Old Pool, New owner *Now with 100% more pictures!*

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Re: Old Pool, New owner

AuntieNelle said:
Cya 70 today, after the pump had only been circulating for 2 hours or so. They really don't give you much reagent for that test.
Click to expand...
Which is why many of us got the tf-100 verses the K-2006...much more of the reagents you typically use the most.

Well your cya is still high. I would probably do another 30% drain/refill to get it down to ~ 50 ppm.
 
Re: Old Pool, New owner

I wish I could, but I don't know if I can face that water bill. I think bleach is cheaper per gallon!

Family crisis today, so I dint think anything else is going to happen right now. I'm looking into the koi pond option. ;)
 
Re: Old Pool, New owner

Family comes first...hope everything is okay!

Where do you live? In many areas of the country that are not in drought conditions, water is not very expensive.

You can manage to do the SLAM process at 70 ppm cya, but it will take quite a bit more chlorine since you will need to maintain FC at 28 ppm.
 
Re: Old Pool, New owner

I'm back. It looks horrific. Dark and glowing green.

The sand filter has been running 24 hours a day, poor thing.
I have not been adding chlorine i don't think there is any.
CH 70
CYA 65. I'm just going to slam it there.
TA 20
pH 6.8 (I'm guessing. it's unreadably low.) I need to fix that first.

I'm off to buy 20 lb of baking soda.
 
Re: Old Pool, New owner

AuntieNelle said:
I'm back. It looks horrific. Dark and glowing green.

The sand filter has been running 24 hours a day, poor thing.
I have not been adding chlorine i don't think there is any.
CH 70
CYA 65. I'm just going to slam it there.
TA 20
pH 6.8 (I'm guessing. it's unreadably low.) I need to fix that first.

I'm off to buy 20 lb of baking soda.
Click to expand...

How about buying some Borax? And have you bought some bleach too, I hope?
 
Re: Old Pool, New owner

Pool school scared me off borax. Can I use it to up my pH even though I don't have strips to test borates? Just use it like soda ash?

I have some squirreled away 8.2 percent Clorox I've been getting a gallon or two from Walmart at a time. At Winn Dixie I found 10% liquid shock, so I got three of those, and I just found a reputable pool store that sells refillable 2.5 gallon containers of 12%, so that is the direction I'm heading in. I've put the odd gallon or two in the pool but I didn't think it was worth commiting too much until I was ready to slam.

I'm off tomorrow so that's the plan. We'll see how many trips to the store it takes.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Yes, focus on FC right now. unless the pH is way out of whack, just lean on FC hard until it comes your way. It will take a tremendous amount with that green water, but don't be discouraged. With Cya 65 you are going to take a LOT of FC to do the job. I understand water cost, but if you think it's better, then do what you have to do. Just know, it would go much easier, quicker and with less bleach, even with a Cya of 40.

I like the idea of the 2.5 gallon re-fill option. Not a lot of us have that option, but it's a good one if the price is close. The benefit of less hauling/handling and disposing of jugs is worth something too, so don't discount that in the equation. I know it's frustrating, but believe me, you will lick it and start to see some FC residual and progress soon. Just hammer away with the 12.5% and you'll see.

Lastly, lots of views and no responses annoys the heck out of me too. I'll be checking back to see how it goes and wish you best of luck for now. Keep us posted please, and ask questions if you need too.
 
Sorry to cut and run!

Progress report:

I wish I could devote myself to pool clearing (and swimming) full time, but alas, someone has to pay for this puppy.

I started out SLAMming religiously, then I ran out of reagent, so I went to just adding a gallon twice I day whenever I could. I was about to quit on day 3.5 when I noticed a whitish tinge to the swamp, so I pressed on. My chlorine supplier accused me of diverting chemicals for resale to a secret pool cleaning service, I assured him it was all going in the same pool. Heh. After countless days. (10ish?) I reached a glorious cloudy blue. And figured that would all clear up in time given frequent filter back washes and time. It was slowly coming around but as it cleared I was finding shadows of leaf piles long rotted in the deep end and streaks of nefarious algae on the walls. I hate vacuuming with a passionate ardor and sweeping blindly was not cutting it for me. So I bought a refurb Leslie's Dolphin deluxe 4 and it's my new best friend.

