Two-year Swamp drained, now rehabbed and startup, with test results.

[Lance_Krueger]

I had my Pentair FNS Plus 48 fiberglass filter housing crack, and start shooting out sheets of water out of the cracked housing. Tried the poor-boy route of fixing it several times, though unsuccessful. So, my pool turned into an embarrassing, green mess that got pushed to the back burner for two years, though we never had any mosquito problems from it, since we had lots of happy frogs and tadpoles take up residence.
After reading Pool School several times and reading lots on the TFP Forum, and then having my 15 year old daughter read through Pool School, this week we finally embarked on taking back our pool again, and getting rid of the Swamp that the birds and frogs loved, but we didn't get to enjoy one bit. We finally got a new filter, and drained the pool this week, and manually removed two years accumulation of leaves and sewer smelling sludge in the bottom. Then power washed the whole plaster surface, and used MA on a rag to clean the calcium build-up on the tiles around the surface line above the plaster. After power washing all the algae and staining off the sides of the pool, I drained every bit of water and algae from the bottom of the pool and hot tub. Then, I did a chlorine wash of the sides and the bottom of the pool and spa, and ended up using 17 bottles of 8.25% 121 ounce Great Value Bleach from WallyWorld. With those 17 bottles in the bottom of the 26,000 gallon pool, I immediately started filling it up with two water hoses, and it filled up in 26 hours, thinking I would leave the FC levels at Shock level for a week, to kill whatever algae was left in the pool after the power washing and chlorine wash, and to hopefully help with some of the staining on the floor of the pool. When full, I turned the pump on Sunday evening (2-26-2017), and let it circulate over night. Today (Monday, 2-27-2017), I took my TF100 test kit, and used every test in it, for the first time ever.
First of all, I tested my tap water out of the hose that I used to fill the pool up with, and came up with the following:
pH = 7.2
FC = 1
CC = 1
TC = 2
CH = 325
TA = 110
CYA= 0

Secondly, I tested the pool water, which included the 17 bottles of bleach from the chlorine wash:
pH = 7.5
FC = 16
CC = 2
TC = 18
CH = 350
TA = 110
CYA= 0

As soon as I tested the water, I added 6 pounds of CYA, though PoolMath recommended 6 pounds 8 ounces for a CYA reading of 30. I put 3 pounds of CYA in each of two Nylon socks, and put one in the deep end skimmer and one in the shallow end skimmer.

So, here are my questions:
1). Since I power washed and chlorine washed the entire plaster surface of this pool, should I not add any liquid chlorine as the FC falls, and then when it gets to 12 FC, maintain the FC at 12 if I get the targeted CYA levels of 30 in a week, like the Chlorine/CYA Chart recommends for Shock FC? Or do I even need to SLAM/Shock this pool at all, since I power washed and bleach washed and removed all the algae, and filled it up with clean tap water? Or should I just test every day, and when the FC levels get to 3 or 4, then maintain those?

2). Also, should I do all the tests in my TF100 test kit for the next week? Or should I just test for pH, FC and CYA from here on, and do the others weekly?

3). Finally, do you see any other problems or corrections I need to make, by looking at the test results above?

Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated, as I use this new to me BBB (TFP method), and get rid of the pool boy and the Trichlor Tabs from here on.

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome! And man have you been working!!

With no Cya, the FC should drop pretty soon especially if you still have 2 CC. If it were me, I would let it ride and add enough Cya to get me no higher than 30 PPM on that, just to prevent some sunlight loss. You'll still be at shock level until it dissolves if you do it tomorrow. Once it has, you want to maintain the SLAM FC criteria until you pass all of them including the CC level. That may not take long since it looks like you have some CC in your fill water which is common. This comes from the City adding Ammonia to create Chloramines which are CC on the test. It may all come together pretty quickly too.

Sorry, I forgot to mention not to test for Cya until it is all completely gone from the socks with a little circulation time following as it wont show up until then. Dont add more before you know what the test tells you after that.

 

[Caco]

I'm with Patrick, maintain SLAM levels. although you have done a fantastic job in cleaning the pool (do you have before after pics?? I am sure they would be awesome) there will be places you would have struggled to reach, like in the plumbing that will probably harbour residual algae

In answer to point 3 above your test results look fine, although the CC says you are killing something off. Maybe post slam you would want to push your Ta a little lower, to help slow the ph rise

 

[kimkats]

You have a 15 yr old that will do manual labor??? WOW! I am impressed!!!! You are doing so much right! Clearing your pool and raising a good daughter!

