Levels of Pool

I just want to say that you guys are so good at what you guys do. And my pump is working fine now. Now I have a dilemma well some questions I need to get this pool to its nice color state. First I took the water sample to leslies and this is the results I didn't want to buy anything from them as you guys have said.

FAC 0
TAC 0
TA 180
PH 8
Acid 6

My pool is 15700 gallons according to the pool calculator.

Leslies was trying to sell me Muriatic acid and I told them no. They told me I should put 24 oz. I don't know what to do. What do you guys suggest? Should I put bleach on the pool or where should I start to fix this mess?

Thank You Again,
Oscar

You need to get some chlorine in the pool ASAP or it is gonna turn green! Or, maybe it is already green? Tell us the condition of the water. Did Leslie's give you a CYA (or stabilizer) reading? We need that to know what chlorine levels to tell you to run. For now until we know the requested info, go ahead and add one of the large bottles of Walmart bleach which are approximately 1.5 gallons. That should take your chlorine up to between 5-6ppm.

The pool store was right that you need muriatic acid to lower your pH some. You want it to be between 7.2-7.8. I'd start with about a pint of acid added slowly in front of a return jet while the pump is running. Wait several hours, then retest pH and redose if needed. Please read the following guide about using muriatic acid safely. it is nasty stuff. You can also work on lowering your alk at the same time. You want that to be between 80-120. I've included a guide for how to do that as well.

Lowering Alkalinity Step-by-Step
Using Muriatic Acid Safely

You need to get a good test kit so you don't have to rely on a pool store. Besides, your testing will be more accurate. The one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or 2006C (same kit, larger bottle of some reagents). If you buy it through the Amazon link in my signature, the Pool Forum makes a little money on the sale which helps us keep this form online. Only buy if the seller is Amato Industries, however. Some other sellers are substituting the K-2005 which you do NOT want. If Amato isn't listed, wait a day or two and try again. They seem to restock pretty quickly when they sell out.

Looking at your readings again and I'm not clear on what "Acid 6" means. Is that supposed to be your CYA (cyanuric acid) reading?

Watermom,

The pool is allready green and that is the reason why i'm fustrated. They only have Acid Demand (Acid), and the other one that I didn't give you is Total Dissolved Solids(TDS). Probably it's Acid CYA wouldn't it?

I will go add that right now that it's nice and it's not that hot anymore. I added the Muriatic acid allready as well. What else do I need to do to make the water blue again. I bought the shock as well don't know if you guys recommend it. But if you don't I will take it back and get my money. I only add this when the chlorine level is where it should be right?

I will buy the test kit right now, I bought the one from walmart for now.

Thank You,
Oscar

We suggest that you just use plain unscented household bleach for your source of chlorine instead of the shock. In your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add 1ppm of chlorine. Test as many times per day as you can and each time, add enough bleach to get back up to about 10-12ppm. Try and sustain the high cl reading to kill the algae. It may take a few days of doing so. Continue this until your pool is clear and you can go from sundown one evening til within 2 hours of sunrise the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine. At that point, I'd keep the chlorine high for one extra day for added insurance. Then, you can let the chlorine drift down and keep it between 3-6ppm all the time so you won't get algae again. Run the pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the pool.

You need some CYA in the pool as well. It is sometimes called stabilizer or conditioner. Check the label ingredients. If it says cyanuric acid or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff. Add 4 lbs. of it to an old sock and hang it in front of a return jet. Give it a squeeze once in awhile to help it dissolve faster. That amount plus the little bit you have in there now should take you to somewhere around 40ppm which would be a good level. Do not use any trichlor pucks or any dichlor shock powder as those contain CYA and will cause the level to rise even further.

Now, having said all that, I just remembered again that you said you had some "shock." What is the ingredient in it? Don't add it just yet but tell us the ingredients. If it IS dichlor, then we may suggest having you use it since you already bought it and then adjust the recommended amount of CYA to put in the sock. And, then you can switch to using bleach after that. But first tell us what it is before we make that decision.

Until your good test kit arrives, you can force your kit to go higher with a dilution method described below. It is not super accurate and not meant to replace a good kit, but it is better than nothing. Testing Without a Good Kit

Hope this helps.
What kind of pool is this? What type of filter and what size is the pump?

good luck!

