I did some testing today... Am I moving in the right direction

I have been doing as pool forum has guided me. Shocking the :D out of my pool water! It is still cloudy, but has improved. We think we should change the sand in the filter because it hasn't been changed in atleast two years (the pool was unused for two years and had a ripped covered so was exposed to environment).

I did the CL with my walmart 6 way, which is the one we're most interested in now, right? I did a normal CL and then I did a diluted 1/3 with diluted water and both came up with Orange colors (obviously one deeper in color than the other). Just to add, the PH was not on the charts either at a purple versus pink.

Last night we added 6 5.25% bleach and really didn't get anymore clarity than before the 6 gallons. I added two more 5.25 this morning. We've vaccuum a couple of times... backwashing, too. As of this writing we are still getting some "dirt particle" up from the bottom once a stir it up, but it's not major.

Also, our filter pressure goes between 7 - 11 in pressure... should it be higher? Is this possibly the sand and why it's taking so long for us to get our pool in shape? :eek:

AG - 8,500
Sand filter


So we have a total of 12 megashock 12.5% and 8 5.25% bleach into this

YIKES..I think you are adding WAY to much bleach....especially since you can't effectively test for that much. Thats a small pool you have there...are you going by any guides that say to add that much? Have you downloaded the bleach calc?

I was told to have Patience, Persistence, and keep adding bleach since my water is cloudy. I know it's high, but I believe it has to fully kill off what has been there for at least two years. The pool hasn't been used and was uncovered and also had softswim remnants.

We added three more last night. This morning we can see the bottom of the pool, although the water is still cloudy. At this point, I will add muriatic acid to bring down the PH and add two more 5.25 tonight. I will test it after adding the muriatic. Am I doing this right?

Peg, you might want to be a little skeptical about your pH readings. I've read on this forum that when the chlorine level is high, the test results are distorted.

It is very important to be able to accurately measure Chlorine, pH, alkalinity, and stabilizer (CYA). I use Ben's PS234. There are others including kits from Taylor. These will allow you to know where you stand and make the correct adjustments.

For instance, if you have a high CYA content, you need to either maintain higher chlorine content in accordance with Ben's Best Guess CYA chart, or drain and refill your pool. Once you're able to test and post accurate numbers, you'll get some quality advice from others who have more experience than I.

It is a holiday weekend. Everybody's probably out enjoying their pools! I'm a little too new to be confident about giving detailed advice.

-Jim

Peggles,

First off, you need to understand that the bleach is used to kill off whatever is in your water--the FILTER is what will remove it once it's dead and will help to clear up the cloudiness. I agree with Tundra in that you are adding too much bleach without any accurate testing, and are likely to bleach your pool. You need accurate test results for Cl, CYA, pH, TA in order for us to tell you the next step. Your CYA test in the 6-way should be accurate enough even with your Cl that high. Run that one and post the number, and we should be able to at least get started. I would seriously consider taking a sample to a pool store (one that uses drops, NOT strips!) and asking them to run a set of numbers on your water. Bring those back and post them. Do NOT buy any of the stuff they're going to try to convince you that you need. Just tell them you have it at home already.

Keep in mind also that above ground filters tend to be undersized, so it can take a long time to get the cloudiness cleared up even when all the goo in the pool has been killed off. Your pump should be running 24/7 while you are clearing your pool.

All that being said, if you are still in the midst of a conversion from soft swim, that kind of changes things. We don't know if your Cl level is dropping overnight or not, which is the key to tell us whether all the softswim is gone or not. If you're going to buy anything from the pool store, I would invest in a good, drop-based kit that includes a DPD-FAS test. Taylor makes one, and you can get a good one from this site (that's the one most of us are using). For Cl levels as high as yours are, you NEED a way to accurately test before you bleach your pool liner.

Janet

Well I didn't get any responses to my post yesterday and I was anxious to get going. I added more bleach last night and we dumped the old sand in the sand filter that was probably in there for two years and replaced it. I woke up this morning and took some tests... Although the water isn't crystal clear, we finally saw the bottom of the pool... So I thought we might be 90% there. Here's the testing I did:

CL = 5.0
PH = 7.0
ALK = 90

Then I added Borax and followed up with the stabilizer. Waited a couple of hours and got these results:

CL = 3.5
PH = 7.2
ALK = 100
CYA = 30

We swam in it for the first time after these results. How refreshing it was. I know some of the numbers are borderline. I have to go buy more stabilizer, but I am so happy to come so far.

Thank you all for your help ;) = Peggy and :) = Jim

11 gallons of bleach and 12 "units" of 12.5% megashock and you have a FC level of 5....that makes no sense to me. You have a pool that is a 1/3 the size of mine and for every gallon I add I get about a 2ppm increase in FC. That leads me to believe your level would be about 100ppm at least....am I missing something?

Tundra
You not missing something. If there are enough organics in the water you could burn off that amount of chlorine.
Steve