Green pool, advice from local pool store?

[Darrenmv]

I have a 34,000+ gallon gunite pool with salt cell.

Was on an extended vacation. Returned home and my pool was dark green. My control box said salt was low and chlorinator was off. I new it rained non-stop while I was gone so I went ahead and added salt. Next day, control box still says salt too low so I tested the salt myself. Showed 3800 ppm.

I removed the salt cell and cleaned it and reinstalled it. The control box now says my salt is 1600ppm and is too low for the cell to come on. At this point I assume there is a problem with the cell. For now, I want to clean up the pool without the salt cell issue being resolved. I will tackle that once the water is cleaned up.

I have a cartridge filter system with 4 long tube filters. I removed them and cleaned them.

Next I took some water to the local pool shop for testing.

Pool store water test results 2/27/2012:
CYA 0 ppm
Chlorine 0.1 ppm
Combined Chlorine 0 ppm
pH 8.0
Hardness 150 ppm
Phosphate 100 ppb
Copper 0 ppm
Iron 0 ppm
TDS 0 ppm

They told me to put CYA in the pool, 13 pounds and 1/2 gallon of muratic acid. I screwed up and added the CYA to my skimmer (as per the containers instructions) only later to find out I should not do this with a cartridge filtration system.

I went ahead and added 4.5 gallons of bleach to attempt to slow down the algae. Also began running pool filter 24/7.

A couple of days later I added another 4.5 gallons of bleach.

Back to the pool store to test the water.

Pool store water test results 3/6/2012:
CYA 15 ppm
Chlorine 2.1 ppm
Combined Chlorine 0 ppm
pH 7.6
Hardness 180 ppm
Copper 0 ppm
Iron 0 ppm
TDS 0 ppm

Water is still quite green, however I can now see the bottom of the pool in the shallow end, but not yet the deep end.

Here is the advice from my pool store:
Sprinkle in 2 pounds of Mustard Eliminator directly into the pool.
Shock pool with 3 pounds shock
run pump 24/7
Next day shock with 3 pounds shock again
run pump 24/7
next day shock with 3 pound shock again
run pump 24/7
add 6 oz concentrated clarifier
Bring water back in for testing again.

I have read on this site that it could take 80-100 gallons of chlorine to clean up my pool. This is more expensive than the treatment listed above which is about $75. However, still looking for advice before I pull the trigger on any kind of treatment.

Also, through all of this I am running my tiger shark pool cleaner to keep the solids off the bottom of the pool etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give.

Darren

[BigDave]

What's in Mustard Eliminator?
Don't put anything in your pool unless you know what it is.
Nothing is really magic, there's always something behind the curtain.
Wait 'til you hear from Ben or any of the knowlegeable people here.

[waterbear]

First, who told you you are not supposed to put CYA into the skimmer with a cartridge filter because you are! The CYA gets caught in the filter and slowly dissolves over the next week. It does not matter if the filter is a cart, sand, or DE.
Second, what make and model of SWCG do you have? That infor would be useful.
Third. Why hasn't the pool store tested the salt level of your pool? Do they know you have a salt pool?

YOu need to add chloirne to get your FC up to about 20 ppm to clear the pool and you need to keep it there. Start by adding either 10 gallons of 6A% bleach or 5 gallons of 12% liquid pool clorine to your pool and nothing else.

I suspect the Mustard Eliminator is either sodium bromide or an organic ammonia compound. It will do not good at all in a pool with low CYA such as yours and was a waste of money.
The clarifier was also a waste of money.
You really need to get your own test kit and test your own water since the key to clearing a green pool quickly is to get the FC level op and KEEP IT UP since the chlorine will be consumed very quickly as it fights the algae. You have increased teh chloirne demand by adding the mustard eliminator and it really will so nothiing for ou sinc eyou did not have an overstabilzied pool (which is where it is useful).

[kelemvor]

You need to get your pool to shock level and keep it there until you don't lose more than 1ppm FC overnight. I like my pool store guys because I think they've given me good advice in the past (they have told me the exact same things I've read on this forum), but I really question adding CYA before shocking as well as throwing Sodium Bromide (mustard eliminator) into your chlorine based pool. Getting mustard eliminator back out of your pool once you add it can be real tough from what I've read. I'd avoid that stuff like the plague, personally.

At 15ppm CYA you need to reach 12ppm or higher FC to shock the pool. In 34k gallons you'll need about 7 gallons of regular 6% bleach to get there. Most folks find grocery store bleach cheapest, but my local pool store sells 10.5% for less overall (about half the price) than I can find 6% bleach for, so I use that. If you use 10.5% you only need 4 gallons.

