Opened after 3 years - newbie

bimmer_2018

New member
Apr 21, 2025
1
Boston, MA
Bought a house with a vinyl pool that had remained close since 2021. Just opened a week back. It was dark green. Threw in a lot of shock (8 gallons pool shock liquid chlorine from job lot) last Sunday. Pump wasn’t working. Kept adding a gallon everyday. Replaced pump with pentair variable speed last Thursday and kept sand filter in circulate (there seemed to be sand in the jets, so don’t want to risk). Threw more shock. Pool appeared to become cloudy blue Friday. After a filter backwash and rinse, Put sand filter in filter mode on Friday evening and threw another couple gallons shock. Yesterday AM, chlorine was around 10, and pool was green. So pool store asked me change the sand. I stopped pump yesterday afternoon to replace sand and restarted this AM. Pump has been running past 8 hours with new sand. I am now at low PH (around 6.2) low chlorine (around 0.8). I hear low ph makes chlorine ineffective. I have a chlorinator but haven’t touched it yet. I haven’t vaccuumed as I can’t see the bottom. Appreciate feedback and steps for week ahead. Still learning the ropes.
 

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Hey Bimmer, welcome to TFPs! (Bimmer= BMW?)
While you may be tossing in a lot of liquid chlorine, you may be competing with a few things that will slow you down. First being- is every thing solid that's on the pool floor scooped out carefully? If not a lot of that chlorine is fighting that.
Secondly- We know pool store testing is iffy at best, but without knowing what your pool's full chem levels are you may be either using too much or too little chlorine based on what your stabilizer (CYA) level is.

Here is how TFP does things: Pool Care Basics
Please give it a read and see what we do for Algae. ANSWER: We SLAM Process the pool, using owner test kit for accurate levels.

Maddie :flower: