Accepting the challenge

My neighbor asked me if our pool was all green when we open it this year, ours was not and the kids have been in it a few times already. There pool is almost black, she said they spend hundreds if not a thousand dollars to get it going each year, I spent $15 to get my first case of 12.5% chlorine. I told her about this site and told her we will get it looking good in no time. Again she says it takes her weeks of pool store chemicals and floculating or something like that.

First snag was the pump will not prime and stay running. I did test the water with my Taylor kit. Only tested Ph and CYA level. CYA is around 100, it was close maybe a little over, may retest by diluting. PH took 26 drops of base adjusted to get it up to 7.4.

I did not add any chemicals since I could not get the pump running. I think there is a leak on the suction will look into that tomorrow.

It's about 20,000 gallons in ground vinal liner pool. It is using a sand filter with a 1 1/2 HP pump.




Should I add the borax before lotta bleach?

I'm assuming by "Horace", you mean Borax? In that case, yes, I would get the pH up to the 7.2-7.6 range before adding the bleach, since you're going to get falsely high readings for pH if your chlorine levels are high enough to be effective at clearing the pool.

Yes Horace was Borax, good old spell check on the phone.

Here are the pics to start.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-X.../s640/Pool.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-K...Pool-steps.jpg

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Once you get the pump/filter running, then it's gonna be chlorine, chlorine, and a lot more chlorine---but it can be fixed!

Janet

The neighbors got the pump running today so I spent a few trips over there adding borax to bring the Ph up to 7.2 to 7.4. I added the first two boxes of borax and it did not bring it up the the range after about an hour of mixing. Added third box and was not able to test it before leaving for work. Will test in the morning. Pool was brushed today and pump is running. Only bottom drain and return jets work. Skimmer line has air intrusion issues being fixed.

Today's results (Taylor 2006C test kit):
FC - 3.5 ( this is down from 32 and nothing was added since last post)
CC - 0
Ph - off scale low
TA - 60
CYA - most likely still over 200, we have been diverting rain water to the pool, however not tested again since last test, want to dillute more out before testing again.

How can FC be 3.5 ppm and CC be 0 with an almost black pool?

The pool color is not as bad as the first pictures posted above. It is also taking a long time for the Cl to be used up, I believe this is expected due to the high level of CYA.

Will I have to raise the Cl levels high enough to where I see the Cl actually being used up quickly to know I have some active Cl to fight the algae?

Seems like if my Cl is all bound up with the CYA, it may not be as effective or effective at all at fighting the algae and I will be throwing money away trying to get the pool clean.

thanks for your help

Mike

Your most critical issue is low pH. You need to get it above 7.0 ASAP. Readings below 7.0 are acidic and can damage a pool! Keep adding boxes of Borax two at a time. Wait a couple hours, retest, redose.

Keep slamming it with bleach. You really need to know what the CYA is so you'll know if you are taking your chlorine high enough. Buy some distilled water and dilute a water sample (half pool water and half distilled water) and then test and multiply your result by 2. See if you can get a CYA reading that way.

If there is stuff that can be scooped out of the pool, do that. The less organic stuff in there the better and the faster you can get it cleared up. Run the pump 24/7 and clean the filter as needed.

Test results this morning:

CYA - 160 using 3 parts clean water 1 part pool water mixed in separate container results were 40ppm. Looks like the rain water has lowered the CYA a good bit from a month ago.
Ph - 7.0 to 7.2

Adding another box of borax and should be able to start adding bleach. Looks like about 11 gallons to get up to the 30 ppm range.

What kind of drop in Cl levels should I expect?


Thanks,

The drop in Cl levels will be pretty big at first while the worst of the mess is cleared up, but you should start seeing the drop decrease as the pool clears. With a CYA that high, I can't really tell you how far it will drop, but the more consistent you are about keeping it at or above shock level, the faster the mess will be cleared up.

Ph was high today. over 8.0. What is the general tendency for pool water Ph for a liner pool? Will we have to add acid to bring in back down regularly as we are maintaining high Cl levels?

This is day 2 of pump running. The first picture of section was taken about a month ago, however pump was not running during this time while they found the leak or reason it would not stay running. All that was done for the first month was direct rain water from the roof to start diluting out the CYA. You can see the gutter system in the picture.

Pool is starting to show progress, this picture was taken this morning and my wife said she was able to make out the bottom of the shallow end this evening.

FC last night was 32
FC this morning was 25
Added bleach to bring back up.

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You can't test pH accurately when the chlorine is that high. You often will get a falsely high pH reading. Wait until the chlorine drops below 15ppm before trusting your pH reading.