Eco-system (aka Swamp!) living in my pool...

[The Boyd Family]

We bought a house with a 21ft round 52" high above ground pool. It was not winterized but a solar blanket was on it until two weeks ago when we pulled it off. We had the water tested at the local pool store and it was only low in a few things. long story short, we pulled the cover off and poured in two containers of liquid shock and stirred it up for a couple minutes. Now a week later it is green, full of living bugs, and there is a large accumulation of algae on the bottom (about the same as before but now all green instead of black). There are no leaves in my pool or backyard because it is a newer development with little trees.

The pool has water and a deck. We ordered a waterway 100sq ft cartridge filter and 1 hp pump which is arriving tomorrow. Before we hook this thing up and turn it on, should we be using liquid or granular shock? how much? I understand that we will need to vacuum the organics out and balance the chemistry of the pool. We have visited 3 different pool stores and they have all told us different things to do:
Store 1. Dump 1 case of liquid chlorine in and run pump and vacuum for a long time then test levels.
Store 2. Dump 2 cases of liquid chlorine in and vacuum until clear (12-24 hours) then test.
Store 3. Dump 2 pounds of powder shock in (with ph built in??) and also add a bottle of Pool Magic and run the vacuum and pump/filter for 24 hours then test levels.

Who is right? Are any of them right? I really wanted to do a saltwater system with this pool but because it is so swampy, and I have NO support from the pool store people, I am probably going to do chemicals this summer.

I have so many questions!!! lol! I would love if anyone could help me with anything and let me know if following these pool store people is okay.

thanks in advance,
Lisa

[Watermom]

Hi, Lisa, and welcome to the Pool Forum!

First of all, order a good kit. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C that you can get through the test kit link in my signature below. In the meantime, pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops) from Walmart or the like. While you are there, get a bunch of jugs of their generic bleach (unscented), a couple of boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle) and a bottle of distilled water.

Scoop out as much debris as you can.

Since your post is a couple of days old, post back and tell us if your equipment is now hooked up and what all (if anything) you have added to the water, meaning ingredients.

Then, we will try and help you go from there.

[The Boyd Family]

We have our Waterway Clearwater II 100sq ft cartridge filter and 1.5 hp pump hooked up and have added 5 bags of powder shock and 2 gallons of liquid chlorine and ran our pump for 24 hours. Our pool was cloudy but the bottom was visible and there was a pile of algae/organics in the center of the pool as well as the outer rim. I tested the levels with a strip test (5 spot Insta Test) and the levels were good in all categories except hardness (not even sure what that is). Since our chlorine level was acceptable I added some stabilizer (cyanuric acid) to the pool to help keep it there. My husband physically got into the pool and attempted to manually vacuum the remaining organics at the bottom of the pool but we ended up clogging the skimmer basket many times and the vacuum line would mess up and we would have to prime the hose again and it was a headache.

He then scrubbed the whole liner of the bottom of the pool which created a lovely green cloudy haze that floated through the pool making it look like we had done nothing at all. My husband spent a few hours scrubbing and skimming with various nets and removed a lot of the debris. I did not get home when it was still light out so I have made my latest observation through the aid of a flashlight and out backyard flood lights. Now the pool has no more clumps of algae but it is the wrong color (greenish).

Should we try to just run the pump/filter and pray? Is there something we can add to kill and eat up the algae? When can we finally swim in this money pit? LOL! Our poor kids are wanting to swim so badly but we have to wait until it is safe.

thanks in advance for taking the time to answer my questions. It is very nice to have somewhere to go :)

[Watermom]

Did you order the kit I mentioned above? It is going to be difficult for anybody to help without some good, accurate testing numbers.

Did you buy the other items? (Bleach, borax, OTO kit?)

[The Boyd Family]

I do not yet have the permissions necessary to click on the links contained within your signature, so I have not ordered the kit. I am maintaining as the pool store is directing now to keep the algae growth down until i can give better information to the forum in order to get directions as where to start. I am going to check Amazon for the Taylor kit so we can stop using all of the crazy things the pool store is telling us to. I am just maintaining now to keep the algae from coming back. I will post again once I have accurate test results! Thanks :)

[Watermom]

Log out so you can see the rest of the forum. Find pretty much any post written by PoolDoc or me and click on the test kit link from there.

[PoolDoc]

Cleaning up a swamp is takes a lot of time and work, no matter how you do it. Either dichlor (50# bucket from Sams Club . . . ONLY / all other big box stores sell 'diluted' dichlor) or bleach (aka 'liquid chlorine') will work fine. Do NOT use calcium hypochlorite (MUST read chemical labels!!) -- it dissolves slowly and will sit on the bottom and bleach your liner!

If you use bleach, PLAIN 8.25% Walmart bleach may be your best option. Each gallon will add about 5 ppm of chlorine to your pool. In your current situation, adding 2 gallons every evening will get you on the right path. Also but a cheap OTO/phenol red test kit (yellow/red drops) and use it. Skip bleach doses if the chlorine level in the EVENING is in the dark yellow range.

Getting extra cartridges will make the work easier and faster and more pleasant. You'll also be much less likely to destroy your cartridge. Looking at your filter,
CLEARWATER II Cartridge. FILTER INSTRUCTIONS - Waterway Plastics (http://www.waterwayplastics.com/manuals/810-0072-2.0910.pdf)
it appears that this
Unicel C-8409 Replacement Filter Cartridge for Waterway Clearwater II 100 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000OWHZQ6/poolbooks/) is the correct cartridge.

If you can get 1 - 2 cartridges, and have one cleaning all the time;

Cleaning-your-Cartridge-Filter-wiithout-Damaging-It! (www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?18044)it will make the work much easier. Make sure to compare dimensions on YOUR cartridge, with the one at Amazon, to verify that it's the right one. If you order elsewhere, make SURE to get a cartridge MADE BY Unicel or Filbur (not "fits" or "replaces"). All of the Asian made cartridges we've encountered (incl the very common Pleatco, as well as the OEM Intex cartridges) are very inferior in quality, and do not perform well.

As Watermom told you, you'll need the K2006, once your water begins to look like pool water. Meanwhile, the cheap local kit I mentioned above will meet your needs.

Watch out for pool store advice, and do NOT add:
+ algaecides;
+ phosphate removers;
+ stabilizer (if you by dichlor -- if you use bleach it's OK)
+ calcium
+ clarifiers or flocculants.

Do physically remove as much 'goop' as you can. Do run your filter 24/7. Do clean your cartridge once filter pressure goes up 5 psi over clean pressure.

Good luck!

[PoolDoc]

Oh, yeah. Membership upgraded.

[The Boyd Family]

Thank you SO SO SO much for all of the advise from WaterMom and PoolDoc!!! We have been cleaning algae and various water insects out of our pool for 5 days now and are getting to where our pool almost looks like a pool! Unfortunately we did use powder shock from the pool store along with Pool First Aid by Natural Chemistry thanks to the people at the local pool stores which actually did help to get it a little clearer, but I do not know what harm it can cause now that I have had more advice on here. We have been running our filter for what seems like days with very little breaks and it is getting clearer and there is less algae due to our using the net with the leaf bag attachment. So all we will really need is bleach (8.25% plain), to get rid of this algae? I am excited about the BBB method but have just began reading about it and am trying to convince my husband to get us a SWCG so we wont have to lug as many bleach jugs around. I am excited to not use all of the crap my local pool stores keep suggesting that we put in.

[Watermom]

am trying to convince my husband to get us a SWCG so we wont have to lug as many bleach jugs around.
SWCGs definitely make pool maintenance convenient but........... you can't use one to clean up a swamp. (Or it will greatly decrease your cell life.) You would still have to supplement with hand dosing of chlorine while you have a green pool.

Good luck!

[The Boyd Family]

Getting extra cartridges will make the work easier and faster and more pleasant. You'll also be much less likely to destroy your cartridge. Looking at your filter,
CLEARWATER II Cartridge. FILTER INSTRUCTIONS - Waterway Plastics (http://www.waterwayplastics.com/manuals/810-0072-2.0910.pdf)
it appears that this
Unicel C-8409 Replacement Filter Cartridge for Waterway Clearwater II 100 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000OWHZQ6/poolbooks/) is the correct cartridge.

If you can get 1 - 2 cartridges, and have one cleaning all the time;

Cleaning-your-Cartridge-Filter-wiithout-Damaging-It! (www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?18044)it will make the work much easier. Make sure to compare dimensions on YOUR cartridge, with the one at Amazon, to verify that it's the right one. If you order elsewhere, make SURE to get a cartridge MADE BY Unicel or Filbur (not "fits" or "replaces"). All of the Asian made cartridges we've encountered (incl the very common Pleatco, as well as the OEM Intex cartridges) are very inferior in quality, and do not perform well.

As Watermom told you, you'll need the K2006, once your water begins to look like pool water. Meanwhile, the cheap local kit I mentioned above will meet your needs.

Watch out for pool store advice, and do NOT add:
+ algaecides;
+ phosphate removers;
+ stabilizer (if you by dichlor -- if you use bleach it's OK)
+ calcium
+ clarifiers or flocculants.

Do physically remove as much 'goop' as you can. Do run your filter 24/7. Do clean your cartridge once filter pressure goes up 5 psi over clean pressure.

Good luck!

PoolDoc, I ordered the filter that you linked to above and it arrived today from AMAZON and the box says it is a 90sqft filter. We currently have a 100sq foot filter installed. Are you sure that this is going to be okay in my unit?

[PoolDoc]

Can you post the Amazon link to the cartridge you received? You should be able to find in the 'last 30 days' orders section of your Amazon account.

Here's the 2013 Unicel cartridge replacement guide: http://www.unicelfilters.com/pdf/replacement_guide.pdf

It does list the C-8409 cartridge as the correct one, but it also shows that cartridge as a 100sft cartridge, so I'm not sure what is going on.

Here's what I'd do:
1. Compare your current cartridge with the new one. Dimensions and end forms should be identical.
2. Count the pleats on your old and new cartridges. If they are the same number, go for it. If your old cartridge has 10% more pleats than the new one, something is going on. Call Unicel and ask => 818-678-0400

Please let me know what you find, or if you have any problems getting answer from Unicel. I can call them if they won't help you directly.