Trying to restore green Pool
- Thread starter newpoolguy17
- Start date
Sounds good! Your water actually looks fairly good shouldn't be too hard! Ours was alot worse, I posted pics of what we had to clean up, take a look it will make you feel alot better :-D
new-to-posting-but-not-new-to-forum-t20353.html
Good luck and post more pics!
Amy
new-to-posting-but-not-new-to-forum-t20353.html
Good luck and post more pics!
Amy
zea3: Alright, thanks for the confirmation.
Last week it was actually a lot dirtier and was as green as yours (maybe not as slimy looking and definitely no table and cement blocks :-D ), but listened to the advice of people on the forum and vacuumed and put a bottle of chlorine in everyday. Thank you though, your pictures give me hope :-D seeing that you started out much worse and was able to turn it around.
GApoolmommie said:
Last week it was actually a lot dirtier and was as green as yours (maybe not as slimy looking and definitely no table and cement blocks :-D ), but listened to the advice of people on the forum and vacuumed and put a bottle of chlorine in everyday. Thank you though, your pictures give me hope :-D seeing that you started out much worse and was able to turn it around.
Ok, your spa area looks like it may have metal staining or organic staining - can't tell which it is, and it may be both....
Take a vitamin C tablet and hold it on the darkened areas - if you get a reaction the stain is likely metal.
Take a trichlor tablet and hold it/rub it on these same areas - if you get a reaction the stain is organic and shock levels of FC should fade these darkened areas.
Take a vitamin C tablet and hold it on the darkened areas - if you get a reaction the stain is likely metal.
Take a trichlor tablet and hold it/rub it on these same areas - if you get a reaction the stain is organic and shock levels of FC should fade these darkened areas.
frustratedpoolmom said:
Oh man, so what happens if it is metal stain? Continue with the shock treatment and then deal with it, or will metal staining affect the shock treatment?
Thanks Pool mom.
I too am cleaning a swamp AND have metal staining. Right now I am still dealing with chlorine issues as my pool sat for 3 years so one problem at a time. When you get the FC under control, then come back and you'll be advised on how to help metal staining which is an entirely different issue. Note due to needing to remove metals at a low FC you cannot do both at the same time, so we wait 
whoozer said:I too am cleaning a swamp AND have metal staining. Right now I am still dealing with chlorine issues as my pool sat for 3 years so one problem at a time. When you get the FC under control, then come back and you'll be advised on how to help metal staining which is an entirely different issue. Note due to needing to remove metals at a low FC you cannot do both at the same time, so we wait
Thanks whoozer, I was so afraid that I would have to deal with the metal staining and FC at the same time. Alright, back to original plan.
HELP!!! CYA disappeared
I have a problem now. My CYA is 0 (ZERO), which I don't understand. I took the water sample to Leslie's (They are my only second opinion as far as water testing goes) and they also came up with zero.
A couple weeks back before I started posting, my CYA was 20. So I added conditioner and it came up to 40. Since then I've added nothing more to the pool other than 4-5lbs of shock (cal-hypo) and that is when this board recommended me put a bottle of clorox bleach for shock. I also vacuumed and cleaned the filters a couple times.
Leslie claims that I've cleaned all the CYA out (when I'm cleaning the filter) before it had a chance to set.
They also try to make a claim that clorox bleach is for clothes and it altered the chemicals in the pool making the CYA disappear.
I'm skeptical of both claims, but wanted to throw it out there and see what everyone thinks.
So now I'm very confused on where my CYA is?????
It has not rained and I have not added water so I don't know how it all disappeared.
I don't know if i should continue with shock treatment when there is no CYA. (Is it better to do so since shock level requirement will be low?)
I have a problem now. My CYA is 0 (ZERO), which I don't understand. I took the water sample to Leslie's (They are my only second opinion as far as water testing goes) and they also came up with zero.
A couple weeks back before I started posting, my CYA was 20. So I added conditioner and it came up to 40. Since then I've added nothing more to the pool other than 4-5lbs of shock (cal-hypo) and that is when this board recommended me put a bottle of clorox bleach for shock. I also vacuumed and cleaned the filters a couple times.
Leslie claims that I've cleaned all the CYA out (when I'm cleaning the filter) before it had a chance to set.
They also try to make a claim that clorox bleach is for clothes and it altered the chemicals in the pool making the CYA disappear.
I'm skeptical of both claims, but wanted to throw it out there and see what everyone thinks.
So now I'm very confused on where my CYA is?????
It has not rained and I have not added water so I don't know how it all disappeared.
I don't know if i should continue with shock treatment when there is no CYA. (Is it better to do so since shock level requirement will be low?)
