Salutations

[MrFrugal]

Hello All,
I bought a house about three years ago that had an above ground pool. The first year of ownership the pool pretty much just occupied space in the yard. The second year an attempt to open the pool was made. I must admit I failed miserably. So I tried again this year so far the only thing I have done successfully is spend money only to have mint green water to show for it. Although I must admit it is not as dark & murky as it had been but still further from usable. I was pretty close to taking a sledge hammer to it so I could plant grass in its place. Last time I visited my local pool store I was told to bring in a water sample so they could run tests. I told them that my water was a little minty & was told it might be an issue with high phosphates which would take @ least another $30 & prayer to clear up. I stumbled across this site while investigating products to neutralize the phosphates. I have a 15' x 30' above ground oval pool. Unfortunately I don't have the specs of my pump or filter combination. While browsing the threads I found quite a bit of information that I plan to try shortly. I am also going to order a test kit but might go see if I can find one to get by until it arrives. Any knowledge that can be passed on to me would be greatly appreciated.

[aylad]

Hi MrFrugal, and welcome to the forum!!

Don't buy any products to neutralize phosphates. Phosphates are not a problem in most pools, and I seriously doubt it's the problem with yours. If you could post a set of test results, taken with drop-based testing (or at least the results from the pool store when they ran the tests), we can help you get it cleared up.

We'll need a list of all the chemicals you've used in the pool, and need to know what type of filter you have--and we can help you get started from there. This is a 30 foot long, 15 foot wide pool, right? What is the water depth?

[MrFrugal]

Thanks for the reply atlas,
Unfortunately I can not provide the model number of my pump & filter till I get home from work. I do know that both are made by Hayward & the filter is a sand filter. Also when I get off I'm going to go to Walmart to try to find the 6 way HTH tester & order the K-2006. The only thing I have for testing are the HTH test strips. I have added most recently is 3 , 1 pond bags of HTH super shock & swim, 2 bottles of HTC algaecide & 2 gallons of liquid chlorine procured from ACE. The pool is 4.5 feet deep that holds 15500 gallons I believe. When testing after adding chlorine it seemed that my cya was around 7.2 but was using the strips. I'm also trying to figure which is a better deal between the bleach & liquid chlorine. I believe I can get a case of the chlorine 12% somewhere between $11 & $14 for 4 gallon jugs.

[MrFrugal]

Ok finally made it home with the hth 6-way test kit, grabbed a water sample and tested the water. The pump I have is a Hayward 1HP, Power-Flo Matrix SP1590

Chlorine .5
Ph 7.8
Alkalinity 40
Hardness 140
CYA Less then 30

Pump Hayward Power-Flo Matrix SP1590, 1HP
Filter Hayward S166T

[Watermom]

In your pool, a gallon of 6% bleach will add about 4ppm of chlorine. Go ahead and add 3 gallons which will take you to around 12ppm. Over the weekend, each time you can, test and add enough bleach to get the chlorine level back up to 10-12. Go ahead and order the K-2006, but in the meantime, you can force your kit to read higher than 5 by using dilution. (Not super accurate, but better than nothing.)

Info here: Testing Without a Good Kit (http://poolsolutions.com/gd/how-to-test-your-pool-without-a-good-testkit.html )

Run your pump 24/7 while working to clear the pool and backwash your filter when the pressure rises 8-10psi over clean filter pressure.



Hope this helps.

[MrFrugal]

I know u said to add 3 gallons of 6% bleach I didn't have any yet but did have a case of s gallons of 10% liquid chlorine. So I added 2 bottles waited an hour tested and the chlorine level was at 3ppm. I then added 2 more bottles waited another hour tested and the test read between 3 & 5 so I guess I'm going to say 4. On my way to the store to grab some old fashioned bleach. Any ideas why my levels aren't going as high as they should.

[Watermom]

How green is your pool? If it is really swampy and green with lots of debris, you may just be going through the chlorine that fast. Another question --- how old were the bottles of 10% liquid chlorine? That stuff loses its potency over time. Keep hammering it with bleach. As many times a day as you can test, add more bleach.

[MrFrugal]

Its not a swampy green, its more along the lines of a heavily diluted green tea. When standing on the deck looking down you can see the bottom but is cloudy. I've added more bleach but still having difficulty keeping it over 5ppm. I've had the 10% for maybe a month at most.

[Watermom]

Keep hitting it with bleach or liquid chlorine. The only way to kill the algae is to take the chlorine level up to shock level.

[PoolDoc]

I've had the 10% for maybe a month at most.