I would LOVE to see the before/after pics as well!

Kim

 

[Patrick_B]

I must add another pat on the back for a fantastic job well done. We don't get a lot of very first posts with people having grasped everything so well, and done so much and so well right out of the box. Congrats on all the above. It looks like you will be handling good pool care with ease.

 

[DMS2014]

Pictures Mr.Pool Rock Star! Before and after would be awesome !


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[Lance_Krueger]

Wow, thank you all for the positive support! Believe it or not, I'm a professional wildlife photographer, but didn't take a single before picture. I think one of my daughters shot a photo of the drained pool with her phone, but I've got to see. I was concentrating so much on the work to get this done, that I didn't even think about photography. I'm leaving tomorrow for a week on a photo shoot, and my 15 year old will be taking over. I tried to get all three of my daughters (ages 18, 15 and 13) to read Pool School so they could all chip in, but the 18 year old and the 13 year old didn't do it. So, no Father of the year awards for me. But my 15 year old is just like me, though in female form. Very much a perfectionist, who has a high work ethic, loves to research things, very much an over-achiever, is a parent-pleaser, and really wants to learn about anything to help out. Plus, she wants to be a photographer herself, and is starting to do paying photo shoots of families and engagements on her own! To say the least, she's a very impressive young lady. Her name is Caroline, if any of you want to give her a shout out here. I'm sure she would like that!
So because I'm leaving very early in the morning on this photo shoot, for a week, it will be next week before I'll have a chance to post anything.
I already told her what Patrick_B said (because he posted so quickly this afternoon) about maintaining shock levels for the week that I'm gone, and to test only pH and FC, and not CYA for a week, but to keep an eye on the socks of CYA and test when they're gone. She's going to be skimming off leaves and testing with the TF100 test kit, and will be "holding down the fort" for me while I'm gone. So, I'll see what I come back to, and will determine at that point if we pass all the criteria's and steps of the SLAM, and get the pool safe for our four kids (we have a 10 year old son too) to swim in. After having no pool safe to swim in for two years, seeing this clear pool is driving them CRAZY, and the 90 to 101 degree temps we're already experiencing for February is really making all of us want to cool off!!

 

[kimkats]

HI Caroline! I can't wait to see the result of all of your hard work! Make sure YOU are the first one in the pool.

Lance, does she have access to this account? It is fine with us for her to sign in on your account. If you do share the account info with her y'all can help us by signing your name at the bottom so we know which one we are working with at the time. That way we can help her out if needed while you are gone.

Swimming-it is safe to swim so long as the FC is just under the SLAM level for your CYA. Once they are done swimming then push the FC back up to SLAM level. I would not wear my favorite suit though.

Kim

 

[consoleman]

I tried to keep the cya at 30 when i first started on this forum. I learned the texas summer sun ate up all my chlorine really fast. I now keep it around 60.

You have a cc of 2. If im not mistaken i thought you had to slam your pool at a level 1 or higher. Remember to run your pump 24/7 during a slam


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[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum I think you'll probably need to SLAM but tell us what your pool water currently looks like and tell us if you have CYA in the pool yet. If so, how much?

 

[Lance_Krueger]

Hi, all. This is Caroline, the 15 year old. I have been taking progress photos throughout this hard and somewhat nasty process. I'm holding down the fort (and the forum) while dad's gone, so I'm open to any questions you might have on the pool. I took photos of the shallow end for my comparison and then a panoramic for the last photo. All are taken with my phone . It looks quite good other than the darker stains that you can see in the deep end and some in the shallow end. I think those are pretty much unavoidable looking back on how long we let the pool sit. The hot tub was not full at the time of the panoramic, but I think you get the idea anyway. Thanks again for the compliments. I'm looking forward to being able to swim in our pool again soon.

^About a foot of sludge gathered at the bottom of the pool

^cleared pool of bottom sludge. About to power wash the plaster and tiles to get rid of algae growing up the sides

^filled pool is finally bleached and blue instead of a nasty frog infested green

^panoramic from second story deck

 

[triptyx]

That looks a lot better! If you are slamming, and your FC is above 10, ignore pH. The pH test reads incorrectly when FC is over 10. Feel free to ask any questions you need to.

