Picture album on imgur:
Pool is new to me, and I’m very new to pools. This is a house we are flipping and so we don’t live there. I can get by this pool up to 5-6 times per week to check skimmers, test water, leaf rake, backwash, add chemicals etc. I have been using a local pool guy (LPG) for this pool for the last 3.5 weeks, he's the same LPG I have used to rehab pools in the past, but it’s taking some time to really get things cleared up. The LPG has done well for us in the past, but I just want to make sure that we are getting the best results as fast as possible on this pool. Several pool rehabs ago I had a laborer go get a water sample from pool, take it to pool supply house, buy chemicals and quantities they told him to and add them. After doing this 2-3 times per week for 3 weeks and not seeing improvement I got tired of this and called LPG who sorted the pool out in two weeks. This pool has been a much tougher project for him so I’m just coming here to get a second opinion.
What has been done by LPG so far: Early July, pool was dark black but still full of water and LOTS of leaves from probably 2+ years of not running. July 11 LPG installed new Pentair pump and “shocked the sh*t out of it”, started raking leaves and visiting 1-2 times per week to (possibly add chemicals and) rake bottom. I have no idea the quantities of chemicals that have been used so far, but I know LPG has used powder chlorine, large chlorine tablets (both when it was being shocked) and then an some type of iron treatment to deal with the iron from all the leaves.
I have been to the house 5 times to rake leaves and backwash the filter this week and Friday I finally felt like I had removed 99% of the leaves that were in the pool at the start of the process. There is probably a fair amount of sludge that settles near the drain after I leaf rake each time, but I can't see the bottom and I was getting less gunk with each leaf basket each pull and each visit. I felt like it was time to get educated and maybe start adding chlorine while the LPG took the weekend off. Read almost all the pool school articles and bought the pro subscription to Pool Math and felt ready to go get a water test and probably ignore most of what the pool store tried to sell me.
Note: The IMGUR album shows the state of the pool before I started adding chems, and all the equipment I currently have. The pictures attached below are from this weekend.
ON Saturday morning 8/3 I took a water sample to the local pool store (LPS) and the results were:
Current status of the pool:
FC: .22
TC: .22 (guessing these may be the lower limit of the tester)
Combined Chlorine: 0
ph: 6.4
Total Alkalinity: 18
Calcium Hardness: 94
CYA: 8
Copper: 0
Iron: 0
Phosphates: 3554 (not a typo)
Salt: 580
Saturation Index: -1.9
Endure: 0
They recommended and I bought all the following:
25lbs of Baking Soda to Raise Alkalinity then 30 mins later
5 lbs of ph UP then 30 mins later
Add 90 day algaecide
5 gallons of 10.5% bleach, scrubbing pool and backwashing filter once per day until the water clears up.
I asked about adding CYA to the pool since I read here that it helps the chlorine last longer, but they said you don't need CYA yet because you are going to be backwashing so much this coming week it's just going to be a waste.
I followed all the directions above (with the exception of adding the algaecide) as the seemed consistent with the articles here, Pool Math and didn't include any super expensive chemicals or additives on the "naughty list." I used 6 2.5 gallon jugs my pool owning buddy (POB) bought, and the price of the baking soda saved me time from going to Lowes or Walmart and having to go to multiple places to chase down other chemicals.
I added the 5g of 10.5% bleach around 4 PM yesterday and then 30 minutes later using test strips, and a liquid dropper kit also from my POB, I tested again and got the following results
Total Hardness: ~250 but really hard to read this on a test strip
Total Chlorine: 10+
Free Chlorine: 10+
pH: 7.6-7.7
Total Alkalinity: ~120 but hard to tell for sure on test strip color chart
Stabilizer: ~0
I came back this morning and the pH may have dropped slightly to 7.6 but the TC and the FC were reading 0 both on the test strips and the dropper kit. Water may have been slightly clearer in the first 12-18" but hard to really tell.
I added 2 more 2.5 gallon buckets of chlorine into the pool and then measured again to make sure the TC and FC had risen and they were both 10+ again.
At this point I know that my pool is eating chlorine at an alarming rate, which is not surprising considering the neglected state of this pool.
I LOVED the pool school articles and feel very thankful that I was able to find this site before spending hundreds of dollars at the LPS. I will say one area of the pool school articles I personally found to be lacking in sufficient clear direction: What to do with a completely neglected pool, and specifically, do you RAISE a low CYA before attempting a first SLAM? There was lots of information about attempting to LOWER CYA if it was too high (by partially draining the pool), but nothing saying specifically, "You shall raise CYA to a minimum of XX before starting to SLAM the pool." or "Don't adjust CYA before starting to SLAM the pool." If I missed the location of this information I would appreciate someone linking me to an article about it
Questions:
1 - What should I do, if anything, with a CYA of 8, prior to SLAMming the pool?
2 - I know most posts here say not to, but given the SEVERELY neglected state of this pool, should I add the algaecide?
3 - What else should I do at this point?
Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
Pool is new to me, and I’m very new to pools. This is a house we are flipping and so we don’t live there. I can get by this pool up to 5-6 times per week to check skimmers, test water, leaf rake, backwash, add chemicals etc. I have been using a local pool guy (LPG) for this pool for the last 3.5 weeks, he's the same LPG I have used to rehab pools in the past, but it’s taking some time to really get things cleared up. The LPG has done well for us in the past, but I just want to make sure that we are getting the best results as fast as possible on this pool. Several pool rehabs ago I had a laborer go get a water sample from pool, take it to pool supply house, buy chemicals and quantities they told him to and add them. After doing this 2-3 times per week for 3 weeks and not seeing improvement I got tired of this and called LPG who sorted the pool out in two weeks. This pool has been a much tougher project for him so I’m just coming here to get a second opinion.
What has been done by LPG so far: Early July, pool was dark black but still full of water and LOTS of leaves from probably 2+ years of not running. July 11 LPG installed new Pentair pump and “shocked the sh*t out of it”, started raking leaves and visiting 1-2 times per week to (possibly add chemicals and) rake bottom. I have no idea the quantities of chemicals that have been used so far, but I know LPG has used powder chlorine, large chlorine tablets (both when it was being shocked) and then an some type of iron treatment to deal with the iron from all the leaves.
I have been to the house 5 times to rake leaves and backwash the filter this week and Friday I finally felt like I had removed 99% of the leaves that were in the pool at the start of the process. There is probably a fair amount of sludge that settles near the drain after I leaf rake each time, but I can't see the bottom and I was getting less gunk with each leaf basket each pull and each visit. I felt like it was time to get educated and maybe start adding chlorine while the LPG took the weekend off. Read almost all the pool school articles and bought the pro subscription to Pool Math and felt ready to go get a water test and probably ignore most of what the pool store tried to sell me.
Note: The IMGUR album shows the state of the pool before I started adding chems, and all the equipment I currently have. The pictures attached below are from this weekend.
ON Saturday morning 8/3 I took a water sample to the local pool store (LPS) and the results were:
Current status of the pool:
FC: .22
TC: .22 (guessing these may be the lower limit of the tester)
Combined Chlorine: 0
ph: 6.4
Total Alkalinity: 18
Calcium Hardness: 94
CYA: 8
Copper: 0
Iron: 0
Phosphates: 3554 (not a typo)
Salt: 580
Saturation Index: -1.9
Endure: 0
They recommended and I bought all the following:
25lbs of Baking Soda to Raise Alkalinity then 30 mins later
5 lbs of ph UP then 30 mins later
Add 90 day algaecide
5 gallons of 10.5% bleach, scrubbing pool and backwashing filter once per day until the water clears up.
I asked about adding CYA to the pool since I read here that it helps the chlorine last longer, but they said you don't need CYA yet because you are going to be backwashing so much this coming week it's just going to be a waste.
I followed all the directions above (with the exception of adding the algaecide) as the seemed consistent with the articles here, Pool Math and didn't include any super expensive chemicals or additives on the "naughty list." I used 6 2.5 gallon jugs my pool owning buddy (POB) bought, and the price of the baking soda saved me time from going to Lowes or Walmart and having to go to multiple places to chase down other chemicals.
I added the 5g of 10.5% bleach around 4 PM yesterday and then 30 minutes later using test strips, and a liquid dropper kit also from my POB, I tested again and got the following results
Total Hardness: ~250 but really hard to read this on a test strip
Total Chlorine: 10+
Free Chlorine: 10+
pH: 7.6-7.7
Total Alkalinity: ~120 but hard to tell for sure on test strip color chart
Stabilizer: ~0
I came back this morning and the pH may have dropped slightly to 7.6 but the TC and the FC were reading 0 both on the test strips and the dropper kit. Water may have been slightly clearer in the first 12-18" but hard to really tell.
I added 2 more 2.5 gallon buckets of chlorine into the pool and then measured again to make sure the TC and FC had risen and they were both 10+ again.
At this point I know that my pool is eating chlorine at an alarming rate, which is not surprising considering the neglected state of this pool.
I LOVED the pool school articles and feel very thankful that I was able to find this site before spending hundreds of dollars at the LPS. I will say one area of the pool school articles I personally found to be lacking in sufficient clear direction: What to do with a completely neglected pool, and specifically, do you RAISE a low CYA before attempting a first SLAM? There was lots of information about attempting to LOWER CYA if it was too high (by partially draining the pool), but nothing saying specifically, "You shall raise CYA to a minimum of XX before starting to SLAM the pool." or "Don't adjust CYA before starting to SLAM the pool." If I missed the location of this information I would appreciate someone linking me to an article about it
Questions:
1 - What should I do, if anything, with a CYA of 8, prior to SLAMming the pool?
2 - I know most posts here say not to, but given the SEVERELY neglected state of this pool, should I add the algaecide?
3 - What else should I do at this point?
Thanks in advance for your help and advice.
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