I took some water to the better pool store and they have a computer testing lab (I'm assuming that cya measurement would be more accurate than even me?)

Cya 65
Fc 3.5
pH was 8.2 I think?

He told me to add acid to 7.2 and if that doesn't clear it in a few days to flocc. I went a little under his recommended dose and now I'm at 7.5.

My pump has been running 24/7 for over a month. That can't be healthy. After running the dolphin, it's much cloudier again, of course, but still blue/white. The crud it dredges up is greenish/whitish matts o dead algae, sand, leaves, bugs, and crumbled cement grit from the aged apron (skim vac was never going to get that). I'm running the Crud out of it to make sure it does it's job since there is a 2 week return policy if I'm not satisfied.

New question:
Wait out the cloudiness now that I know there isn't a new wave of algae clinging to life in the murky deeps?

Does flocc alter your chemistry in any negative way? I'm really in no hurry. Too cold to swim anyway.
I paln to slam again Tuesday when I have some time off and have restocked my chlorine cans. To prep I am doing a partial water change today to try to reduce cya and clear up some of the cloudiness. I'll post levels then

Thanks for the support. This has definitely not been cheaper than the time I paid someone to do this, but the experience has been valuable. And now I have the tools to keep it from happening again. Next year is going to be awesome.
 
If you've got cloudy blue, congratulations you're almost there. Don't back off now, you're only a day away from green again. Your FC is too low, the CYA/CHLORINE chart shows a target of 7.5 for a CYA of 65. Try and keep the FC at or above that level until you have time to complete the SLAM. The other readings are pretty irrelevant and unimportant until the water is clear and the FC/CC are where they need to be.

I have 3 60' oaks around my pool so I get the difficulty of dealing with the leaves. A leaf rake is your friend there, http://www.recreonics.com/leaf_rakes.htm . Dig out all the crud and keep slamming and your only a few days from beautiful water.

Food for thought, My biggest mistake when I inherited my pool the first year was to not drain and refill. I fought a CYA of 80 for that year. The next year I did the drain and it's been so much easier.

Good luck.
 
There's no reason to put flocc in your pool. Chlorine and filtering reliably get the job done. (Sometimes flocc helps, and sometimes it makes even more of a mess. There's no reason to risk it. Your water will become sparkling clear without it.)

Your own last CYA reading was 65. Since you haven't done a drain/refill, haven't added CYA, and you've been using bleach, CYA should remain steady. The CYA reading is one the pool store is often inaccurate on, so I trust your reading most, but in your case they match! :mrgreen:

Bump up the chlorine based on the minimum for your CYA until you restock and restart the slam. Once you start getting low chlorine loss overnight during the slam, you may want to add a bit of DE to your sand filter to hurry along the clearing process if the water is still cloudy. See pool-school/add_de_to_a_sand_filter.
 
You may want to check your water rates. Water is pretty cheap here (Virginia). It may be easier going forward to do a partial drain to lower your CYA; then you'll need less bleach. The reason for a separate water meter is that they're billed differently. Part of your water bill includes a bill for sewage. When you have a separate meter for outdoor water (lawn, garden,pool etc), there is no sewage fee, since that water goes directly onto the ground, so the rate is nearly half. The only catch is there's a fee for your county to come install a separate meter; for our county it's a once time fee of around $300. You can call your local water utility for more info.

I got lazy and let the pool go and am dealing with algae too, plus the leaves are dropping buckets by the minute. I'm on day 3 of adding bleach, and it's blue and nearly clear (from green and cloudy). My CYA is about 25. Hang in there and be patient, but yes, you do definitely need to continue to add bleach on a regular basis for the first few days or it just won't clear.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply