Cannot hold chlorine! New pool owner.

Hello, I live in MD and I am new to caring for the pool that came with our house. The water currently is very clear and has been for more than a month and a half, but when I opened the water was green and thus began my powder shock treatments which did clear it up.

The pool is plaster and in its sixth season. It is 12,480 gallons, it has 2 bermuda pentair skimmers controlled by a 4 cartridge pentair filter and a whisperflo 1hp pump. I also have but do not currently use an eclipse del ozone, auquacal heatwave aerotemp heater, levolor water management system and a auquascope fountain. Oh, I have a polaris vacuum.

I received a taylor 2006C kit today(per suggestions here) and tested to the best of my amateur ability. The following are my results:

PH-7.6
FC-0 (I guess, it never turned pink)
TA-120
CH-250
CA-65

I am sick of going to the pool store and being told to just "add more shock." My pool was perfect before it was opened this spring and now it is rough and stained. I figure to get it acid washed next year and I will ask for advise on this later.

For now, PLEASE HELP! I have no growth(algae, but I sort of did before it opened) but I fear for my kids safety swimming in our pools current state.

Thanks for any and all help!

Hi and welcome to the forum!

You need to get some chlorine in there before this pool turns green! Now that you got your K-2006 (good decision!) it will make this much easier for you and you won't have to depend on the pool store.

Go ahead and add 3 gallons of plain, unscented household bleach. That should take you up to about 15ppm. Test at least twice per day (more often if you can) and each time, add enough bleach to get back to 15ppm. In your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add about 1.2ppm of cl. When you can go from sundown one evening until sunup the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine, then you can let it drift down and then keep it between 5-10 all the time. (I assume by CA = 65 you meant CYA = 65?)

How often were you adding chlorine before? What type of chlorine were you adding and how high were you taking the chlorine?

Hope this helps you. Again, welcome. Glad you found us!

I was adding chlorine once a week and using pucks. The shock was omni and I used the omni 60 algicide every other week. Basically I never put enough in to get readings past a day. Yes, cya-65.

Should I clean my filters before adding the bleach?

Thanks for the help!

Once a week is almost never enough to add chlorine--once you get through with the shocking process, you need to test your water daily, and probably make daily or every other day chlorine additions--whatever it takes to stay in the 5-10 ppm range


Janet

Go ahead and clean the filters if it has been awhile since you have done so.

Adding chlorine once a week isn't enough. For now, until you can go overnight without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine as I explained above, you need to test several times each day. Once you get to that point, then you'll be able to test in the evenings only. Then, you'll add enough bleach to take your chlorine back up to 10ppm. The next evening, test again and add enough to get back up to 1oppm again. If you find, after several days of doing this that your pool never is below 5 when you test, you may be able to test and add bleach every other day. You'll just have to wait to see what the pattern for your pool is. But, you can never let the cl level drop below 5 or you risk an algae bloom.

At any rate, no more pucks for this pool. They will cause your CYA to continue to climb and you don't want it any higher.

Keep us posted how things are going!

Once again, Jan and I are typing/posting at the same time with the same advice!

Thanks, I am going to get bleach tinight and get started!

No more pucks and no more bags of shock.

Thanks!

Not to be paranoid but from adding the bleach last night and this morning, my calcium levels shot up to 400! I am not sure if it is the bleach but I have added nothing else to the pool?(Except a little water and I do have a well)

Can I continue to add bleach tonight?

Thanks!

yes, you do need to continue to add bleach tonight. The addition of bleach will not cause your calcium levels to rise. Is your well water high in calcium?

Janet

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't know but since I have the test kit I will test it tonight.

My water is 30 according to the kit?

30 what? Calcium?

Yes, the calcium reading for my tap water or what I add to the pool when it needs more water.

Ok. Well, your tap water is not the source of your high calcium, which means it's most likely the shock you've been using. The calcium change may be a testing error, but there are other possibilities as well. However, you don't need to focus on that just yet.

You mentioned your pool being fine on opening, but now rough and stained. Can you elaborate? Even better, can you send pictures to poolforum AT gmail DOT com, so I can post them?

For now, do all the following:

#1 - Add 1 gallon of bleach every evening, till you are holding 3 ppm of chlorine by the following evening. (And stop using calcium based chlorine or shock.)
#2 - Test your FC *and* your CC levels.
#3 - Test your CYA again (stabilizer, cyanuric acid) to confirm
#4 - Begin adding acid, to take your pH down to 7.0 - 7.2. Use muriatic acid from Lowes or a hardware. (Gloves, glasses, add with pump ON, submerge bottle partly into pool to allow you to pour close to the water, watch the fumes.) Use 1/4 gallon doses.
#5 - Run your pump 24/7, and adjust a return eyeball to 'ruffle' the water.
#6 - Don't use other chemicals, for now.