Watermom,

Thank you for all that information. It was helpfull, im following this info to the t. Here are the ingredents for the shock treatment that I bought. It has Calcium Hypochlorite- 47.6%, it says other ingedents- 52.4 lol.

Thats it

What was your calcium hardness level? If it's too high, and you use cal hypo to chlorinate, you can cause yourself some really milky water problems, which is why we recommend bleach.

Janet

Yes I have been using bleach, but I added a gallon yesterday and there was nothing today. I'm not going to use the shock I guess I can return it and get something else. I have a couple of questions how do I find out what my pool is made of the guy that left didn't tell me and I don't know how to figure it out, watermom is asking me?

Another thing do I just keep adding gallons of bleach every day? I went and bough 5 gallons yesterday do I put all of them in there at the same time? I still have a lot of algae and I’m hurting here help me fix this mess. And to make it worse it has been raining here all day, so I don't know if that is helping or not. Can I run the pump even when it's raining?

I think of giving up and calling in the service people and then picking it up after they are done.

Don't give up. We will help you get this cleared up!

Did you buy the stabilizer (CYA)? If not, do so. You need it. Add it per my directions above in post #4.

If you added a gallon of bleach that would have only added 4ppm of chlorine. (In your pool, each quart adds 1ppm and there are 4 quarts per gallon.) 4ppm is not nearly high enough to kill algae. Go back and read post #4 above where I explained testing numerous times per day and each time getting the chlorine back up to 12. Unless you do this and unless you sustain the chlorine at about 12ppm, you'll never get rid of the algae.

Even if it is raining, you need to be running the pump 24/7. If you take a day off and don't keep the chlorine high that day, you're gonna go backwards instead of forwards in this fight against the algae.

When I asked what kind of pool, I meant is it an above ground liner pool, an inground liner, an inground gunnite, or a fiberglass pool.

Watermom,

I haven't had time to buy the CYA but I checked the CL level right now and it's past the 10ppm for sure it's super yellow on my test kit, the test kit goes to 10ppm. I added about 3.5 gallons today netween this morning and this afternoon and I just came back and checked it. I will go get the CYA tommorow do I get it from the swimming pool store?

I liked watching the water right now I was able to see the bottom of the pool and it's clear now. Except when I saw the bottom of the pool it was green, great green pool what some news. If I keep doing this is the green going to dissapear or should I scrub it as well?

The pool is an inground pool I guess you can say cement pool.

Oscar

You may be able to buy the CYA at Lowe's, Home Depot, or Walmart. It may be labeled as stabilizer or conditioner. Check the label. If the ingredients say cyanuric or isocynuric acid, it is the right stuff. If those place don't have it, your pool store will.

If you consistently sustain the high cl reading, it will kill the algae. But, you have to be diligent about it and stay on top of it. If you take a day off, then you lose ground. Brushing your pool will speed the process.

Watermom,

I got the CYA and started to put it in the pool. And I'm keeping the chlorine level high real high. I have some questions, I was trying to figure out the pipes that are going from the pool to the water pump and the filter. The guy that lives here, named them as such. PS, SS, those are the two pipes that going to the water pump and on the other side there is another pipe going to it as well that has PD.

I do have a jacuzzi as well I don't know if this will help, the guy that came and gave me the pool class couldn't figure it out either.

Might be helpful if we have pics. Send them to poolforum DOT pics AT gmail DOT com and reference the URL of this thread.

Watermom,

Yesterday I made the mistake of buying CYA that was liquid I forgot that I had to get granular CYA so I went and bought that today. Do I follow the instructions on the bucket or do I follow the instructions on putting some of the CYA in a sock and having it desolved by itself. The intructions tell me to disolve it in hot water and pour it in the skimmer. Is that what I should do?

Thank You,
Oscar

Since you are fighting algae and will be backwashing frequently most likely, you don't want to put it in the skimmer or else you'll just throw it out with the backwash water. Use the sock method.

Backwashing, Hmm I haven't been doing that? When should I do that? And am I supposed to change DE and all that when I backwash? See I told you i'm new at this. Don't really knwo what i should be doing.

Thank You,
Oscar

I'm assuming you have a DE filter. You should backwash it when your filter pressure rises 8-10 psi over the "clean" pressure, or when you notice reduced flow from your returns. The backwash process will wash the DE out, so you'll have to add more...I'll let the DE filter people advise you on how much DE to add.

Janet