Get a test at wally-world for ammonia... if you have ammonia in the pool, buy all the bleach they have, that bug takes a lot of bleach to get rid of.
Re: HELP!!! CYA disappeared
The second claim is pure unadulterated bunk. There are no chemicals in bleach that will make the CYA disappear. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite and is exactly the same as in chlorinating liquid (say, from a pool store) except it's usually half the strength at 6% instead of 12.5%. So Leslie's is definitely wrong about this.
Did your FC level ever get close to zero at any point in time (even for half a day)? If it did, then bacteria can grow in the pool and convert CYA into ammonia. That's why the previous post talks about ammonia. If you get an inexpensive ammonia test kit from a fish/pet/aquarium store, then this can give you an idea of whether this is what happened. You can also do a bucket test to determine the chlorine demand for your pool. 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach (Clorox Regular or off-brand Ultra bleach) in 2 gallons is 10 ppm FC. If bacteria actually converted 40 ppm of CYA into ammonia, it can take around 100 ppm FC cumulatively added to clear it. Let's hope that didn't happen.
The first statement is very possible if you added your CYA through the skimmer to get caught into the filter, BUT you said 1) you measured 20 ppm CYA before you added more and 2) you measured 40 ppm CYA presumably sometime after you added the CYA. Once you measure the CYA, it should not get caught back into the filter so Leslie's would be wrong in this case.newpoolguy17 said:
The second claim is pure unadulterated bunk. There are no chemicals in bleach that will make the CYA disappear. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite and is exactly the same as in chlorinating liquid (say, from a pool store) except it's usually half the strength at 6% instead of 12.5%. So Leslie's is definitely wrong about this.
Did your FC level ever get close to zero at any point in time (even for half a day)? If it did, then bacteria can grow in the pool and convert CYA into ammonia. That's why the previous post talks about ammonia. If you get an inexpensive ammonia test kit from a fish/pet/aquarium store, then this can give you an idea of whether this is what happened. You can also do a bucket test to determine the chlorine demand for your pool. 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach (Clorox Regular or off-brand Ultra bleach) in 2 gallons is 10 ppm FC. If bacteria actually converted 40 ppm of CYA into ammonia, it can take around 100 ppm FC cumulatively added to clear it. Let's hope that didn't happen.
Chem geek,
Well my first and main problem was that the FC would not stay above 0 for more than 1 night. So it has been at 0 for quite awhile. I ordered the test kit and have been waiting for it to come in before taking any actions. In the mean time, I had been putting one bottle of bleach into the pool every day until I get the test kit per the suggestion of everybody here.
So I got the kit yesterday and decided to do the following today (assuming my CYA was still at 40ppm)
-bring pool to shock level (depending on CYA)
-test 30 minutes and bring back to shock level
-test every hour and bring back to shock level if necessary.
-Scrub pool and clean filter (when clogged) while waiting between intervals.
But before I can even start on this procedure, I realized my CYA was at 0 and that is what brought me back for everyone's expertise.
So right now situation is: 0 FC and 0 CYA. On the plus side..my pH is 7.4 :-D .... HELP!!!
Is the ammonia test hard to perform? Is it just looking for whether there is a presence of ammonia vs no ammonia or do I actually test for a value?
Well my first and main problem was that the FC would not stay above 0 for more than 1 night. So it has been at 0 for quite awhile. I ordered the test kit and have been waiting for it to come in before taking any actions. In the mean time, I had been putting one bottle of bleach into the pool every day until I get the test kit per the suggestion of everybody here.
So I got the kit yesterday and decided to do the following today (assuming my CYA was still at 40ppm)
-bring pool to shock level (depending on CYA)
-test 30 minutes and bring back to shock level
-test every hour and bring back to shock level if necessary.
-Scrub pool and clean filter (when clogged) while waiting between intervals.
But before I can even start on this procedure, I realized my CYA was at 0 and that is what brought me back for everyone's expertise.
So right now situation is: 0 FC and 0 CYA. On the plus side..my pH is 7.4 :-D .... HELP!!!
Is the ammonia test hard to perform? Is it just looking for whether there is a presence of ammonia vs no ammonia or do I actually test for a value?
I would add enough CYA to reach 20ppm - I'm wondering if prior tests were incorrect?
No, the ammonia test is not hard to perform. I would go ahead and purchase one so we can confirm/rule out that this is what occurred, as it could also just be testing error...
No, the ammonia test is not hard to perform. I would go ahead and purchase one so we can confirm/rule out that this is what occurred, as it could also just be testing error...
frustratedpoolmom said:
I hope it is testing error, but I've had the water tested many times before and it was 20ppm every time. I think it was last week I added some "instant conditioner" and got tested it again at Leslie's (all test have been done at Leslie's before because all I had were test strips from Walmart) and it came up to 40ppm.
