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.
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.