 

[Mr Bruce]

Looks great! I wouldn't worry about the dark spots too much, I bet over time they chlorine with make them go away.

 

[kimkats]

Caroline, Nice job on the pics! SLUDGE is the right word for that yuck! I am SO glad we do not have "smell-o-vision" as I bet that stuff was RIPE!

Keep your FC up to SLAM leave for you CYA and brush as often as you are able. I bet you will start to see a difference after a while. The picture from the second floor will be a good one to retake in about a week so you can see if there is any difference.

Kim

 

[Lance_Krueger]

I (Caroline) just took my first FC and PH tests. I easily got a PH of 7.5 but when I tested for FC, I got clear. No reading at all. I tried the daily test and got no yellow, and I tried the weekly test. Both to no avail. I thought that maybe I hadn't gotten deep enough water, so I tried a different sample, one from the deep end. That still had no result. We've added quite a bit of bleach to our pool, so the chlorine should be up quite a bit. Just yesterday, the FC was at 16, so I should get at least a reading today. Just to test the chemicals, I rinsed out the testing block and refilled it with tap water and tested it. I got a .5 reading on the tap water. I am very confused. Is my chlorine level too high to test? Is there a malfunction I should know about? Or, has my bleach just been zapped by the sun and become non-existent?

 

[triptyx]

Two things:
1. Do you know if your father added CYA (also called "stabilizer" or sometimes "conditioner") to the water when you refilled?
2. Even though the sludge was removed, it's possible that there are still organics that are being killed off - this will consume chlorine.

If there is no CYA, and you have some organics, it's very possible that the chlorine fell victim to both the sun (which burns it off - CYA protects it to some degree) and killing the crud that is still in the pool system.

 

[duraleigh]

has my bleach just been zapped by the sun and become non-existent?

That is almost surely what happened.

Since you have CYA in the pool, you should add more FC to get FC up to about 4-6 ppm.

You should keep FC above 3 ppm at all times adding enough daily to keep it around 4 ppm.

At this point, I see no need to SLAM your pool. The FC should stay in the pool if you add about 3 ppm daily (normal loss)

Caroline, If you decide against wildlife photography, your command of the English language is really outstanding.

 

[Patrick_B]

Her Dad added Cya in socks the other day/yesterday?? but I dont know if its dissolved yet. I mentioned this above Caroline, so let us know about that. Great having you help out, and we will be here for you.

 

[Lance_Krueger]

Thanks for the rapid help, everyone. The CYA in the socks is mostly dissolved by now, we put them in yesterday and there's a quarter of the CYA that we put in left. If the socks finish dissolving tomorrow, I will test for that as well as the FC and PH. The increase in CYA levels might have an effect on the FC, I'm thinking. My FC was non-existent today around 2 o'clock and I retested a couple times to make sure that it wasn't user error. I added another three 121 oz bottles of 8.25% bleach this evening and I'm going to retest in the morning. I am trying to keep the pool free of bugs and leaves, so I'm cleaning out the skimmer baskets and skimming the top and bottom of the pool with a net two to three times a day to try and stay on top of that. It is quite possible that we may still have the presence of organic materials still festering in our plaster, so I'm trying to brush the walls and floor too. It's a job, but one I don't particularly mind doing. I assume that getting used to figuring out what levels of which chemicals comes with trial and error, and experience so I will keep trying. I'm hoping to maintain the clear blue for as long as I live in our current home, so it may become 'my job'. I'm also hoping to improve the landscaping around our pool and hopefully eventually build an outdoor couch for the now empty deck we have to the upper left of our pool. We'll have to see, though. On another note, I enjoy writing quite a lot, duraleigh , so the compliment means a lot . Thanks again for helping me out so quickly, everyone. I'll look forward to writing an update tomorrow.

 

[Caco]

Wow, great photos and a job well done

We can help you get your pool levels balanced and understnad what each chemical does, but that can wait until you are sure the organics comsuming your FC are all gone

Is the spa empty? It looked like it in the photos. If it is is there a reason you do not have that filled? Is it on the same water circuit as the pool?