Ready to fill the pool in

[beth_clydes]

Hi, everyone. I've been lurking for a few weeks trying to see if I can manage this. I am not new to the pool experience, my parents have had one since I was 5 (years and years and years ago) father made me help with it. We have had our current home 5 years the pool is probably 20 years old. Ofcourse that is not to say that I am an expert either as you can tell, just that I have been around them forever. We have a 20 x 40 inground pool. Depth is 9 foot at the deepest part. WE have a hayward sand filter on it as to the size I truly do not know (pool companies around here are of no help with that part). I have attached a picture my pool has looked like this most of the summer at it's best it has been a light green.

Quite honestly I have wasted hundreds of dollars on a pool that we have only gotten to swim in 2 times this summer so far...I am hoping to turn that around for the next month. Okay here are my stats 0 on FC (despite the tons of shock and clorine I have wasted in it PH is way high 8.4 TA is 120. CYA was unable to test accurately. AS you can tell from picture pool looks yuck yuck yuck. I am hoping to try the BBB method and hoping to have some sort of success. I am tired of brushing a pool I cannot use or even tell where I am brushing. I am wondering if it is worth even dumping in the 5 bottles of 6% bleach that I bought from walmart today, (they are the biggest ones you can get and if I did my calculations right I believe that was the amoung I needed)? Or do I need to get my ph down and how can I do this without using more chemicals????

Sorry for all the ranting we are just a little frustrated right now. Any and all help would be appreciated it seems like I am on new territory as I have never had this problem before. Normally I just throw in some Baking soda and chlorine tabs during the summer, shock it after a heavy rain, vacum 1 x weekly and brush daily unless there is a storm(those don't happen often).

Again thank you.

 

[duraleigh]

Hi, Beth,

The good news is you can save your pool. The bad news is you can't do it without a lot of clorox, some muriatic acid and a whole lot of persistence and patience. you will not be able to fix it overnight but you can probably get it crystal clear in 4-8 days time if you're up for it.

1. How did you measure 8.4pH? Most kits stop @ 8.0

2. Based on your estimate, I'd say your pool is about 35,000 gallons. Can you confirm that?

3. You do not have nearly enough Clorox. Your gonna' need about five times that amount if you want to clear your pool.

4. You're gonna' need muriatic acid to lower the pH down to around 7.2 Probably one gallon and maybe a little more.

5. We'll need a reasonable CYA measurement. You can get started without it but you'll need it to get everything just right.

Post back with answers to the above and let us know you're ready to tackle it. BTW, welcome to the forum. You'll find a lot of people are willing to help and give you solid accurate advice that will get your pool clear.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You can usually get a CYA reading from murky water by filtering the water through a coffee filter first.

The key to shocking the pool is to do it all at once and keep at it several times a day. If you do some chlorine here and some chlorine there you will never kill all the algae and it just grows back.

It is important to get the PH down before you shock the pool. Chlorine is not as effective at high PH levels. I would aim for 7.2 to 7.4 right before you start shocking. Muriatic acid is the best thing for bring the PH down, but some people don't like dealing with it. Dry acid will also work.

 

[beth_clydes]

1. How did you measure 8.4pH? Most kits stop @ 8.0

I just have one of the 6 way test strip kits ( I know not the best but I'm working on getting a better kind of kit) it measures up to 8.4 on the PH.

2. Based on your estimate, I'd say your pool is about 35,000 gallons. Can you confirm that

I used the pool calculation program that is showed on here and it came out to 53,900.

3. You do not have nearly enough Clorox. Your gonna' need about five times that amount if you want to clear your pool.

Yikes!!!!!!I figured since I was buying the 174 fl oz (1 gal 46 oz) @ 6% containers that 5 was enough ............ Guess I should have used the pool calculator.

4. You're gonna' need muriatic acid to lower the pH down to around 7.2 Probably one gallon and maybe a little more.

So I guess there is no way to avoid using the muriatic acid...

5. We'll need a reasonable CYA measurement. You can get started without it but you'll need it to get everything just right.

I'll get this better when I get a new test kit.

Hmmm... I see my pictures didn't post somethign about them being too big. I'll try again later with those.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Buggsw]

Hi and welcome!

The best way to post pics is to open a free account at www.photobucket.com, upload your photos there and then copy and paste the IMG links from there into your post, here.

As Duraleigh told you, it's going to take a lot more bleach than that over the course of the next few days to a week.
Your CYA is so very high, that I would recommend dumping about half your water. You can do this a bit at a time, but I think you will be better ahead to just do at least half right away.

Then, you will need to keep your chlorine level up to shock level day and night for several days, until it holds the shock level all night long. Dumping the water should make this go easier.

Now, this seems like an awful lot of work, and it is, but after it's over, it's really a breeze to maintain it.

