please approve my account/help

First post here and let me say thank you for everyone with all the helpful posts. I'm so sick of going to my local pool store and giving them half my paycheck only to find after 3 years that it isn't working for me.

I have a 20 x 40 vinyl pool at 33000 gallons with only two return lines for circulation. The filter is a Hayward s240 series with a 115/230 V pump. The pool is in the sun for 90%of the day and maintained a temp of about 85 all summer.

As far as chemicals go I have been following the advice of a pool store being at opening dumping about 50lbs each of stabilizer calcium and alkalinity as they call it. Then shocking the pool with the gallons of bottles that appear to do nothing. I also buy the 3 inch pucks that I stack up in my chlorinator and blast on full like they've told me. Then once a week I shock the pool again with 4 gallons of the liquid solution. The test kit I use was either they're in store service or the terrible strips.

As per the store all my readings are "perfect" however my pool was very cloudy and green. I've tried multiple times vacuuming to waste to no luck. Running out of options I decided to hire a pool cleaning company next year until I found this site.

I've already gone ahead and taken your advice to buy the k2006c kit which I'm waiting to arrive. I've put my pool on hold until I get the kit. I need to get it clear so I can winterize it.

I suppose my question is, when I get my kit in and find my levels, where can I find the best price accurate chemicals to follow the BBB method? From what I remember reading I think you said get great value 8.25% bleach from Walmart and borax and baking soda from a hardware store.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, only the site owner can approve you and he has been AWOL all season. Only the two moderators can see your posts. Sorry for that--it's out of our hands.

I'll try to help as much as I can. You've figured out that you've been "Pool Stored"--big time! Good first step.
You've ordered the K-2006c--Great 2nd step! When you use it, don't bother with the acid demand or base demand tests. Do run the following:
FC (Free Chlorine)
CC (Combined Chloramines)
TC (Total Chlorine--just add FC and CC together)
pH
TA (Total Alkalinity)
CYA/Stabilizer

Also, since you've been conned into buying calcium for a vinyl pool, test your CH, Calcium Hardness level. If it's anywhere from 0 to 400, you're OK. If higher, well you'll want to drain and replace some water--BUT NOT TILL YOU'VE SOLVED THE GREEN CLOUD!

Next: Chems.
For now, ONLY use either bleach or Liquid Chlorine(LC). They are the same thing, just different strengths. For reference, one gallon of 8.25% bleach will add 2.5ppm of Free Chlorine to your pool (based on 33k gallons). LC is usually 12.5% and that will add 3.8ppm of Free chlorine per gallon. I know, I know--bleach doesn't come in gallons anymore. So a 121oz bottle of 8.25% will add 2.35ppm of FC.

DO NOT ADD CALCIUM! Calcium is strictly for concrete-type pools to prevent the calcium compounds in the mortar/grout/plaster/concrete from leeching out into the water. Vinyl doesn't leech calcium. Period It's a total waste of money. Too much calcium can cause milky water and scaling on metal. Otherwise it's both harmless and useless.

Alkalinity raiser is simply Baking Soda, NO MATTER WHAT THE POOL STORE GUY SAYS! Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate (what the Pool Store bottle says) is just another name for Sodium Bicarbonate--to fool consumers. Same thing only 3x more expensive.

pH Riser is similar. It's Sodium Carbonate (not Bicarbonate). Sodium Carbonate is also called "Washing Soda" and is next to the Borax in the laundry aisle of your supermarket. It, too, is Arm&Hammer, but in a yellow box. I rarely use it because Borax raises pH just as well, doesn't raise Total Alkalinity as much, and slightly inhibits algae.

The pucks are a delivery system for chlorine called Tri-Chlor. They add a lot of stabilizer and a lot of acid as well as chlorine. If your pH is high and your CYA is low, they can be a good thing. But I'm betting your CYA is through the roof--and that inhibits chlorine's effectiveness--there are ways around it. Plus, unless the pucks say 99% Tri-chlor, NEVER use them. "Double Acting" usually means they've added copper as an algaecide, but copper causes more problems than it cures.

For now, you are going to stick to Bleach, Borax, Baking Soda and either Muriatic Acid or Dry Acid (to lower pH). Until your K-2006C arrives, either get yourself a simple OTO/pH test kit (preferably one where the Chlorine scale goes to 5, not 3) or, if your local WalMart has the HtH 5-Way or 6-Way drop test kit, get that. It's the best cheap kit out there. The best 2-way OTO/pH test kit is Taylor's K-1515, but Leslies own OTO/pH kit is the same thing, just rebranded as Leslies--and more expensive. And get a gallon of steam distilled water-- your supermarket or local drug chain will have it.

Test chlorine and pH according to the directions. If the chlorine color is darker than highest number, we'll go to diluting it. If not, report the number. Also pH.
IF you get the Walmart HTH kit, you can also test TA, CH and CYA. Those will be very helpful.

To dilute and read a higher pH, yellower than the highest number--I call it the CarlD Shotglass method. I like the shotglass because it's easy. Dump one shot of pool water and one shot of distilled water into a clean containing, like a mixing cup and mix. Pour this mix into the yellow side (OTO) of the tester and double the reading. So..if it reads "4", it's really 8 (always ignore the Bromine scale). If the water is STILL darker than the tester, start again but this time use one shot of pool to two shots of distilled water. Now triple the reading. You can use 3 shots of distilled and quadruple the reading, or 4 shots and quintuple it, but it gets less and less accurate.

At this point, I can only advise you to do the following:
Go to our sister site, poolsolutions.com and read EVERYTHING you can.
Go to the various forums you can see on this site and read the stickied threads on algae cleanup.

Without the test numbers I cannot tell you anything more. I suspect, if you get the HTH 5-way kit, we'll find you have NO chlorine, a low pH, and very high Alkalinity, Calcium and CYA levels.

We don't recommend test strips but if you MUST the only ones to use are the Hache or LaMotte 6-way ones. They are very tough to read correctly, but MAY give you a rough idea.