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View Full Version : I'm a believer!



dstarr62
06-11-2006, 08:30 AM
After 5 years of expensive Baquacil and constantly fighting my pool, I had already decided this year I'd had enough and was opening my pool with chlorine. Hmm, can't be that hard, my family had a pool for years while I was growing up and just used the basics, chlorine pucks, shock, soda ash, etc and it usually looked real good.

Well, after a month of gradually getting all the pine needles, gunk, algae, you name it out of the pool, and hundreds spent on filter sand, chlorine, algecide, floc, clarifier, etc, etc at the local Lowes, I've still been left with a white, cloudy mess with maybe a foot of visibility. (AG pool, 32 ft round, 52" deep, vinyl liner pool) And I couldn't get chlorine to hold at all. The best I'd been able to get using a 2 way OTO drops kit was 1 ppm, and had never been able to get a reading on any of the DuPont weekly or monthly test strips. Then I discovered this forum!

I read through post after post, especially dealing with cloudy water, algae, and Baquacil conversion. If I had only known what I didn't know! Lacking a proper test kit, I've had to make some educated guesses based on what I have. As near as I can tell ph is a little low, 6.8 to 7.0, TA on the money at 100, CH 120 (which I now know after 5 years of being sold CH increaser for a vinyl pool isn't that important!) CYA 30-50, 0 copper, but...still unable to hold chlorine or get it up to shock levels.

So, last night I added 6 3 quart bottles of Clorox 6% bleach, and the results were amazing! After 1 hour, the drops test was off the chart, and the DuPont strip, which goes to 10, was a deeper purple that even the 10, so I'm guessing I got near my target of 15 ppm. This morning, after 12 hours of filtering, I can start to see the end of the water hose all the way to the bottom (my visibility test) and got a reading of 10 on the strip. At no time during the last month has anything I've done given me this kind of results this quickly.

So for anyone else out there tired of the Baquacil fight, there is hope. Read all you can on this forum, follow the advice, and give it a shot. And many thanks to all the regulars who post on here and share their knowledge, without you those of us at our wits end wouldn't know where to turn! Now I just have to get a decent test kit and take care of a few little odds and ends. (I've already learned not to bother with a replacement bulb for my second aqualuminator based on what I've read here, looks like a nitelighter is in my near future)

Thanks to all,
Don

tundraSQ
06-11-2006, 08:37 AM
the first thing I remember reading when I found this site several years ago, was...GET A GOOD TEST KIT:D

Glad you turned the corner.

dstarr62
06-12-2006, 10:30 PM
48 hours after first using bleach to finally raise CL to shock level, the pool is almost completely clear and holding values pretty well. I've gone from maybe 1 ft of visibility on Sat evening before adding the bleach to being able to clearly see the pool bottom now.

I think the last little bit keeping the pool from being crystal clear may have as much to do with the limitations of my sorry sand filter and too big pump as anything. After dark shining a flashlight into the water you can clearly see tiny particles suspended in the water flowing by. So I'm giving the add DE to the filter trick a try.

I think it must be working even though I got a little bit of DE blowing out the return. Added 1 cup, checked pressure after 20 mins and up about half a pound, added a 2nd cup and pressure up 1 full pound 20 mins after that. Now almost 2 hours after adding the second cup pressure is up another lb, so I'm taking that as a sign the DE is catching some of the little stuff that was going on through. Can't wait to see the results in the morning.

Once again thanks to all that post on here with the great advice, and for anyone tired of fooling with a cloudy pool and just starting with bleach, just keep that CL up to shock level and get your other numbers in line and it will work!

Don