New pool owner needs help.

[shoogles]

So my husband and I bought a house with a huge hole in the backyard with a deck built around it. Amazingly, after considering the cost effectiveness of filling it in, removing the deck, and adding sod... we discovered that replacing the pool would be cheaper (and way more fun than sod!) as long as we were able to maintain it.

One week later and we are seeing that that is going to be a tall order. Presently, I have a greenish tinge to my pool and a little bit of cloudiness.

My first problem is that I don't have a decent test kit. After reading here a bit, I can see that its vital for me to be able to test my CYA level. The test kit we just bought at Home Depot does not do that. :( So, until I can talk my husband into buying me a Taylor kit, is my best bet to take samples to the pool store? Can I maintain my pool using the BBB method without it?

HELP!

24' AG sunken in
approx. 15,000 gallons

Test results
FC: Measures below test level - my guess, .3
CC: same as above
pH: 7.6
TA: 300 ppm

[aylad]

Hi Shoogles, and welcome to the forum!!

Yes, you can run the pool without a Taylor kit, although it'll be much easier once you break down and get it. For now, go to WalMart and get the 6-way drop-based HTH kit (no test strips!!). Also get several gallons of plain, unscented bleach. If they don't have the 6-way kit, then take a sample to the pool store and have it tested, then come back and post your results here. They will try to sell you a long list of stuff--do NOT buy any of it unless it's a drop-based test kit or some toy that you want. The list will probably start with calcium, which pool stores will insist that you need, but is useless in a vinyl pool.

Have you added CYA? If not, go ahead and get the smallest container that they carry--I think it's 4 lbs. The bottle may be labeled balancer or conditioner, but look at the ingredient list--if it says cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, then that's the stuff.

In your pool, assuming no CYA, each 2 1/2 gallons of 6% bleach will take your chlorine up to 10 ppm, which is your shock level. To get rid of the green, get the water up to shock level, and keep it there by testing for chlorine and adding more bleach to get back up to the 10 ppm as many times as possible during the day. Each 3 cups of 6% bleach will raise your chlorine by 1 ppm, so you can use that as a guide when figuring how much more to add. The more consistent you are about keeping it up at shock level, the faster it will clear. Keep the pump and filter running 24/7, brushing the pool daily. Keep an eye on your filter pressure, and clean your filter as the pressure indicates. Keep it at that level until the water clears up, your CC goes to zero, and you don't lose any chlorine when testing at night after sundown and again in the morning before the sun hits the pool.

If you have added CYA already, test for it and let us know what it is--that may change your shock level.

Janet

[shoogles]

Thanks for the reply Janet. I'll see about picking up the test kit at Walmart.

[aylad]

Thanks for the reply Janet. I'll see about picking up the test kit at Walmart.

It sells in the $15 range, but it'll make it much easier to handle your pool.

Don't wait to get the bleach in, though--if it's cloudy and already starting to look green, the longer you wait, the worse it'll get before it clears up.

Janet

[shoogles]

Gotcha... I'll put the bleach in tonight.

[shoogles]

Oh I forgot to ask... and this may be a dumb question, but whats the best method for putting the bleach in? :)

[Watermom]

Either pour it slowly into the skimmer while the pump is running (this is what I do) or pour it slowly in front of a return jet while the pump is running. Either way is fine.

[shoogles]

Ok, so I went to Walmart and they didn't have the HTH tester... only strips. :( So I took a sample to the pool store and got the numbers from them.... and now I think I completely wasted my time doing so.

The numbers I got from the pool store are:
FC: 0
CC: 0
pH: 8.4
CYA: 18
TA: 134


My drop test (which has everything but CYA) numbers are:
FC: too low to be measured
CC: too low to be measured
pH: 7.8
TA: 260

So now I don't know whats right? Should I shock according to their CYA level? Should I take it to another pool store and get another opinion?

[shoogles]

Also, I forgot to mention that I didn't get to put in the bleach last night... the sun went down and then a storm moved in. Our pump is a little tempermental right now, so I didn't want to run it when there were leaves and other fun stuff like that blowing into the pool.

[aylad]

Have you put any CYA into the pool? It would have had to be in the form of CYA granules, or using dichlor powder or trichlor pucks to chlorinate. If you haven't added any of that, then shock based on 0 CYA, which is what you have. CYA has to be added in order to be present in your pool water. If you haven't added any CYA, then you need to shock based on a 0 level. Bring your water up to 10 (bringing it up to 12-15 actually wouldn't hurt) by putting the 2 1/2 gallons of bleach in (or 3 1/2 gallons if you want to go up to 15) . Test the water as often as possible and add more bleach to get back up to the 10-15 range as often as possible, as I described in the above thread. If you haven't added any CYA up to now, you can go ahead and add it either via skimmer, where it will sit and dissolve on your filter (but you can't clean your filter until it dissolves, probably 3-4 days) or put it in an old sock and hang it in front of a return to help it dissolve. You want to target around 30-40 ppm of CYA, but only put in about 2/3 of what you think you'll need at first, because it's easier to add more later than it is to add too much and overshoot, requiring higher chlorine levels or drain/refill to compensate.

