is near 10). The pH is 7.8. those are all of the numbers I have, I did order a better test kit yesterday once I found TFP and started reading more.
I wondered about an issue I'm having with my water clarity, but first some background information. We live in a small rural community in NE Missouri and I have to done about 30 mins to an hour to get to any store that has pool chemicals. I have been anxious to see up the pool so the water can start to warm up as well. So I filled the pool with municipal water and added chlorine bleach to raise the initial FC level to 10. I was trying to "shock" it before I had a test kit because I was afraid of algae growing in it in the couple of days before we would get to the store.
I have found TFP yet and so I bought algaecide at the store. Also, after adding chlorine bleach the water was slightly yellowish-brown looking, so I bought some clarifier. I added the algaecide, waited an hour then added the clarifier. Now we have a little rust-colored scum collecting on the underside of the solar cover near the outflow port (is that what you call it?). The water doesn't look significantly clearer (I added the clarifier yesterday). Any ideas on what to do? I hope I didn't screw up!
I did get a cheap test kit but my FC is over 5 ppm ( gauging from the kit color scale, how cloudy its been and that I've kept the solar cover on non-stop I'd assume it is near 10). The pH is 7.8. those are all of the numbers I have, I did order a better test kit yesterday once I found TFP and started reading more.