A month at this summer's temps can change 10% into 2%. And, you don't know how long it sat before you got it. Except in areas like S. Florida, where bleach is delivered to some stores daily, commercial bleach can often be a bad deal. Boxed bleach is almost ALWAYS stored a long time.

By contrast, Walmart has a legendarily fast inventory turnover system, plus household bleach is low iron (to avoid laundry problems), so it lasts longer.

Another reason for fast chlorine loss is the chlorine demand (or 'using-up-ness') of algae. With your pool volume, a gallon of plain 6% household bleach will add about 4 ppm of chlorine. With a dark green pool, I'd recommend buying 25 gallons of bleach.

Then, this evening (Sunday) start adding bleach 5 gallons at a time, every 30 minutes. Pump must be running. Test chlorine levels and if you have not achieved DARK yellow readings, add 5 more. Continue till you do. Then add 5 gallons tomorrow AM (Monday), and start again tomorrow PM. After you get a dark yellow Monday, brush and vacuum and clean your filter . . . and then retest and redose if needed.

One thing to keep in mind: when fighting algae, if you aren't getting ahead, you are getting behind. Once you start this, you need to keep going till it's done. Otherwise, you'll lose any ground you've gained, and TOTALLY wasted the chemicals and $$'s spent.

[MrFrugal]

Will do that, however it is supposed to rain here for the next 3 days, does anyone know how that would affect the effect of the bleach on the algae

[Watermom]

Rain will have no effect on the bleach or the algae except to make it more of a pain to tend to the pool! Many people end up with algae after it rains but it isn't because of the rain. Rather it is because people often ignore their pools when it rains and their chlorine levels drop too low resulting in algae.

[MrFrugal]

I've hit it with a steady dose of bleach starting at 7:00 Pm sunday night. After adding 18 gallons of 6% bleach the chlorine level has risen from below .5 up to above 20. I'm using a hth 6-way tester & the dilution method to test the levels as my K-2006 has yet to arrive. If I understand correctly this evening I need to test the levels again, brush and then vacuum the pool. Am I to assume that it is best to vacuum to wasted at this point. Once again thanks for all the information.

[Watermom]

If it is really green and swampy, you can vac to waste. However, that wastes a lot of water so if it isn't so bad, you can just vac to your filter and then backwash when you have the pressure rise. Your call on that one but at any rate, continue to keep the chlorine high. If you pour the bleach directly into the skimmer (while the pump is running) it will kill any algae in the filter.

[MrFrugal]

Well I think my fight may have come to an abrupt and depressing end. After I back washing I cut the pump off to switch it back to filter flipped the switch & nothing happened. I am thinking my pump may have just died however I can't replace it right now. So thanks for all the help & once it is replaced I will fight another day.

[Watermom]

Sorry you are having pump issues. You might want to start a new thread in the 'Pool Equipment and Operations' section of the forum to see if anybody can give you any advice about your pump. Good luck.

[MrFrugal]

Not sure what was the cause but my pump decided go take a brief sabatical. I left it off for the night and I was going to quit fighting but something told me to add somemore bleach & try the pump this morning. I flipped thw switch & it started up. So I shall keep up my bleach assualt. If my cya is virtually nonexisitent will that cause my chlorine levels to drop quicker then if they were up around 20-30 ppm.

[Watermom]

If you have hardly any CYA, then, yes, you will lose your chlorine fast to the sun. You really want your CYA to be around 40-50ppm. Glad the pump decided to wake up!

[MrFrugal]

Sorry I really don't mean to bug but I was trying to find a post on raising CYA levels but I was unable to locate one. What do i need to add to increase CYA.l

[Watermom]

Are you only using bleach? If so, then you can just add some CYA separately. But, you'll want to wait until your green pool is cleared up before adding it. (Is it any better, by the way?)

Go ahead and buy a 5 lb. container of CYA. It may be labeled as conditioner or stabilizer. Check the ingredients. If it says cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff. You may not need all 5 lbs., though. Have you used any trichlor pucks this year or dichlor powder?

[MrFrugal]

Its not perfect but I can see the bottom of the pool for the first time in a long time. At this time the only thing I'm adding to the pool is bleach. I'm just having difficulty keeping the chlorine levels up. I'm thinking this is caused by a number of factors, including algae, heat & lack of CYA. I really wish it was the weekend so I could allot more time to it but I'm going to keep on keeping on.

[Watermom]

Try and add enough bleach in the morning before you go to work to get it back to shock level. Then, check it when you get home and add enough to get back to shock level and then do the same as late in the evening as you can before you got to bed. The more often you can shock it and the more consistently you can maintain that high level, the faster you'll get past this.

Glad there is some progress.