inland hurricane victim

[traceyb]

HI all....i was in the midst of the inland hurricane in southern illinois. The cover (most of it ) blew into the pool along with the leaves n gunk on it. I have left the cover b for the time being until we get power and I get some algaecide 60. The power should be back on in a day or so. Hoping the 3/4 covered bottom will be somewhat protected from sun. Any suggestions on bleach/shock etc?????It is light green not solid green thank god? Please......any suggestions are greatly appreciated. 30 ft above ground 33,000 gal's water

[aylad]

I wouldn't worry about the algaecide, it's better at preventing algae than killing it once it's there. Once you can circulate the water, scoop as much of the crud off the bottom as you can, then shock it and hold it at shock level until you can see the bottom. Then get the bottom cleaned up the rest of the way, and hold shock level with the pump on 24/7 until the water clears. Keep an eye on your pressure gauge, because it may have to be backwashed frequently. I would use bleach, and it's probably gonna take lots of it. Do you know what your CYA level was prior to the hurricane?

Janet

[traceyb]

no, havent checked #'s yet. Bought a new heavy duty algaecide 2000 from my pool supplier, said it was 100% algaecide, good stuff and he told me to put 2 chlorine tabs in. So far the water is 10 times better, light blue/green now. She doesn't like to shock until the water is stabilized. I thought different, but he has always done the trick! Using minimal chemicals/$. I vacuumed 98% to waste and thankfully mother nature has helped replenish the water i've lost. Now I probably shouldn't vacuum any more to waste as I would loose the algaecide that I put in it! Thanks for your input, I welcome more if you have it.
Great day!

[Watermom]

Reread Jan's post above. She is right on the money as always. You need to shock to clear the pool. Using tabs is not going to be a very effective way to maintain your chlorine at shock level right now. Better to use bleach now and then when you get the water cleared up, you can switch to trichlor tabs ---- if your cya level allows it. Good luck.

[traceyb]

Ok, The water is clear, but looking from a distance, there is a slight green tint to the water. I have a drop kit and here are the readings

Chlorine is ideal
pH is 7.6 slightly above ideal
and the alkalinity is 130

Am wondering if I need another hit of algaecide since the chlorine is where i need it.
Any suggestions?

[CarlD]

We have NO idea what "Chlorine is ideal" means. If you are using an OTO drop kit you may have a scale that indicates 1.5-2 is "ideal" and 3 is "high". This is terribly wrong for most pools.

If you don't have a FAS-DPD test kit, you can have a pool store test a sample. They'll then tell you that you need $100-$200 worth of chemicals, especially calcium (useless in an above-ground vinyl pool). Tell them you have to check what you have at home....

What we need to see is:
FC (free chlorine)
CC (Combined chloramines) or TC (Total Chlorine)--either is fine TC= FC + CC so you can figure it out.
CYA (Stabilizer or Cyanuric Acid)

Hardness is a waste of time unless it's high,
metal contents can be useful.

Your pH of 7.6 is actually perfect. Don't mess with it.

TECHNICALLY, your alkalinity is a tad high, but in a vinyl pool you shouldn't have to worry until it hits 200ppm--so don't worry about it.

But the FC, CC and CYA numbers are what we need.

The BEST would be FC positive, CC=0 and CYA at a level where the FC is effective.

I suspect you still have algae if you have a greenish tinge to the water. Depending on your CYA number you'll need to add chlorine to bring it to that CYA's shocking number. Look at Ben's Best Guess table to see the ratios.