Accepting the challenge

[lstinthot]

My neighbor asked me if our pool was all green when we open it this year, ours was not and the kids have been in it a few times already. There pool is almost black, she said they spend hundreds if not a thousand dollars to get it going each year, I spent $15 to get my first case of 12.5% chlorine. I told her about this site and told her we will get it looking good in no time. Again she says it takes her weeks of pool store chemicals and floculating or something like that.

First snag was the pump will not prime and stay running. I did test the water with my Taylor kit. Only tested Ph and CYA level. CYA is around 100, it was close maybe a little over, may retest by diluting. PH took 26 drops of base adjusted to get it up to 7.4.

I did not add any chemicals since I could not get the pump running. I think there is a leak on the suction will look into that tomorrow.

It's about 20,000 gallons in ground vinal liner pool. It is using a sand filter with a 1 1/2 HP pump.




Should I add the borax before lotta bleach?

[aylad]

I'm assuming by "Horace", you mean Borax? In that case, yes, I would get the pH up to the 7.2-7.6 range before adding the bleach, since you're going to get falsely high readings for pH if your chlorine levels are high enough to be effective at clearing the pool.

[lstinthot]

Yes Horace was Borax, good old spell check on the phone.

Here are the pics to start.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-XhTi_0LxXyU/T43lrFpqv3I/AAAAAAAACYE/UAvmXb20l8A/s640/Pool.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-KbA8dV7ipEw/T43lrtv6BJI/AAAAAAAACYM/MIIqqNcZ8pM/s640/Pool-steps.jpg

856855

[aylad]

Once you get the pump/filter running, then it's gonna be chlorine, chlorine, and a lot more chlorine---but it can be fixed!

Janet

[lstinthot]

The neighbors got the pump running today so I spent a few trips over there adding borax to bring the Ph up to 7.2 to 7.4. I added the first two boxes of borax and it did not bring it up the the range after about an hour of mixing. Added third box and was not able to test it before leaving for work. Will test in the morning. Pool was brushed today and pump is running. Only bottom drain and return jets work. Skimmer line has air intrusion issues being fixed.

Today's results (Taylor 2006C test kit):
FC - 3.5 ( this is down from 32 and nothing was added since last post)
CC - 0
Ph - off scale low
TA - 60
CYA - most likely still over 200, we have been diverting rain water to the pool, however not tested again since last test, want to dillute more out before testing again.

How can FC be 3.5 ppm and CC be 0 with an almost black pool?

The pool color is not as bad as the first pictures posted above. It is also taking a long time for the Cl to be used up, I believe this is expected due to the high level of CYA.

Will I have to raise the Cl levels high enough to where I see the Cl actually being used up quickly to know I have some active Cl to fight the algae?

Seems like if my Cl is all bound up with the CYA, it may not be as effective or effective at all at fighting the algae and I will be throwing money away trying to get the pool clean.

thanks for your help

Mike

[Watermom]

Your most critical issue is low pH. You need to get it above 7.0 ASAP. Readings below 7.0 are acidic and can damage a pool! Keep adding boxes of Borax two at a time. Wait a couple hours, retest, redose.

Keep slamming it with bleach. You really need to know what the CYA is so you'll know if you are taking your chlorine high enough. Buy some distilled water and dilute a water sample (half pool water and half distilled water) and then test and multiply your result by 2. See if you can get a CYA reading that way.

If there is stuff that can be scooped out of the pool, do that. The less organic stuff in there the better and the faster you can get it cleared up. Run the pump 24/7 and clean the filter as needed.

[lstinthot]

Test results this morning:

CYA - 160 using 3 parts clean water 1 part pool water mixed in separate container results were 40ppm. Looks like the rain water has lowered the CYA a good bit from a month ago.
Ph - 7.0 to 7.2

Adding another box of borax and should be able to start adding bleach. Looks like about 11 gallons to get up to the 30 ppm range.

What kind of drop in Cl levels should I expect?


Thanks,

[aylad]

The drop in Cl levels will be pretty big at first while the worst of the mess is cleared up, but you should start seeing the drop decrease as the pool clears. With a CYA that high, I can't really tell you how far it will drop, but the more consistent you are about keeping it at or above shock level, the faster the mess will be cleared up.

[lstinthot]

Ph was high today. over 8.0. What is the general tendency for pool water Ph for a liner pool? Will we have to add acid to bring in back down regularly as we are maintaining high Cl levels?

