My pool water is needing help

[Loyal_Lion]

Hi all,
New hear and could use some help on getting my pool water situation under control.

Backstory:
I'm in northern Ohio and have an inground gunite saltwater pool with about 27,500 gallons and it was put in 6 years ago. I opened it up about 2 weeks ago and the water was not too bad so added some shock, cleaned it up a bit, and got it running. I knew the cartrigde filters were going so I ordered new ones but until they arrived I put the old ones back in. After running equipment 24/7 for a couple days I turned the heater on, added salt, and cyanuric acid and the water looked clear and it was balanced. Well, all down hill from here.

Last week I kept the cover on for 4 days straight due to rain every day. When I opened the retractable cover, the water was green and had crud floating on top. I think the cartridge filters were full of dirt and algae (yes I hosed them down good before I turned the equipment on) and with the heater going I think it was a perfect storm for the algae to bloom while the pool was covered. The skimmer is continuing to collect a lot of foam. Pic attached.

Current situation: Three days ago I took the cartridge filters out and they were full of white/light grey slime and smelled like something awful. My new filters were not in yet so ran the equipment with no cartridges just to keep the water moving, shocked the pool, added 3 gallons of aqua mate algaecide from Rural King and have been brushing the walls 2 times each day. However, the cya level is now reading next to nothing, there is no chlorine, except a little in the morning since the sun was down, and ph was very low. I have never had to increased ph in 6 years until this this weekend. I added 3lbs of clorox ph up. I've added 4 gallons of liquid shock each night the past three nights at sun down. I've been running the chlorinator on 100% output the past three days and the water is still a very pale green, cant see the bottom of the shallow end (3') and as soon as I add the shock the pool surface turns to a white sheet. Pics attached. The new cartridge filters arrived installed them today. Im hoping that with them installed, the pump running 24/7 that it starts to clear up. Please help with with what I should do next other than wait. Add more cya? Add more shock? I will continue to check chemistry. Sorry for the long post but wanted to be specific to help you guys help me.
Thanks!
Brad

 

[ajw22]

Welcome to TFP.

I think you have ammonia in the pool water.

You MUST read Ammonia - Further Reading before you add any more chemicals.

Confirm that You Have an Ammonia Problem in Your Pool Water​

1. Your CYA may be 0 or low
2. Add liquid chlorine for 10 ppm and test your free chlorine after 30 minutes. You likely have ammonia in your water if you lost 80%+ of FC in 30 minutes
3. Your CC tests > 0.5
4. Optional: An ammonia test indicates the presence of ammonia

Do not add more CYA. CYA only creates more ammonia.

You will need a good test kit. Do you have a Taylor K-2006C or TFT Test Kits ?

Turn your SWG off and use liquid chlorine.

Download PoolMath , subscribe to Premium so you can store your test results and chemicals added, and link it to your TFP user name so we can review what you are doing.

 

[Loyal_Lion]

I have the Taylor K2005

 

[PoolStored]

added 3 gallons of aqua mate algaecide from Rural King

What @ajw22 said, and DON'T add any more algaecide.

 

[Loyal_Lion]

OK. Thank you guys. I'll read up on the link regarding ammonia

 

[PoolStored]

I have the Taylor K2005

How old is the kit? If over a year, get a new kit. Link-->Test Kits Compared

You need, at a minimum, a K-1515 or equivalent to test FC. See...link-->FAS/DPD Chlorine Test Kit

 

[Loyal_Lion]

How old is the kit? If over a year, get a new kit. Link-->Test Kits Compared

You need, at a minimum, a K-1515 or equivalent to test FC. See...link-->FAS/DPD Chlorine Test Kit

It is old. 3-4 years. I did get a new one today. Same thing. Tylor K2005. I did not test today as the kit arrived from Amazon late in the day

 

[PoolStored]

You need a K-1515 FAS-DPD kit to test FC, in addition to the K-2005.