Also, you might really want to consider getting a good test kit and testing the water yourself. It's probably the best investment a pool owner can make, especially when fighting algae like this. The Taylor K-2006 is the kit to get, and this site has links to order it here: http://poolsolutions.com/testkit-order-links.html. You can order it elsewhere, just make sure not to get the K-2005 by mistake.

The numbers I gave you above were based on the "best guess chlorine chart" (http://poolsolutions.com/gd/best-guess-swimming-pool-chlorine-chart.html#a) (to figure out your target FC given your CYA of 15) and the pool calculator (http://www.poolcalculator.com/) (to figure out how much to add given your water volume).

[kelemvor]

Whoops, I see waterbear already answered and I missed it. Take his advice over mine!

[Darrenmv]

Thanks for all of the advice so far. Let me say I DID NOT ADD the Sodium Bromide. I was waiting for advice from the forum here before I added anything other than straight bleach. Let me know ASAP if your advice changes based on the fact that I DID NOT add the Sodium Bromide.

1. Salt cell SmartPure Sanitizer II - Blue Haven.
2. Control panel is Goldline Controls PL-P-4-X288.
3. Pool store tested the salt level the first time I went in on the 27th, but not 2nd time on the 6th. Salt level on the 27th was 3900ppm. Too high I am sure. I added because my control panel said salt was too low, and like an idiot I added salt without doing a manual test of the salt level.
4. Mustard Eliminator they gave me is 99% Sodium Bromide. I did NOT put any in. I will be returning it along with the clarifier they sold me.
5. I have my own test kit. So I can also test the water myself, no problem. Kit I have is Taylor K-1005 iCare Residential Pool & Spa Test Kit.

Thanks for your help. Looking forward to additional recommendations.

Darren

[BigDave]

You can add a Taylor K-1515 FAS-DPD kit to your K-2005 and get accurate chlorine measurements at high chlorine levels. You'll have every thing in the K-2006 plus the color match DPD chlorine test.

[Darrenmv]

Please confirm. I still should put 10 gallons of 6% chlorine in my pool (take chlorine level to 20ppm and keep it there?) even though I did not put the Sodium Bromide in the pool? Or can I use less since I did not use the Sodium Bromide?

Thanks,
Darren

[PoolDoc]

20 ppm is fine, if you have a concrete pool.

If you have a vinyl pool, I'd recommend trying 6 gallons at a time first, given that your stabilizer level is so low.

Also, brush the pool after adding the chlorine, and then use an OTO / phenol red kit to check your chlorine, in the AM. If it's below 5 ppm, add more.

IMPORTANT: when the chlorine is above 10 ppm, you can NOT test with a K2005: not chlorine, and not pH! With the K2006 or the K1515, you can test chlorine to 50 ppm accurately, but pH testing is still limited to 10 ppm. There's a work around, but you should not need it yet.

The cheap OTO kit can't test pH above 5 ppm chlorine, but the OTO will go to 50 ppm or more. It's not very precise, but it's very dependable.

With your low stabilizer, the algae killing range is dark yellow to orangish-yellow (~10 - 20 ppm)

[waterbear]

You can add a Taylor K-1515 FAS-DPD kit to your K-2005 and get accurate chlorine measurements at high chlorine levels. You'll have every thing in the K-2006 plus the color match DPD chlorine test.

His kit is a k-1005, NOT A k-2005. It is a different and less expensive Taylor kit. While it is a serviceable DPD test kit it is not as good as a K-2005 or K-2006.


20 ppm is fine, if you have a concrete pool.

Ben, his first post said 34k gallon gunite!

[Darrenmv]

6% Chlorine Bleach is $2.98 for 1.42 gallons.
Calcium Hpyochlorite 68% is $16.99 for 5lbs at local pool store.

My pool salt level right now is testing too high (3900+). Not a big deal at the moment since my salt cell is broken and it's supposed to rain for 3 straight days.

I need to take my pool to shock level, my CYA is 15ppm.

My pool is gunite and my hardness level is testing at 180ppm.

Should I go for the bleach or the Calcium Hypochlorite? And how much will I need to get it up to shock level? My chlorine level right now is less than 2ppm.

Thanks,
Darren

[PoolDoc]

+ 6% bleach is about 0.5lb / gallon, so . . . . 2.98 / (1.42 x 0.5) or ~$4.20/lb Cl2 equivalent
+ 68% cal hypo => 16.99 / (0.68 * 5) or ~$4.99/lb Cl2 equivalent.

So, the bleach is a bit cheaper and it's definitely easier to dissolve in cold water. The only problem is bulk. Dosing with bleach, each gallon will add about 1.7 ppm of chlorine to YOUR pool. At CYA = ~15 ppm, 6 gallons of bleach should be a good dose.

By the way, Waterbear is correct: the K1005 is NOT a complete kit. You'd probably be better off to go ahead and get a complete K2006. But, use your OTO kit in the meantime -- you did get one, right?