Hi! First time poster. Last spring/summer we were caring for a terminally ill dog in a wheelchair and did not end up opening our pool at all, so it was closed for 2 years. The winter cover shredded in places, and we opened the pool a month ago to a brown, smelly swamp. Went through 30 bottles of shock, various recommendations from different local pool stores (non-copper algaecides, clarifiers (not floc), phosphate remover). Two different pool store chains' employees told me very insistently that CYA does not matter and I should not add it because it's hard to remove. Probably why I went through so much shock? I had 0 CYA when I opened.
I got a K-2006 Taylor kit. I THINK my CYA is now 41 or 42 after slowly adding stabilizer and testing following instructions on here (waist-high, back to the sun, and at-first-glace with the dot). The PH was at 7.3 or 7.4 when I started SLAM a few days ago. We put in a new cartridge filter. I add the amount of shock - sometimes liquid, sometimes Cal-Hypo - that PoolMath says for SLAM at 41 CYA, and test twice a day, but every time I test it's still never at SLAM level. Stays around 0.5 CC and 7.5-12.5 FC. I keep a floater w/2 Tri-Chor tabs in too just because I'm apparently losing so much FC between shocks and I don't think my CYA is too high yet. All the leaf debris seems to be out now and I brush every couple of days.
(1) Pool temp is 73. Would adding a solar cover to raise the temp help the process? I seem to remember one season the cloudy water wouldn't clear until the pool temp went up higher than that, and I had a different pool app (sureTREAT) that claims water should be at least 78 for chemicals to work properly.
(2) We have a 12 mill solar cover that is still intact and hosed off but still pretty dirty from not being stored well. We're thinking of replacing it anyhow with a new one, so degradation from high chlorine's not a big deal. But would dirt and algae on it just make the situation worse?
(3) Our pool's vinyl liner has brownish staining. I assumed it was tannins from a nearby oak tree's leaves, but when I held a Tri-Chlor tab on it for over a minute, I saw no difference. Pool store water test said I have 0-0.3 Total Iron and Copper. Should I try a Vitamin C tablet anyways and see what happens?
Sorry such a long post. I kind of feel like giving up. I know I only started the SLAM a few days ago, and I guess it's been getting slightly better each day since then, but very slightly. And after a month of working on this I'm so discouraged. I can now see the brush at the bottom in a blur, but it's still quite cloudy.
I got a K-2006 Taylor kit. I THINK my CYA is now 41 or 42 after slowly adding stabilizer and testing following instructions on here (waist-high, back to the sun, and at-first-glace with the dot). The PH was at 7.3 or 7.4 when I started SLAM a few days ago. We put in a new cartridge filter. I add the amount of shock - sometimes liquid, sometimes Cal-Hypo - that PoolMath says for SLAM at 41 CYA, and test twice a day, but every time I test it's still never at SLAM level. Stays around 0.5 CC and 7.5-12.5 FC. I keep a floater w/2 Tri-Chor tabs in too just because I'm apparently losing so much FC between shocks and I don't think my CYA is too high yet. All the leaf debris seems to be out now and I brush every couple of days.
(1) Pool temp is 73. Would adding a solar cover to raise the temp help the process? I seem to remember one season the cloudy water wouldn't clear until the pool temp went up higher than that, and I had a different pool app (sureTREAT) that claims water should be at least 78 for chemicals to work properly.
(2) We have a 12 mill solar cover that is still intact and hosed off but still pretty dirty from not being stored well. We're thinking of replacing it anyhow with a new one, so degradation from high chlorine's not a big deal. But would dirt and algae on it just make the situation worse?
(3) Our pool's vinyl liner has brownish staining. I assumed it was tannins from a nearby oak tree's leaves, but when I held a Tri-Chlor tab on it for over a minute, I saw no difference. Pool store water test said I have 0-0.3 Total Iron and Copper. Should I try a Vitamin C tablet anyways and see what happens?
Sorry such a long post. I kind of feel like giving up. I know I only started the SLAM a few days ago, and I guess it's been getting slightly better each day since then, but very slightly. And after a month of working on this I'm so discouraged. I can now see the brush at the bottom in a blur, but it's still quite cloudy.
)
I used Cal-Hypo because my calcium was low (and also I read on some pool site somewhere that it's stronger on tough algae than Sodium Chlorite, but maybe that's not true?). I got CH up to 130 or 135 w/Cal-Hypo and added 1 lb of 56% since then so I think CH is about 137 now. Does CH below 150 make the water corrosive or it doesn't matter? I have some Calcium Up from a couple years ago I could use at a later date instead if you think Cal-Hypo is not a good idea. I have 2 more 1 lb bags of it but I guess I could store them.
Hopefully "another clear pool in Cleveland" will be ours! 
Have had the pump running 24/7 and hoping the electric bill isn't atrocious 
It's a single-speed pump.
, though still hazy. There are spots of dark powdery stuff at the bottom that disappear into a cloud when I brush. The past 2 days we've vacuumed it off the bottom (through the filter and then cleaned the filter), but it returns the next day. Could that be algae forming even though the FC is so high? I haven't checked the combined chlorine in a while, but last time I did it was at 0. I don't find any more leaves or debris in the pool.
