New house with a black pool

[wleveille]

Before I begin, let me apologize for the lengthy post.

I just bought a house with a 20 x 40 inground (from what I've been reading it would be about 33,000 gallons). I opened it up to find a dark green / black mess. I went to a store before finding this forum, and bought some shock and algaecide on Friday. The color changed from black to a medium green, which is improvement. I then found this forum and bought 10 gallons of bleach and put it in the pool yesterday. The color is a little lighter. The bottom of the pool also has some leaves on it, which makes vacuuming difficult. I have a Sta-Rite cartridge filter system, which leads me to some questions.

1. The vacuuming is throwing dirty water back into the pool. The filters are working (no leaves / particles are going back into the pool), but I would ideally like to vacuum while I am draining the filter. I don't think this is possible, because the filter will start filling with air. Any suggestions?

2. If I put 10 more gallons of bleach in the pool tonight, can it cause harm to anything?

I bought a cheap testing strip kit, and here are my readings:

Total Hardness: Between 0-100 (Low)
Total Chlorine: 10
Total Bromine: 20
Free Chlorine: 10
pH: < 6.2 (Low)
Total Alkalinity: Between 0-40 (Low)
Cyanuric Acid: Around 0

Thank you for your help!

-Wade

[aylad]

Hello, and welcome to the forum!!

First off, is this a liner pool or plaster/gunite? I dout seriously you have any bromine in the pool, so you can ignore that reading, and let's concentrate on the other stuff. The most critical thing I see is your pH--you need to get it above 7.0, ASAP. We generally accomplish this with 20- Mule team Borax, available in the laundry aisle (green box). I would start with 1/2 box, added slowly to the skimmer, breaking up clumps, and give it 3-4 hours to circulate, then retest and add more. Keep this up until you get a reading that's at least 7.0.

10 gallons of 6% bleach will raise chlorine in a 33K gallon pool by approximately 18 ppm. If your pool is not vinyl liner, then by all means go ahead and add it--what you want is to accomplish shock levels and to maintain them while the pool clears. With a CYA of zero, that means a minimum of 12-15 ppm chlorine. If you have a liner pool, I would add just about 5 gallons tonight, then retest in the morning, and add whatever you need to get back up to that 12-15 ppm level. There are directions here http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?10073-Testing-high-chlorine-levels-(without-a-good-testkit) about how to do that with the OTO kit. If you know your chlorine level, and know that each 1/2 gallon of 6% bleach raises your chlorine by 1 ppm, you can figure out how much you need to add each time. You want to attain that level, and hold it there by testing and adding more bleach as often as possible during the day. Brush your pool at least daily, and keep the filter running, cleaning it as pressure indicates.

After you get the pool cleaned up, then you can add your stabilizer and tweak the other numbers. I don't know a whole lot about cartridge filters, but I don't believe you can vacuum to waste with them, but someone else with more knowledge than me should be by shortly and can hlep you out there.

I also encourage you to buy a good, drop-based kit. The one we recommend here is the K-2006, and is available online through the Amazon link in my sig (make sure Amato Industries is the seller, though--some of the other sellers are substituting the K-2005,which is NOT what you want). Until then, if you can get to WalMart and buy the cheap OTO kit that just tests chlorine and pH with drops, get that, and use that for your pH testing.

Janet

[CarlD]

I'm guessing that your cartridge is torn. and not filtering. When a cartridge is ready to be cleaned, you should have less or no flow, not dirty water. If you can, post the brand and model of your cartridge filter and pump. It's possible your pump is too strong for the filter, which would explain it being torn (the leaves and stuff should be in the pump's skimmer basket).

Carl

[Watermom]

The Borax being sold around here is no longer in a green box, but now in a white box.

[wleveille]

Thanks for the help Janet. My pool does have a liner in it. I will try the Borax today, and add more bleach to keep the level up to a shock level.. I just order the K-2006 from your signature, so that should definitely help get the pool up and running and maintained throughout the year.

[Watermom]

I just order the K-2006 from your signature, so that should definitely help get the pool up and running and maintained throughout the year.

That will be money well spent and will make your pool maintenance SO much easier!

[CarlD]

They just changed the size of the Borax box again...now it's wide and stubby--and white.

Carl

[aylad]

OK, well, you know that Louisiana is the fore runner in everything new and updated...NOT!! :rolleyes:. Ours is still green.

Janet

[madwil]

Janet, everyone else is just getting rid of 1950's stock of Borax! you're the test market for the new, 1980's design box!

[PBLsQuad450]

Janet, everyone else is just getting rid of 1950's stock of Borax! you're the test market for the new, 1980's design box!

Ha!!!! I'm near Carl, but in the heart of Jersey. If it's a chemical, or dangerous, it is made right here, and probably boxed and marketed!

But, just wanted to say, to add to your and Watermom's post, you bet! I can't imagine not having that information anymore. Liberation is priceless!