Is my pool completely screwed?

Legitimate_Ask_5000

New member
Jan 18, 2025
1
Florida
Help!

Completely new 15-20K Gallon inground pool owner here of a few months, I recently bought a total fixer upper of a house and have been trying to manage the pool once a week while I drive up to handle other chores like the lawn etc as I work on the repairs.

I came into this with no experience or knowledge whatsoever so immediately found a nearby pool store. The owner told me that liquid chlorine is better but since I’m an absentee owner to just use tabs. I assumed he meant liquid is better because it’s more potent, I didn’t know anything about the stabilizer. I later learned that the stabilizer builds up and runs a risk but he told me not to worry about it, that I just need it not to turn green.

I had the pool running pretty well for a while but missed a week and had it turn green at one point, and brought it back with black out trichlor. Second time around (recently) it got windy and all the dead leaves from the nearby hedges blew into the pool and by the time I got to it it had turned green.

So I tried the trichlor again but this time it didn’t work. I brought the water sample to the store and he told me it was packed full of chlorine and stabilizer and that the stabilizer was too thick. I was a little peeved because I had brought up too much stab before as a concern but he told me not to worry about it. So he gave me yellow out bags (2x2lbs each) and told me that would do it. It definitely made the pool blue again fast, but now I’m learning that the sodium bromide never disappears and somehow also changes the chemistry of how the chlorine interacts?

I know the obvious answer is drain and refill the pool once the house is done but that’s not so easy. The floor drain doesn’t work and so I’ve been using the side drain to circulate the water. There is an overflow drain so I imagine this would be my only way to drain it, by filling it above the overflow and letting it drain. The pool fills faster than it drains with this method so I’m not sure how easy this is to do.

Is there any way to salvage what’s currently in there? Thanks and apologies for the long post!
 
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Welcome to the forum!
You need a proper test kit. I suggest the TF-100/Pro or Taylor K2006C. A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.
If you added two full bags of Yellow Out Sodium Bromide, the pool must be drained/exchanged.
Read Draining - Further Reading
Once you have your test kit and are ready to exchange the water to fresh, come back to this thread and we can provide guidance.
I suggest you read through Pool Care Basics - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool
 
LA5,

I agree with the above..

Your floor 'drain' is not really used to drain the pool.. Just go get a cheap sump pump or rent one.. Use that to drain most of the water in the pool..

Sigh!!! I wish you had found us before you went down the Pool Store path. :cry:

You did not get algae because of leaves or anything else.. You just did not keep your FC (Chlorine) high enough for the amount of CYA (Stabilizer) that you had in the pool. It is really that dirt simple..

Drain the pool and fill it back up.. Follow our Troublefree Pool Care process, using one of our recommended test kits, and you will never have algae again.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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Welcome to TFP.

Drain the pool and fill it back up..
To be clear … “drain” the pool by doing a No Drain Water Exchange.

Emptying all the water out of the pool risks the pool popping out of the ground. That has to be done very carefully, if at all, especially in Florida.

Get a Submersible Pumps - Further Reading to remove water from the pool.

And stay out of pool stores.
 
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I have been following the TFP for about 8 years. It is well worth the time to read the pool chemistry sections on this site. Once you understand the chemistry, the rest makes sense. I only use liquid bleach, that I get from a chemical supply house that serves a lot of pressure washer folks, muriatic acid, and some baking soda. I keep a tub of chlorine tablets that I use when the cyanuric gets low. Pool runs 12 months a year. I have an attached spa.

When temps get really hot in the summer I get a small amount of green on the walls. I just brush and make sure my chlorine is good.

You have found the right site to get that pool in shape and keep it up. After a while you will be able to guess the chemical levels before testing and know about how much to add weekly to keep it up!
 
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