And as for your other question, I would trust my drop-based test results over any pool store, any time!!!

Janet

[shoogles]

We do have those tablet things that have CYA in them that we were attempting to chlorinate with, so there's why we have a little bit of CYA in there because of those.

So I guess I'll base my chlorine amount on the CYA level from the pool store to shock.

I will not, however, add acid to my pool if I don't need it. Is 7.8 too high? Should I shock first and worry about the pH later?

[Watermom]

Your pH is ok at 7.8. Anywhere between 7.2-7.8 is fine.

[shoogles]

Thanks Janet and Watermom. Husband is out brushing and adding bleach as we speak. :)

[shoogles]

So, we attempted the CarlD Shotglass method of testing our water, but it didn't seem to work. No matter how much we diluted (1 to 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 4, etc.) it always read at .2. Can't figure out why.

So now we have no idea if we have enough bleach in the pool to have reached shock level or not... and I'm not exactly sure what we'll do tomorrow when we need to test the water again and add more bleach. Yikes.

[CarlD]

The CarlD shot glass method is only useful when the chlorine level in the pool exceeds your OTO test kit's limit (Usually 3ppm but the better ones go to 5ppm). If it's .2 with undiluted pool water, there's no point in diluting it. Only if the drop test comes up darker than the max on the OTO kit should you consider my shot glass method.

[waterbear]

So, we attempted the CarlD Shotglass method of testing our water, but it didn't seem to work. No matter how much we diluted (1 to 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 4, etc.) it always read at .2. Can't figure out why.
The only tests I know of that will measure as low as .2 ppm are an FAS-DPD titration kit and some of the electronic testers and strip readers. How are you testing?
So now we have no idea if we have enough bleach in the pool to have reached shock level or not... and I'm not exactly sure what we'll do tomorrow when we need to test the water again and add more bleach. Yikes.

If you are testing low chlorine then you do NOT have enough bleach in the pool.

[shoogles]

CarlD: The problem was that it was amber in color but only testing at 2.0. No matter how much we diluted it. Either way, we've been running the filter, brushing and vacuuming for the past few days and the pool is clear as glass.

I just tested the water again and its registering at 1.0. I'm sorry for the mistake in my last post Waterbear it was at 2.0. I screwed up when I was typing since I was kind of in a panic. :)

Just tested now and the pool is down to 1.0 FC and 1.0 CC with a pH of 7.6. Getting ready to add some more bleach. Anything else I need to know or do?

On the plus side, this debacle has finally convinced Hubby that we need to order the Taylor kit. Yay!


Another unrelated question- as you may have noticed, we live in FL. Our pool is in full sun, and it feels like bathwater. Any ideas on how to keep the temp down a bit more?

[CarlD]

If you dilute it once and it tests at 2, then it's 4. If you diluted it twice (two shots distilled to one of pool) and it's 2, then it's really 6. If you dilute it 3:1, it's 8, 4:1, 10, etc.

[shoogles]

If you dilute it once and it tests at 2, then it's 4. If you diluted it twice (two shots distilled to one of pool) and it's 2, then it's really 6. If you dilute it 3:1, it's 8, 4:1, 10, etc.

I got that, its just that no matter what we diluted it to, it was 2. It was weird.

[aylad]

Hi, Shoogles,

Nothing else you really need to do other than get the chlorine back up to your shock level. Hold it there until the CC is zero and you're not losing any chlorine when testing at sundown and again at sunup.

Glad to hear that you're going to get the Taylor kit--believe me, it will make your life so much easier!! I know it's pricey but I guarantee you it will pay for itself several times over, just in this swim season.

As for keeping the pool cool, I bought a cheap fountain from Leslie's and hook it up and run my pump at night rather than during the day, and it seems to cool it down a little. (I'm in Lousiana, so I hear ya about the warm pool--mine at times feels more like a hot tub!) Otherwise, my girls just turn the slide on and let it run while they're in the pool, and it seems to do the best job at cooling the pool.l

Janet

[shoogles]

ok, so I'm still having trouble with this shotglass method and its really making me feel dumb. Shouldn't diluting it with distilled water cause the color to change- you know what I'm saying? I'm asking this because its not. at 1:1 it is 2. At 1:6 it is still 2! What the heck am I doing wrong????

I know it has to be more than 2 or 4! I put 30 and 3/4 cups of bleach in this evening as the sun was setting after getting a FC and CC of 1. I just can't figure it out.

