new to the forum / pool details

Hello friendly pool people.

I should probably know more about my pool, but this is what I do know. Not sure about the age of the pool, but it had a new liner in 2008, a year before we moved into the house. It is an oval shaped above ground pool, about 13,000 gallons, 18' wide x 30' long x 48" high.

I have maintained it over the past few summers mostly with chlorine, shock, and algaecide. I've also added a number of other things from the pool store which never really seemed to work. Last summer, I started using liquid chlorine for my troubles and it always cleared things up. Not to bad for about $15 for a 5 gallon jug. I'm sure that this is not the best or safest way to do it, so that's why I figured I'd look for some help and sign up here. I've got a 10 month old little girl I'd like to get in the pool this summer, and I want to make sure it will be alright for her.

Anyway, after my initial dose of liquid chlorine 3 days ago, the pool is still a bit green and it's got some brownish spots on the wall all around the pool which didn't come off while vacuuming. I've got some pictures, but I don't think I can post them.

Thanks in advance :)

Hello, and welcome to the forum!!

Liquid chlorine (aka bleach) gets a bad rap from the pool store folks that want you to buy the more expensive stuff from them, but it's actually what almost all of us use. Keep in mind that chlorine is chlorine is chlorine once you get it into the pool--the only difference is what else is added to your water. Cal-hypo adds chlorine + calcium, dichlor and trichlor adds chlorine + acid + stabilizer, and bleach adds chlorine + salt water. So..once you get the other levels where you want them, liquid chlorine is often the easiest, and cheapest way to keep your chlorine where it needs to be.

Keep in mind also, that "shock" isn't a product, it's a procedure. All it means is to raise your chlorine to a higher level that is determined by your CYA level so that you can kill off algae that's growing in your pool. Generally, you need to raise your chlorine (see the link to the "best guess chlorine chart" in my sig, although you might have to log out to read it until your registration is complete) to shock level, and hold it there until the pool clears and you're no longer losing chlorine overnight. Implied in that statement is the fact that you need to be able to do your own testing...which is why we recommend the K-2006 test kit also linked in my sig. If you can't do that one right now for whatever reason, you can pick up the hth 6-way drop kit at many WalMarts. Barring that, at LEAST you'll need the cheapie OTO kit (uses red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine) to be able to be certain that your pool is cleared up.

So...if you'll post a set of test results taken with a drop-based kit, especially your CYA and pH levels, we'll be happy to get you swimming again in a nice clear pool!

Just want to add my welcome as well! By the way, I think your volume is more like 11,000 gallons. With a 48' pool wall, your water level is more like 3.5 feet instead of an actual water depth of 4 ft. That will make a little difference for you as you determine doses of bleach, etc. to add to your pool.

Hope you enjoy being a part of our forum!

Thanks for the quick responses.

To try to get my pool on the right track asap, I checked for the hth 6 way test kit at my local walmart online. They had one in stock. I get there, and it's definitely been tampered with. So, I got the 6 way test strips instead. I know that's prob. not the best way, but I figured I'd try that while waiting for the super test kit to arrive. Results from the test strips were as follows:

Free Chlorine: about 4
Bromine: about 8
pH: 7.5
TA: 40
TH: 100
CYA: 0

I tested twice and the results were the same both times. Free Chlorine and Bromine was between the two shades of pink on the box, hence the "about."

Is this information useful, or should I not have bought the crap test strips in the first place?

Well......strips are pretty much ok for telling you if there"is" or "is not" chlorine in the pool--but are not reliable enough to tell you "how much", especially if you're trying to correct a problem. If they have the cheapie OTO kit (red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine), it wouldn't be the best thing, but would be better than the strips. They only test for chlorine up to 3 or 5 ppm, depending on which one you get, but you can dilute your pool water with distilled water and force the kit to test higher until your 2006 kit gets there.

By the way, you don't have a bromine pool, so there's no bromine in there unless you've added it......

To continue clearing up the green, if you really have 0 CYA, you need to have your chlorine up between 12-15 ppm, and hold it there, until the green starts to die off and become cloudy/blue.

Janet