This is day 2 of pump running. The first picture of section was taken about a month ago, however pump was not running during this time while they found the leak or reason it would not stay running. All that was done for the first month was direct rain water from the roof to start diluting out the CYA. You can see the gutter system in the picture.

Pool is starting to show progress, this picture was taken this morning and my wife said she was able to make out the bottom of the shallow end this evening.

FC last night was 32
FC this morning was 25
Added bleach to bring back up.

864

[Watermom]

You can't test pH accurately when the chlorine is that high. You often will get a falsely high pH reading. Wait until the chlorine drops below 15ppm before trusting your pH reading.

[lstinthot]

I took the water into work and it read 7.9 with the equipment there. They do not use drop wise testing, is it possible to affect meter equipment?

[lstinthot]

Turning pool over to happier home owner. They were going online today to order their own test kit using the link provide on this web site. I will be a coach for them. Started showing them how easy it is to test water and talked about not putting any more stabilized shock or chlorine in the pool. The pool is making progress, still cannot see the bottom of the deepend. It has been at shock levels (25 to 35 ppm) for about a week. Vacuumed alot of sand out of the deep end today. Had home owner install a valve between pump and filter so we could slow the water down a bit. Filter is rated at 20 gpm per the side of the filter. Pump is 1 1/2 Hp pentair pump.

Will keep posted as pool clears with pictures. Just in case others want to see a really bad pool with high CYA cleared and what we had to go through.

[chem geek]

Since the CYA is still high, I would do a partial drain/refill and also try to remove as much physical debris as possible from the pool. Both steps will reduce the amount of junk that chlorine and the filter need to clear out.

[lstinthot]

We have been doing drain and refill for the last month by a 1 or 2 at a time. Using rain water and well water to replace water that has been removed. Decided we will maintain a high CYA pool until the levels drop due to splashing once the kids start swimming and keep lowering level before a storm. We have been vacuuming blindly each day. Can not see the bottom of deepend. Just vacuum until skimmer basket does not collect stuff anymore.

We did slow down the pump flow rate with a valve on its discharge. Will vacuum up today's sand mess and see how the lower flow rate does.

[lstinthot]

The bottom of the deep end is visable. Looks like the filter is blowing through even with the lower flow rates. This may account for the longer clean up time. It has been two weeks of high Cl levels. vacuumed today and got some leaves in the skimmer basket. Pressure really has not been climbing, so my guess is the filter may not be doing too much. For as dirty as the water has been I would have guessed we should have been backwashing at least every day or so. I was going to put some DE in the skimmer to help get the clean up moving along faster, however after I backwashed the filter, rinsed and lined back up to the pool, there were streams of sand where the jets shoot back in the water.

Holding off on putting DE in filter until sand no longer shooting through.

[Watermom]

I agree. Do not add the DE if you have sand blowing through the filter.

[lstinthot]

Today the pool is looking pretty good. Vacuumed and put some DE in filter two days ago. I was not able to check on pool yesterday due to being out of town. Today, the deepend is pretty clear. Pressure came up on the filter 8 pounds so the home owner backwashed this morning. After backwashing, there was lots of sand in the bottom of pool. He said he only rinsed for a short time. I suggested he rinse longer. We vacuumed again and put more DE in filter today.

Cl` = 32 ppm
CYA = 90 ppm


Next we will be working on stains. Did the vitamin C test on the stairs and the stain went away. Told home owners we will address the stains after we can see the bottom of the pool. Did not want to waste the Cl`. We are going to order the stuff to address the stains now.

Pictures as of today.
866867

[lstinthot]

Results tonight were pretty good. Cl` was 27, Pool alot more clear. I added DE to the filter this morning. Pressure came up 4 PSIG, so that is a good sign it is removing junk now. Here are some pictures from todays results. Did not add any more Cl` tonight. Will test in morning to see what drop over night will be. May start to let Cl` levels drop to treat for strains.



868869

[lstinthot]

Forgot to take pictures while at the pool today. But it is clear and the home owners are happy. Took about 18 days to get it clear dealing with pump that is too big for filter and equipment not working like it should have. I took a couple of days off from monitoring the pool and went over to help them start testing with their new test kit. He told me he put a bottle of 12.5% Cl` in today, I told him I would expect his Cl` level to be 13 then. We went out and tested and it was right at 13. Numbers are very predicable now with the expected usage from day to day.

For all those out there with a mess on their hands, it can be done and when it is, it is nice to be able to predict what numbers your test kit will tell you.

[aylad]

Good job on the pool--hope everybody has a great swim season!!