Fighting the Mean Green

I think I have made some mistakes and need help.
My pool started to give me trouble last season. I followed every direction my local pool store gave me. hundreds of dollars later my problem was not fixed. The pool store abandoned me with a shrug of there shoulders and admitted to not knowing how to help me. I basically just gave up and covered my pool. I did not winterize it.
I found you a couple weeks ago and have started to shock my pool up to 15 ppm with 52% Calcium Hypochlorite. It is cloudy and a teal blue color now and i can see the bottom faintly in the shallow end...35 pounds of shock later.
I think I am messing up. I have no Cyanuric Acid at all. Is this what I should be doing? Should I be using the Calcium Hypochlorite or bleach? Should I add stabilizer?
Some other info:
ph is 8
alk is 100 ppm
cal hardness is 310 ppm
My pool is an in ground 22,000 gal, liner pool.
Thank you for any info you can give me...you are my last hope!!

Well, the good news is that you found us and we can help you get this cleared up.

A couple of questions:
-- Do you have a good test kit? If not, you need one and the one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or the 2006C which you can order from Amazon from the link in my signature line. Well worth the money.
-- What kind of filter do you have?

I would suggest not using the cal-hypo. Your calcium hardness reading is already pretty high and vinyl pools do not need calcium. When the level gets too high it can cause cloudy water problems. For the time being, I'm going to suggest that you use something other than bleach --- dichlor shock powder -- for three reasons. One, it will be convenient to shock with and with a large volume pool that is green, it is going to take a lot of bleach bottles. Two, it will add stabilizer (cya) to your pool which you need. Three, it will help to lower your pH. You will not want to use it all summer, however, or else your cya level will get too high. Use it for awhile and monitor your pH and your cya level. I'd aim for around 35-40ppm of cya and then switch over to using bleach.

Test your pool a minimum of twice a day and 3 or more times per day is even better and each time, shock it back up to about 12 or so. The key to killing algae is to sustain the high cl reading without letting it yo-yo up and down. Also, run your pump 24/7 right now while you are working to clear this mess.

Read through many of the posts on the forum and also on our sister site, poolsolutions.com where there is lots of good info that you will benefit from. Keep us posted of your progress and come back with further questions. Stay out of the pool store!!!!!! (except to maybe buy some dichlor)

Welcome to the forum!

Watermom's given you excellent advice, I just wanted to add that our local WalMart sells dichlor, too, at about 1/2 the price that the pool store sells it for, so you don't even need to go to the pool store for that! :)

Janet

I did buy the taylor kit as you suggested and that is what I used for the test results I posted.
My filter is a Hayward S244T sand filter. Last night I add DE, like a post I read on here suggested, to help catch some of the smaller particles.
I think another problem is I seem to have a lot of leaf matter on the bottom and am having a hard time getting it out because I cant see the bottom. I vacuumed to waste today and the pump basket clogged an I got frustrated and stopped after an hour. It is so cloudy I cant see what I am doing or I would use the skimmer to get the leaf matter out. Ok...now that I vented I think I can back on track :)
I will be going to wal mart as Janet (Thanks for not making me go back to the pool store!) suggested to get the right stuff.

Thank you so much for helping me!!
Paige

any solid matter (leaves, etc) that you can remove manually will help the overall process- but shocking will work to clear over time, regardless!
Recommend a leaf net, instead of vacuum, to try to catch stuff form bottom, if not to frustrating!

Is it ok to add the dichlor through the skimmer/filter? I am afraid because the water temp is cold the stuff will not dissolve if I throw it in the water and I can not see the bottom to see if any accumulates. (I'm in PA and we have outside temps between 50 and 75 right now)
When should I test again for stabilizer? I have only needed to put 2 pounds of dichlor in today and I was wondering how much it takes to raise the stabilizer.
When do I add the Polyquat?

Thank you for you time and patience!
Paige

It is okay to add the dichlor through the skimmer as long as you don't have trichlor in a feeder--you never want to mix forms of chlorine outside of the pool water itself. Just either sprinkle it in slowly so that your pipes don't choke, or you could pre-dissolve it in a bucket of water and pour it in that way. I don't think you're going to see a noticeable rise in CYA until after several pounds, so I wouldn't waste the reagent just yet.

