Howdy folks! I am new to pools and new to the forums as well. I've added all of the pertinent information to my signature, however, my test kits have not yet arrived so I do not have the most important data yet but should by this weekend.
Pool background: Built in the late 80s/90s, previous owners stopped using some time in the early 2010s. Vinyl liner was replaced ~2015-2016 and then house sat on the market for over 2 years and pool got very nasty. We opened in 2018 but then the filter failed before we could even use it, so closed it again. It's now been uncovered for 1 month and started as very dark green/brown with less than 18" visibility. As we do not know anything, started with local pool company. Brand new filter, new valves, salt cell is older and pump is older. Good progress the first two weeks and had visibility to about 4 feet. Then we hit this cycle:
Pool guys come on Friday when water is kind of cloudy and blueish. They dump in shock and salt - pool gets worse and turns dark green for ~ 2 days.
By Sunday, water is pretty clear and we can see to the bottom of the deep end where there is a lot of what I assume is dead algae (brownish and "poofs" up when you try to vacuum it)
By Monday-Tuesday, while still decent visibility the water is cloudy and you can no longer see the bottom in the deep end. (see pic)
They've put 6 bags of salt in over the last two weeks. The IC40 life button is blinking, the cell light is off and the salt level is red/low.
As I noted above, I do not have test results yet but will by the weekend. Based on what I have been reading for other similar situations, I am going to guess the FC is low, particularly compared to whatever level our CYA is. I've been vacuuming out the dead algae/debris in the bottom of the deep end this week, but still cannot see the bottom clearly due to the cloudy nature. I'm also concerned since the cell life button isn't on at all on the IC40 and the salt level is red/low. I'm not sure how many bags of salt to expect to need for a 30k pool.
Pool guys coming tomorrow and I am guessing they will shock it again, but based on what I have read and seeing that they are using some kind of granules and not bleach, could this just continue the cycle?
Edit to add I do not have any reason to suspect that our pool guys aren't great, but I'm a DIYer at heart and do not want to have to rely on someone else to keep the pool clean and problem free.
Pool background: Built in the late 80s/90s, previous owners stopped using some time in the early 2010s. Vinyl liner was replaced ~2015-2016 and then house sat on the market for over 2 years and pool got very nasty. We opened in 2018 but then the filter failed before we could even use it, so closed it again. It's now been uncovered for 1 month and started as very dark green/brown with less than 18" visibility. As we do not know anything, started with local pool company. Brand new filter, new valves, salt cell is older and pump is older. Good progress the first two weeks and had visibility to about 4 feet. Then we hit this cycle:
Pool guys come on Friday when water is kind of cloudy and blueish. They dump in shock and salt - pool gets worse and turns dark green for ~ 2 days.
By Sunday, water is pretty clear and we can see to the bottom of the deep end where there is a lot of what I assume is dead algae (brownish and "poofs" up when you try to vacuum it)
By Monday-Tuesday, while still decent visibility the water is cloudy and you can no longer see the bottom in the deep end. (see pic)
They've put 6 bags of salt in over the last two weeks. The IC40 life button is blinking, the cell light is off and the salt level is red/low.
As I noted above, I do not have test results yet but will by the weekend. Based on what I have been reading for other similar situations, I am going to guess the FC is low, particularly compared to whatever level our CYA is. I've been vacuuming out the dead algae/debris in the bottom of the deep end this week, but still cannot see the bottom clearly due to the cloudy nature. I'm also concerned since the cell life button isn't on at all on the IC40 and the salt level is red/low. I'm not sure how many bags of salt to expect to need for a 30k pool.
Pool guys coming tomorrow and I am guessing they will shock it again, but based on what I have read and seeing that they are using some kind of granules and not bleach, could this just continue the cycle?
Edit to add I do not have any reason to suspect that our pool guys aren't great, but I'm a DIYer at heart and do not want to have to rely on someone else to keep the pool clean and problem free.
Added one last time 8:30pm and now at 9:30 it’s 13ppm FC and 1ppm CC. We’ll see what she looks like in the morning.