opening pool for summer from forest green swamp

[rweber12]

First time pool owner just bought a house that has a 16x32 ft pool.

I've read a bit on the site so I have purchased the Taylor kit you recommended. Dumped a ton of chlorine in about a week ago and it cleared up the first few feet but the deep end was still pretty swampy.. Working on vacuuming and brushing but it just makes the water greener. Just tested my water last night and either its first time user inexperience or my levels are way off... My pH was below 7 a mid to light yellow.. My cya was over 100 and my free chlorine was apparently 0. Tonight I dumped a box of borax in and 8 gallons of liquid chlorine in.

I'll give readings in the morning but any suggestions now?

[Watermom]

If your pH is below 7.0, that is your most critical issue. Get it above 7.0 ASAP!

Mix a cup of pool water with a cup of distilled water and use that to run the CYA test again but multiply your results by 2. See what reading you get then.

Brush the pool while the chlorine is high and run your pump 24/7. If there is debris you can scoop out, do so. Keep dumping in the bleach. Especially with that high CYA, you will need high chlorine levels to kill the algae.

What size pump do you have? What kind and size filter?

Welcome to the Pool Forum, by the way! Good decision to buy the kit! You'll need it with a high CYA like you have.

[rweber12]

Hayward s200 sand filter and I believe a 3/4 HP pump

Also I just came out this morning and it appeared like my pump didn't have any water in it. Im kinda concerned. I filled the basket area thinking that would get it kick started again but it just drained it right away. I'm filling the pipe it comes in from but I feel that there might be a clog or something since the skimmers were empty this morning too. Any ideas?

[Watermom]

I'm gonna ask Ben to see what he thinks about your pump issue. Not my area of expertise.

[rweber12]

I believe I didn't get the top back on secured tightly enough and it just drained itself due to the lack of suction.. I but the garden hose down the pipe it pulls from the pool and let it run for a while and put the top back on and sealed it tight and it has been running well for a few hours now.

I've run out of the liquid chlorine again. I plan on running to the store to buy some more but I have some giant 3" chlorinating tablets that I purchased from Menards. The active ingredient is 99.3% trichloro-s-triazinetrione with 89.0% available chlorine. Could I use these? The previous owners swore by these and just said to drop 3 in the skimmer baskets once a week and I'd be golden.

[Watermom]

With a CYA over 100 and who knows how high it actually is, you should not use those trichlor tabs. They have CYA in them and you don't want yours any higher! They also are very acidic and will drive your pH down.

Did you try the dilution method to see if you can get a more accurate CYA reading? Take a look at this chart. It explains the connection between CYA and chlorine. (Copy link and log out, then paste in browser window.) http://pool9.net/cl-cya/

Glad you got your pump issue solved.

[rweber12]

I haven't had a chance to run to the store yet to purchase the distilled water.. I did dump a box of borax in this morning and tested it just now and I believe my pH is about 7.5.. Cya is basically 100 it was a couple millimeters away from the 100 point when the dot disappeared.. I also found some 50% calcium hypochlorite one time shock treatment packets that are a pound apiece and dumped 5 of them in around 1.. With my last test about 3 hrs later my free chlorine ppm was 36 I believe. Would that be right?

[Watermom]

I don't know how high those packs will take your chlorine. If it were my pool, I'd just stick with bleach. If it is 36ppm, that should definitely put a dent into killing the algae.

A pH of 7.5ppm is good.

[rweber12]

My pump again seemed like it wasn't pushing any water through to the jets this morning when I woke up. I backwashed and rinsed and put it back to filter and it seemed fine again pushing water through to the jets but this seems to be happening almost multiple times a day.

Any suggestions?

[PoolDoc]

Ryan, you're in a tough spot: you're new to pools and you have to clean up a swamp. That's not that easy for anyone, but it tends to be overwhelming to newbies. I can help make it easier, but not easy.

I'm going to try to dissect, and then explain, what's going on . . . and then give you some step by step directions.

OK. Let's start:


Working on vacuuming and brushing but it just makes the water greener.

I backwashed and rinsed and put it back to filter and it seemed fine again pushing water through to the jets but this seems to be happening almost multiple times a day.

Perfectly normal . . . for a pool swamp.

There are piles of algae (and maybe leaves and other stuff) on the bottom. If possible, it's best to vacuum these to "waste". That's a setting that sucks water into the pump -- like normal -- but then dumps it out the backwash line, rather than passing it through the filter. You may need to 'over-fill' your pool, before you do this. And, since you'll be vacuuming blind, it helps to have someone watching the discharge, so they can tell you if you are vacuuming 'goo' or need to move on ('goo' is dark green; not-goo will be cloudy water.)

The fact that your filter is having to be backwashed merely means that (a) your pool is a swamp, and (b) your filter is working to remove the goo from the water . . . but that it can only hold so much before it stops up.


My pH was below 7 a mid to light yellow
As WaterMom told you, low pH is dangerous to your pool! It won't hurt you (it's not THAT low), but it will damage your pool. Because your chlorine is high, you need (a) a gallon of Walmart distilled water and (b) a BUNCH of borax - 6 boxes or more. When you get home with that, test your pH using a 50:50 dilution of pool water with distilled. If it's below 7.0, start adding borax, directly to the skimmer, 1 box every hour. Test before each addition. Stop when your pH is a little higher than 7.0.


but I have some giant 3" chlorinating tablets that I purchased from Menards.
You can't throw these away -- it's illegal to put them in the garbage. So, unless you have a friend to give these to, I'm going to disagree with WaterMom, and tell you to go ahead and use them -- but do NOT buy any more! Also, do NOT use them till your pH is 7.2 or higher: they are quite acidic.

Having them in your skimmer will help your filter, since the concentrated chlorine off these tabs will be hitting the goo on the filter.

So, step by step:

1. Fix the pH before it damages your pool (any more?).

2. Physically remove all the 'goo' you can, by vacuuming to waste and using a leaf net. S-)

3. Use up the tabs AFTER your pH is above 7.2. Do NOT buy more of these.

4. Never, EVER, let granular chlorine come into contact with the tabs: they do NOT play well together! :eek:

5. Complete these forms, so we can better tell what's happening and what you have:
http://pool9.net/pf-pool-form/
http://pool9.net/pf-hist-form/

6. Prepare yourself for a long haul -- you are at the wrong end of a steep learning curve, and your pool is not going to pristine for a week or more. There may be some unpleasant surprises, once you can finally see all of the pool.

[Watermom]

After Ben wrote his post above, he and I had a discussion about whether or not you should use the trichlor. We came to the agreement that if the trichlor tabs you have are individually wrapped, you can just save them til next season because in all honesty, you don't want your CYA any higher. But, if they are not wrapped, then you should go ahead and use them up. Storing unwrapped trichlor from one season to the next is not a good idea.

(The advice to not use them unless your pH comes up some first still stands as does the directive NOT to just throw them in the trash.)