[shoogles]

Ok, so I decided to keep diluting the water until it came down to a level of 1. So this morning st 6:30 am and diluted to 14:1 the level was 1. So I am assuming that 14 is my free chlorine level. A little higher than I wanted to go (12), but its something. Unfortunately, I did not have this stroke of genius last night while testing, so I don't know if I lost any chlorine or not. Either way, I think I'll assume we didn't lose a negligible amount and go ahead and let the chlorine come down. Hopefully it was enough to kill any remnants of algae from our last shock and we will have a nice clear pool until the Taylor kit comes. Thank you all for your help. :)

[CarlD]

14 is fine.

I find I can cool the pool by running my solar panels full blast at night (they act like giant car radiators then). Also, leaving the cover off helps.

And if you can conjure up a thunderstorm, that can help.

It's simple: Just fill your pool up to its maximum with a hose or wash your car. I did the former last night and woke up to a t-storm!

[waterbear]

Another unrelated question- as you may have noticed, we live in FL. Our pool is in full sun, and it feels like bathwater. Any ideas on how to keep the temp down a bit more?

Welcome to Florida! (I grew up in Miami, graduated college in Gainesville, lived in Ft. Lauderdale previously, and now live in St. Augustine and have spent a a LOT of vacation time in the Keys, Sanibel, Naples, Tampa, Orlando, the 'glades and Ocala so I know the climate in different parts of the Sunshine State. Heck, I've even spent time in Sopchoppy before they had a traffic light and in high school got stuck in YeeHaw Junction with 2 classmates and our science teacher when his car broke down on the way to a science seminar we were headed to A YEAR BEFORE DISNEYWORD OPENED (yes, Sopchoppy, population 426 in 2000, and Yeehaw Junction are real places--Google them if you don't believe me!), and took my Barber exam in Winter Park when it was a bigger city than Orlando --Winter Park was a resort and vacation destination, Orlando was orange groves! Point being, I know Florida pretty well.) My pool has been staying around 88-90 degrees this summer in St. Augustine IN a screen enclosure! (For me it's perfect since I heat my pool to 88 degrees in the cooler weather:) but my heat pump is reverse cycle so I COULD cool the pool down if I chose to.)

The only way to cool a pool is either:
1) a reverse cycle heat pump (not cheap but the best solution here in Florida)
2) solar heating set to run at night instead of daytime (only works when the nights are cooler than the days so it's not the best choice for Florida in August!:mad:)
3) evaporative cooling (misters and fountains)--once again, not the best choice in Florida when 78% relative humidity is considered low in summer and humidity in the 80's and 90's is common!:eek:

Don't know of any other ways unless you happen to own an ice company and can have a few truckfuls of ice dumped into your pool daily!:rolleyes:;):D

[shoogles]

Yikes... didn't mean to leave you all hanging here, but we have been spending lots of time enjoying our crystal clear, warm bathwater pool since I was last here. :) ;)

Still no Taylor kit- Hubby has promised I can get one though... just as soon as we clear up a few more pressing financial concerns. Probably will order it next week.

Waterbear: We are actually both native Floridians as well. My husband is from Homestead (yup, he made it through Hurricane Andrew), and I am from Lake City. I lived in both Tallahassee and Gainesville for a bit for school, but we settled down back here in my hometown. This is our first pool though so there's a lot we have still to learn, but we both agree that finding poolforum.com saved us a lot of stress and $$$!

So really, thank you all for all of your help. We'll still be lurking around here and we'll definitely post when we get some solid results from the Taylor, just in case there needs to be any adjustments. You guys are awesome!

[aylad]

Thanks for the update!! Too often we help people through a particular problem, but we then don't get the end of the story. Thanks for updating us on yours!!

Glad you're enjoying your pool now....happy swimming! :cool:

Janet

[CarlD]

Amatoind dot com has the Taylor k-2006 for $46.25 + shipping. Even this season it will STILL save you more than it costs--several times over.

CarlD

[waterbear]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the pool. That's what it is all about, isn't it?
CarlD is 1000% right about the test kit btw. Even without a heater you still have quite a long swim season left and the Taylor test kit will save you a LOT of money and pay for itself quickly! We don't live very far from each other at all and even here in N. Fl the swim season is long without a heater.

[aylad]

The Amazon site has the same kit for a few dollars more, but if you buy it through this link, then the Poolforum gets a donation from your purchase...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002IXIIG?ie=UTF8&tag=poolbooks&linkCode=as2&camp%20=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0002IXIIG"><b>Ta%20ylor%20Complete%20FAS-DPD%20Pool%20Water%20Test%20Kit%20K-2006</b

(May have to copy and paste into your address bar, the hyperlink isn't working yet)
Janet