Polyquat is much more efficient at preventing an algae bloom than it is in clearing one up--so if you're fighting an algae outbreak, I'd hold off on the polyquat. Many people on this forum just use it for closing up for the winter, and some of us don't use it at all. The polyquat will quickly consume the chlorine you're putting in, so I would just leave it aside for now and concentrate on chlorinating the heck out of your algae.

Janet

Note to isdsms: I created a new thread for you. It is best to start a new thread for yourself rather than tacking onto another thread already in the middle of discussing someone else's pool. Your new thread can be found at the following link:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...0904#post70904

I have been adding enough dichlor to keep it at a steady 12 ppm. Most days that is about a pound. There has been a few days when I didn't need to add any, so I think I am winning!!! So how long should I expect to have to do this till my water clears up??
The water is a teal blue (cloudy) I can see the bottom in the shallow end (4 ft) and can see a shadow of the vacuum head when it is in the deep end (8 ft). Note, we have been getting alot of rain but I do test 3 times a day...rain or shine:)

Test results from today:
Free Chlorine 15 ppm (just added a pound 1 hour before the test, was at 10 ppm before)
Combined Chlorine - 0
Ph - 7.4
Alk - 70 ppm
CYA - 70 ppm
Cal Hard - 300 ppm
Should I be adding anything else at this point?

Thx for ur help!
Paige

With a CYA of 70, you need to be chlorinating up to 20 ppm, not 12. The 12 ppm was good while you had no CYA, but now that the CYA is that high, you need to compensate with higher chlorine levels. I strongly encourage you at this point to switch over to bleach, because the dichlor is adding a lot of CYA, which you're going to have to compensate for all summer by keeping higher chlorine levels. In a pool your size, each 1 1/2 quarts of regular, 6% bleach will raise your chlorine by 1 ppm. So to get it from 15 to 20, you'll need roughly 2 gallons. Once you achieve the proper shock level for your CYA, and if you can hold it there consistently, most messes can be cleaned up in just a few days. However, if you don't get it up to the 20 ppm now that your CYA is high, you'll be fighting this for a very long time. At this point, I would not add any more dichlor--just switch to plain bleach to finish the job! :)



Janet

I have clear water for the first time in a year and I am thrilled! I have search pool solutions and have not found what I do next. Do I put any chlorine based product in the skimmer on a daily basis? If so what do you recommend? Should I use the polyquat now that it is clear or just skip it completely? When I shock it how much bleach should I use? If I'm understanding correctly I should shock to 20 ppm at night but will it drop enough by morning to swim in it? I'm sorry if I sound needy but I am scared as heck to end up like last year w/a green and/or cloudy pool.
This is my latest test results:
Chlorine - 9 ppm
Ph - 7.4
Alk - 70 ppm
Cya - 65
Other then my cya being high I think my numbers are good. I messed up with the dichlor and added too much so now i'm stuck w/the high cya. Will it stay that way all summer? How often should I test the cya?

Again THANK YOU for your continued patience,
Paige

Congratulations on the clear pool--ain't it great?? :cool:

I wouldn't worry about the polyquat--some of us never use it, some of us only use it for winterizing, or if you're dealing with metals in the pool. If none of those things apply, then just know that adequate chlorine levels will keep the algae away. With your CYA of 65, you want to keep your chlorine between 5 and 10 ppm at all times. If you need to shock it, shock it to 20 ppm until it clears again and you're not losing any chlorine overnight. There's nothing else you need to add on a daily basis, other than bleach. In a 22K gallon pool, each 3 quarts of 6% bleach will raise your FC by approximately 2 ppm, so you can use that as a guide when adding your daily bleach dose.

Your CYA may lower slightly over the summer, depending on how much you backwash the filter, and how much splashout you have, but that's the only way it will come down. I wouldn't bother testing it more than once a month unless you're adding more CYA via dichlor or trichlor, which I wouldn't do for your pool. It's fine where it is.

Take 5 minutes a day, test chlorine and adjust it as needed, test for pH once a week or so, and you should be good to go through the summer!!

Janet