 

[chem geek]

If the shallow end is (I am guessing) 3 feet deep and the deep end is 9 feet deep, then the average depth is around 6 feet so 20 x 40 x 6 = 4800 cubic feet which is about 36,000 gallons. I think you put in "9" for the depth in the pool calculator. The depth you put into the calculator should be the average depth, not the depth at the deep end. I think that's where the error was made. So I'd go with 36,000 gallons or thereabouts.

 

[beth_clydes]

First I want to say thank you for all the help. Chem geek thanks for helping me out with my pool stats. I like the sound of the 36000 gals of water over 53900. :lol:

Second, I actually had a measurement of FC in my pool this morning. I dumped the 5 containers of bleach mentioned earlier plus 5 more smaller 94 oz ones. Of course my FC levels are not as high as they need to be (.4) but I am happy that they at least registered. Plan on picking up at 20 more gals of bleach today (maybe more) and some mitric acid.

I'm just going to keep checking and adjusting as needed. I want to thank you all for your help and quick responses.

Beth

 

[beth_clydes]

Hi, Well it's been a week and a few days and I still need some more help. I hope you guys can point me in the right direction. First though here are my numbers tonight after a rain storm that started at 4 today and just recently ended.

FC 0 (Tues was 3)
TC 0
PH below 6.8 (tues was 7.2)
TA 100
CYA 20 (has been varying between 35 and 25 trying to keep it at 35)

These numbers are before I added anything tonight.

I was unable to test last night due to another storm (rain doesn't bother me just the lightening) and I did not add bleach or any sort of chemicals.

Tonight, after the rain storm I added baking soda to bring up the ph. I also put in 8 182 oz containers of colorox. I realize I need my cya up some.

Quick history, I have been adding bleach at 6 % since last week. Pool no longer looks like a pond. On Tuesday it was a pretty blue but still too cloudy to see the bottom. It's been cloudy like that since last Thursday. Since the rain yesterday my numbers have dropped (I'm sure skipping a day didn't help) and the cloudy is looking more white instead of blue. OH, and I have brushed it every day 1 to 2 times daily. Um, I haven't vacummed though

Okay, I guess my question is, does the heavy down pours have this sort of effect on everyone's pool? I've never experienced it before. Or is it a result of pool being so out of whack? How long will it take to get to where I can see the bottom of the pool again? I would really like to use the pool in Septmber on a daily basis so Hubby will stop telling me he is filling my pool in with cement

Lessons learned this summer. Sweep everyday (unless it is lighting) and test pool water everyday and add chemicals if needed and I like the BBB method so far (except for the funny looks when I go in the store and buy up to 10 big jugs of bleach on a daily basis :lol:

Thanks for all the help.

 

[gonefishin]

Hi Beth

You really are on the road to recovery...and things will get better. Just keep following the advice above and you'll be alright. Only thing I could add is that you need to be more persistent with keeping your chlorine up to shock levels. When there's alot of algae the algae will consume it quickly. So you need to check morning, noon and night...and add more bleach accordingly.

The more persistent you are the quicker your pool will clear.



oh yeah...congrats you're on the road to a clean pool!

dan

 

[heatmisr]

Dead algae is white, so if you are seeing white, that means you are winning the battle. you definitely have to keep the chlorine levels at shock level in order to kill it all. with a CYA of ~20, you should be up around 10ppm for the FC.

Once the water clears, and it could happen overnight, you will need to vacuum very, very slowly. All the dead algae will be settled on the bottom in piles of white powder. that is the one time you DON'T want to brush. Once you get it vacuumed up, you will be able to adjust all the numbers to normal ranges.

 

[dawndenise]

I also put in 8 182 oz containers of colorox.

Hi Beth,

You're getting really good advice and it sounds like you're on your way. Just wanted to be sure you've got a handle on your bleach additions.

Assuming you have 35 for CYA, your shock level for chlorine is about 14. If you have less CYA, your shock level may be even less, as heatmisr indicated. Each 182 oz jug of 6% Clorox bleach should increase FC in a 36,000-gallon pool by 2.4. So....if you have a 0 FC reading, you'd need not quite 6 jugs to move your FC reading from 0 to the magical 14 level for shocking. Again, if your CYA is less than 35, your shock level will be lower than 14 and you'd achieve that shock level with even less Clorox.

 

[beth_clydes]

Hi, guys thank for all the advice. I am going to take my CYA reading again. And then put more bleach in tonight. I'm trying to put in morning and night I check everything both times and then when I come home late in afternoon.

I do have one more question though, if all the white cloudy stuff is dead algea floating around do I need to use clarifier or some kind of flock(?????) I've seen it mentioned on the site when I am looking around and trying to learn more but I seem to get the impression that it is better to go without it....

Again, thanks for all the help.

Oh, real quick edit. I have never used a skimmer sock before but when I vacum this dead stuff up will it catch it. In the past I have noticed that it always seems to come back in the pool through the water jets.

 

[JasonLion]

If the filter is working correctly it will take care of the dead algae over several days. If you want to speed things up you can try a floc treatment, but it is extra money and extra work. Clarifier isn't likely to help at all in this situation.