Better answer is to get one of these: Link-->Test Kits Compared

 

[Loyal_Lion]

You need a K-1515 FAS-DPD kit to test FC, in addition to the K-2005.

Better answer is to get one of these: Link-->Test Kits Compared

OK. I will get a K1515.

 

[Loyal_Lion]

I took a sample to the pool store yesterday and they recorded a minute amount of fc. I believe it was .5. They gave me 5lbs of burnout 73 and told me to sprinkle the entire contents into the pool. I did and 2 hours later there was no fc reading using my test kit. Dumped the last 4 gallons of liquid shock in and again within 2 hours no fc reading. I tested for ammonia this morning and it's negligible if anything.

 

[ajw22]

Have you added liquid chlorine for 10 ppm and tested your free chlorine after 30 minutes?

 

[Loyal_Lion]

If I do that math correctly (please correct me if I am wrong) I needed to add 2.61 gallons of liquid chlorine (10%) to get to 10ppm in my 27,500 gallon pool. If that's the case, I have done so and the result is always little to no free chlorine

 

[ajw22]

If I do that math correctly (please correct me if I am wrong) I needed to add 2.61 gallons of liquid chlorine (10%) to get to 10ppm in my 27,500 gallon pool. If that's the case, I have done so and the result is always little to no free chlorine

Then you need to follow what the Wiki said.

Where are you in these steps?

Getting Rid of Ammonia in Pool Water​

1. Dose the pool to a SLAM level of 10 ppm
2. Do not add any CYA until chlorine begins to hold
3. Test chlorine every 30 minutes until chlorine begins to hold. Add chlorine as needed to get back to 10 ppm. FC will likely test close to 0 until you get to the next step
4. You will know when the chlorine begins to hold when you see FC testing > 3 ppm after 30 minutes.
5. When you see a significant jump in FC from the prior 30-minute test CYA can be added back into the pool. Limit the CYA to 30 ppm for the duration of the process
6. Increase the FC target to 12 ppm and follow the steps in the SLAM Process until the criteria of “Done” are all met.
7. Follow the SLAM Process FC test procedures. You no longer need to test every 30 minutes at this stage.

 

[Loyal_Lion]

Step 2/3 currently. Had to pick up more liquid shock after work. Added the dose at 6:30pm. Tested at 7 and 8pm.

 

[PoolStored]

You passed step 4.
But, what happened to your pH? What did you add to the pool?

 

[Loyal_Lion]

It was high this morning so I lowered it with mutuatic acid. I did not add anything other than liquid shock after that limit was surprised it changed so drastically in an hour. Going out now to test again since it's been 30 minutes. Will post pic

 

[Loyal_Lion]

3rd test. Should I add more liquid chlorine to boost it back up? Not sure fc will remain much longer. Thoughts?

 

[PoolStored]

You are retaining FC. You passed step 4.
Test your TA and report that next.

 

[Loyal_Lion]

TA = 120

 

[PoolStored]

I would raise your pH by 0.4. Do you have 20 mule team borax on hand? If so use it and pool math to raise pH by 0.4. Test pH 30 minutes later and report pH.
If you don't have 20 mule, test pH tomorrow. With a TA of 120, your pH should rise naturally. If it gets into the 7s, then don't add 20 mule (except below).
If still in the 6s tomorrow, get some 20 mule team borax and raise pH by 0.4.

As to next steps, that is to SLAM the pool. You need the K-1515 to SLAM.
You can add 3ppm per day of liquid chlorine, nothing else.
You can also add 30ppm CYA to the pool in prep for the SLAM. Use the sock method. After it is soaking for 30 minutes, start squeezing the sock...it should dissolve fairly quickly. When the sock hits the water, then switch to adding 5ppm per day until the K-1515 arrives. (Add either 3ppm without CYA or 5ppm with the sock in the water...don't add 3, then add sock, then add 5ppm...make sense?)