All this time, FC has been at 0. I've seen it go up, but come back down again the next day.
I've been adding a bottle of bleach into the pool every night to keep the algae at bay until my test kit came in. When I tested it twice today with the tftestkit, the FC is at 0 and the CYA was also at 0. I took it back to Leslie's to confirm just to make sure I didn't make a mistake, and they also got FC = 0 and CYA = 0.
What kind of ammonia level do you think I would be seeing if the bacteria did eat 40ppm of CYA.
Is it normal to have all this happening even though my pool is fairly clear? Deepest end is 5ft and I can see all the way to the bottom.
Some pet stores will test the water for ammonia for free. You can call around your area.
newpoolguy17 said:
If it turns out to be ammonia, bleach (and lots of it) will take care of it.chem geek said:
If the bacteria converted all of the CYA into ammonia, then that level would be around 12 ppm which is extremely high. In practice, the bacteria often have only some of the CYA converted and there are a lot of extra CYA fragments that don't measure as CYA nor as ammonia. So you usually have to add more chlorine than the ammonia test would indicate. As I wrote earlier, let's hope the bacteria didn't actually break down that much CYA.newpoolguy17 said:
Hang in there and these guys will get you through it. They got me through green algae and then green metal water. For your CYA test trust your test with the new TFTest kit. I had a leslie's DPD test kit that I was using at first to test the cya and it had a small tub. When I got the new TF100 kit my CYA number was different and much lower than I had thought or Leslie's had measured. Are you sure leslie's was not using a strip? Mine here has switched to using a strip. Since I still have strips and 3 different test kits right now, I've been comparing results on the chlorine and did the CYA comparision too. I was showing my family the difference in the numbers/colors. Going by the strip it said I has 40 but I know from the tf100 kit I have only 30. I'm still charting and testing my water every evening and morning. Soon you'll have sparkly clean wonderful water too.
Thanks everyone I'll get an ammonia test kit tomorrow and see.
I used the TFtest kit twice and came out with 0.
In order to make sure I did the test correctly, I tried it again, but this time I purposely added a couple drops of conditioner and I actually got a result so I was pretty sure I was doing the test correctly per the instructions (filling to bottom of label with water and then to top with reactant agent). But just in case I took it to Leslie's and they also came up with 0. They were not using test strips, but were using a tube with a black dot at the bottom just like the TFtestkit.
So just to make sure I got it, my actions are test for ammonia. If it is NOT present, I add conditioner and continue with shock treatment. If it IS present, I add chlorine to a level which is more than ammonia? Example, if ammonia level is 12ppm I make sure chlorine level is higher like 15ppm?
Man and I thought this was going to be easy. Thanks again for everyone's help and patience.
I used the TFtest kit twice and came out with 0.
In order to make sure I did the test correctly, I tried it again, but this time I purposely added a couple drops of conditioner and I actually got a result so I was pretty sure I was doing the test correctly per the instructions (filling to bottom of label with water and then to top with reactant agent). But just in case I took it to Leslie's and they also came up with 0. They were not using test strips, but were using a tube with a black dot at the bottom just like the TFtestkit.
So just to make sure I got it, my actions are test for ammonia. If it is NOT present, I add conditioner and continue with shock treatment. If it IS present, I add chlorine to a level which is more than ammonia? Example, if ammonia level is 12ppm I make sure chlorine level is higher like 15ppm?
Man and I thought this was going to be easy. Thanks again for everyone's help and patience.
I think the safest approach is to do the bucket test to determine the amount of chlorine it's going to take before a reading consistently holds. Either that, or just keep adding chlorine frequently to the pool, but I'd do most of that work after the sun is off the pool. It could take a LOT of chlorine -- much more than you described, but a bucket test will tell you that amount in advance. Just note that it can take 5-10 minutes or so for the chlorine oxidation of ammonia to complete when there is no CYA in the water so add chlorine mix and wait and then test and add more chlorine mix wait and test again, etc. Remember that 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach in 2 gallons is 10 ppm FC.
Chem Geek, I see what you mean when you recommend the bucket test. That way I can be sure that it will work.
So is my goal for the bucket test to keep adding 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach until the ammonia level is 0ppm? (assuming that I get an ammonia reading?)
So is my goal for the bucket test to keep adding 1/4 teaspoon of 6% bleach until the ammonia level is 0ppm? (assuming that I get an ammonia reading?)
The idea is to keep adding a little chlorine every 10 to 15 minutes until there is a non-zero FC reading 10 to 15 minutes after adding chlorine. That will allow you/us to calculate an approximate amount of chlorine required to clean up the entire pool.