My pool is Swampy Green.. Please Help..
- Thread starter tamekita
- Start date
This post lacks a lot of information, but you need to shock with chlorine. To do this right you will need a good test kit, Wal-Mart sells a 6 way drop based kit for under $20 that will do in a pinch. Making a few halfway sane assumptions on your current situation, if this is a seasonal pool and has been in use for a couple of months using tri-chlor pucks to chlorination chances are your CYA level is around 40-50 ppm, you will need to add about 2 gallons of bleach to bring to shock level, and an unknown amount to keep you there. If you have been using only liquid chlorine or bleach with an initial dose of stabilizer you may need less, if you have used a lot of dichlor shock this season you may need more.
With all that in mind I would suggest you start by adding about 2 gallons of 6% bleach to the water ASAP (it is about sunrise here, ever hour of sun on the pool without chlorine in it and things will get worse)
If you have a good test kit post your numbers here and we can work from there
If not get one, but go ahead and get the chlorine level up now.
If getting a test kit is not an option today, I would start with 2 gallons of bleach, add another half gallon about mid day, if it is not looking better by the end of the day add another gallon then. (this is going blind, but best guess.)
Ike
p.s. keep everyone out of the pool while shocking, and read up on pool school
p.p.s. after seeing the attachment photos, I suspect you will need even more bleach than my blind suggestion, maybe start with 2 gallons, and add another gallon after 4-6 hours, and again at the end of the day if you have seen no change to color (it will likely turn brown or gray before it gets better, after color change it is a matter of time before your filter removes the dead algae, keep the filter on 24x7 until then and clean/backwash it frequently.)
With all that in mind I would suggest you start by adding about 2 gallons of 6% bleach to the water ASAP (it is about sunrise here, ever hour of sun on the pool without chlorine in it and things will get worse)
If you have a good test kit post your numbers here and we can work from there
If not get one, but go ahead and get the chlorine level up now.
If getting a test kit is not an option today, I would start with 2 gallons of bleach, add another half gallon about mid day, if it is not looking better by the end of the day add another gallon then. (this is going blind, but best guess.)
Ike
p.s. keep everyone out of the pool while shocking, and read up on pool school
p.p.s. after seeing the attachment photos, I suspect you will need even more bleach than my blind suggestion, maybe start with 2 gallons, and add another gallon after 4-6 hours, and again at the end of the day if you have seen no change to color (it will likely turn brown or gray before it gets better, after color change it is a matter of time before your filter removes the dead algae, keep the filter on 24x7 until then and clean/backwash it frequently.)
Thanks for the info.. Being that I don't know much about pools.. I don't have a 6 way test kit, but will purchase one later on today. I have been using the 3 way test kit. I added the 2 gallons of bleach and will add 2 more gallons before the end of the day. And if you don't mind me asking, What is backwashing?
Thanks
Thanks
Yes, there is a cure. As you read it, you will see that a test kit is essential if you want it to go fast and thorough. If, for example, you've been feeding your pool a steady diet of stabilized chlorine, your pool may be too stable, and you would need to buy chlorine by the drum to get enough in the water fast enough to do any good. In which case, draining is the best way. You need test results to make an informed decision what to do. Pool stores are notoriously inaccurate, and they'll get tired of you bringing in samples every couple hours besides.
There are some threads where folks show before and after pictures of pools that look waaaaay worse than yours. It can be done. Test kit. Accurate numbers.
There are some threads where folks show before and after pictures of pools that look waaaaay worse than yours. It can be done. Test kit. Accurate numbers.
Backwashing is done with sand filters and some DE filters. If you have the usual intex equipment then you have the cartridge filter. You will need to clean the cartridge frequently while you are shocking the pool. If you can get a couple of extra cartridges you can swap them out and clean one while the other is in the filter.
If you have a sand filter, backwashing is a way of cleaning it out, If you have a cartridge filter some are cleanable by removing and hosing off, some are disposable and require replacement when they get dirty. (I don't know a lot about cartridge type filters as I have never owned one). On the test kit the big question we are going to have is what is your CYA level,the 6 way kit at wal-mart can test for it, but they only give you enough chemicals to do the test twice. Once we know the CYA level we will know what level you need to keep the chlorine at both shock level and to maintain things. Your existing test kit will probably let you test only to 5 ppm chlorine, to test during shocking you will need to water down your sample with chlorine free water and multiply your results. (ie. 2 parts chlorine free water, 1 part pool water and multiply your results by 3), for your ballpark starting levels I was assuming a shock level of 20 ppm which would be needed if your CYA is at 50, if your CYA is lower, your shock level will be lower. Can you tell us more about the history of how you have been maintaining your pool, and what chemicals you have been using (trichlor, dichlor, liquid chlorine, etc.)
Ike
Ike
Backwashing is cleaning the filter when it gets clogged.tamekita said:
Have you read Pool School? Great resource, answers your questions and some you haven't even thought of yet.