Milky blue water: DRAINING QUESTIONS

[Poolcatsandkittens]

Hi, friends! I'm brand new here and have convinced my husband that you guys will save us, because the pool store(s) and pool guys all have different solutions and none of them have been helpful. Help me save my pool! (And convince my husband that this is the correct route!)

We opened our pool and it was green. The pool guys added chemicals. The water started to turn blue. We got our deck powerwashed with some kind of detergent and the pool got incredibly cloudy and full of foam, but the water was a lovely blue color. We put in clarifiers several times (I know now this was a mistake) and they just made more foam. We quit putting stuff in and just added liquid chlorine and then some powdered shock we already had while we waited for the test kit I ordered (TF-100). The foam is gone but the pool is very milky (still nice and blue). We have our sand filter running 24/7. There is no doubt debris on the bottom but we can't see it.

I got my kit today and did my tests. I hope I did them correctly! Now tell me what I need to do! PLEASE.

FC: 6 ppm
CC: 0.5-1 (one drop cleared it up pretty well, but a second drop went in and made it super clear)
TC: 6.5-7
TA: 150 (at 15 drops it turned pink, and at 18 it went dark pink. We never got to true red; I felt like I was using all the reagent!)
pH: 7.5 (our pool guy told us 7.6 last Friday)
CYA: 80-90 (my husband and I both did it and for the dot to be truly gone it took until 80 for me, but he got 90)

We still are using tablets, so I would guess that's why the CYA is so high. I will take them out when I know what to do next!

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
You need to follow the SLAM Process.
To be successful, you should drain the water in the pool down to leaving 12" in the shallow end and then refill with fresh water. Once you have done that, circulate really well, brush, etc, and rerun your tests. And come on back and report them here and we can provide you guidance.
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[Poolcatsandkittens]

I have read that document. Is the suggestion to drain based on the high CYA? Draining seems like a major undertaking that we weren't quite ready to tackle. Could we SLAM without draining first?

 

[mknauss]

A CYA of 90 does not lead to a successful outcome. Your SLAM level FC is 35 ppm. Your testing error is high and you will use a large amount of reagents. Plus maintenance at that high of CYA is problematic as your FC in target range is at or above 10ppm, which makes your pH reading invalid.

We can walk you through the draining process if you like.

 

[Poolcatsandkittens]

Okay, we are slowly coming around to the idea of draining some water, but I have a lot of questions. I understand the basic steps:
1) turn off power to pump, filter, etc.
2) get a submersible pump and attach discharge hose
3) run the hose to the sewer thing in our front yard (forget the name, it's a pipe sticking out of the ground)
4) put the pump into the water (after attaching the hose!) and plug it in
5) monitor everything

If anything is wrong there, please let me know. When I think about actually doing this, here is what logistical questions I come up with:

1) pump rental. Places near us have several options, including ones that require 2" or 3" discharge hose rentals or a pump that connects to a garden hose. Which of these is best? How many horsepower? What if their gallons per minute is more than our sewer intake can handle? Is there a dial on the pumps that can be adjusted? (I read somewhere that you shouldn't have too many gpms or you'll overwhelm the sewer intake. Is that even true?)

2) the discharge hoses that we can rent are 50 feet. I think it's more than 50 feet from the bottom of the pool out to the sewer intake. Can we get two and link them? Can we use the tubing my husband uses to backwash the pool? what would be the best way of getting a long enough discharge hose?

3) Once we have the water down to 12" in the shallow end, how imperative is it that we refill quickly? We can use our hose, but it cuts water pressure in the house significantly and is quite slow. It would be faster to get the bulk water people to come load us up. But if we had to go 24 hours with a partially drained pool, would that be bad? 48? 72?!

4) Should we have chemicals on hand to put into the new water immediately? I assume liquid chlorine.

I think that's all. I probably will have more. My husband and I are totally unhandy and usually pay people to do stuff because we stress ourselves out, but with the pool that hasn't worked out at all.

 

[mknauss]

You have the process correct.
You can use a rental sump pump from Home Depot if you have one close by. The electric version will pump out what you need in 3 hours or. They normally give you whatever hoses you need when you rent the pump. You should be able to use the backwash hose you have too. Can you drain to the street or must you use the sewer cleanout?
Other option is to get a sump pump from Amazon or Harbor Freight, etc. That will take a couple days to pump out what you need.
It would be best to fill soon. If you can schedule the water truck and start pumping out based on their arrival it would be best.
You will want to keep liquid chlorine in the pool during all this. Plus after refilling.