My pool is out of control and swampy

I had never had a pool before and I bought a house with a pool 8(!) years ago. You would think that I would be better at this by now.

I have an in ground kidney shaped gunite pool that I estimate is ~23,000 gallons. I converted it to a salt water system about 5 years ago.

I had a pool guy that I used for the past few years until we finally parted ways last summer because of some reliability issues. So I figured with my salt system running well and a barracuda vacuum "robot" I could handle the pool without paying someone else to do it.

Last summer went fine and I was very happy with myself. Here is where the moron part comes into play. My pool is surrounded by trees (you can't even see the pool in an aerial photo) so it is susceptible to getting a lot of leaves in the fall and there is a tree that drops these annoying little cottony balls in it in April.

So I decided to cover my pool, use chlorine tablets in the floating dispenser to save my salt cell some work and keep the pool circulating to avoid any freezing issues. And that is where I royally screwed up. Out of sight, out of mind. I was not diligent enough adding chlorine tablets to the floating dispenser. :facepalm: My pool is an opaque green pond right now. I have dumped about 15 lbs of chlorine in it over the past couple of weeks to try to shock it in addition to having the tablet dispenser floating around. It has not budged.

I am considering draining the pool, pressure washing the gunite, and completely starting over with my pool chemistry. Is this a horrible idea?

tl;dr. My pool is a swamp and I am about to drain it and start over.

We can help you get this cleaned up.

Do you have a test kit? If not, we suggest the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). Not available locally, but you can get it through this link: http://pool9.net/test/

In the meantime, go to Walmart and see if they have the HTH 6-Way drops-based kit. (Not the 6-Way test strips.) If not, then pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (red and yellow drops). Test and post your results. Also, while you are there, get a bunch of jugs of their generic 8.25% bleach and a few boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle).

Tell us what size pump you have and what type and size filter you have. Also, what are the ingredients of the 15 lbs. of chlorine you have added? Anything else added to the water?

(Turn your SWCG off for now.)

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

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Originally Posted by Watermom

We can help you get this cleaned up.

Do you have a test kit? If not, we suggest the Taylor K2006 or 2006C (better buy). Not available locally, but you can get it through this link: http://pool9.net/test/

In the meantime, go to Walmart and see if they have the HTH 6-Way drops-based kit. (Not the 6-Way test strips.) If not, then pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (red and yellow drops). Test and post your results. Also, while you are there, get a bunch of jugs of their generic 8.25% bleach and a few boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle).

Tell us what size pump you have and what type and size filter you have. Also, what are the ingredients of the 15 lbs. of chlorine you have added? Anything else added to the water?

(Turn your SWCG off for now.)

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

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Thank you, Watermom.

I do not have a test kit. Last summer I would take my water to Leslie's pool store here locally and they tested my water. So I assume that is not ideal. For some reason, when I click your link for the testing kit, I get an error message saying that I do not have permissions to access the page. Do either of the kits you listed have a way to test for salinity?

I have my SWCG off since I thought the condition of the water would not really be conducive to good operation.

I will post the specs of my equipment when I get home tonight. I have a DE filter but I don't recall the exact size.

Thanks for your help.

Copy that link and then paste it into a browser window after you have logged out of the forum. (New users, until their registrations are completed, have to log out first to be able to see the rest of the forum.)

That kit does not have a salt test but there is a separate salt test listed on that same page that I linked to you.

. . . membership updated.

Just FYI -- if water costs aren't too high there, draining and refilling may be the option that pleases your family most. Chemical swamp clean-up can be slow. Drain, wash and refill can be faster . . . and less frustrating. It's not an option with vinyl or some fiberglass pools, but unless the ground around your pool is REALLY saturated, it IS an option for concrete pools.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PoolDoc

. . . membership updated.

Just FYI -- if water costs aren't too high there, draining and refilling may be the option that pleases your family most. Chemical swamp clean-up can be slow. Drain, wash and refill can be faster . . . and less frustrating. It's not an option with vinyl or some fiberglass pools, but unless the ground around your pool is REALLY saturated, it IS an option for concrete pools.

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Thank you, Doc. I am glad I found your site. My failings in maintaining my pool are a bit of an embarrassment for me. With this site's help, I endeavor to do better.

So when you stress "REALLY saturated" does that mean that I should be OK to drain my pool this weekend even if they are calling for a chance of rain for my area on Sat and Sun? I live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area which is generally pretty dry. My pool is also surrounded by a concrete "decking". Would that help alleviate concerns of the pool floating up due to ground water?

BTW, I noticed your location is Chattanooga. I am originally from West TN and I am a graduate of UTK. I miss TN sometimes.

Safe answer: dig a 2.5' deep post hole, and cover it. If it doesn't show water at the bottom, you should be good to go.

Re Chattanooga: my younger son, who used to think of Chattanooga as a bit of a dead-end, has now concluded that it's his preferred location. Florida and other places are nice to visit, but not for living. Flat doesn't make him happy, and a LOT of the land west of the Miss. is pretty flat. And he's decided that big cities are best visited online!

Ironically, there've been a few articles lately about how Chattanooga is becoming 'hip'. It's been an outdoor mecca, for awhile (local world-class hang-gliding, mountain biking & bouldering; near-by world class white water + lots of TVA water, Forest Service semi-wilderness, etc). But the redevelopment on the north side of the TN + the gigabit Internet (Chattanooga has the fastest available internet in the US) has brought folks here for 'cool'.

Who'd a thunk that redneck Chattanooga would be a hipster heaven?

Well, I think I am going to go for it this weekend and drain my pool and acid wash it to get rid of the trouble algae.

So, once I refill it from my municipal water supply, what should I add to the water? I have a SWCG, so I know I am going to have to add quite a bit of salt. I am just unsure what else I should add to start. I know I will likely need some chlorine stabilizer.

I have already ordered the Taylor 2006C kit and the K-1766 salt water kit listed at the link that Watermom gave me. They are on the way and should be here next week. Should I go ahead and get the HTH 6 way kit from Wal Mart? Should I wait to get the salt kit to start adding salt to my pool or can I trust the reading on my Hayward salt system to be close enough?

1. You can add salt anytime you like . . . but don't turn the SWCG on till the pool is up and running with fully adjusted water.

2. Get dichlor if you can. If you have access to a Sams Club, that's your best deal for undiluted dichlor:
http://pool9.net/sams-dichlor50/
http://pool9.net/sams-dichlor24/
Other sources sell diluted dichlor, but if you can find a dichlor with 56% available CHLORINE, that should be OK. 24# of dichlor will add about 60 ppm of CYA to your pool

3. Once you have the pool adjusted, salt in, and CYA up . . . THEN turn on the SWCG.

I do not have a Sam's card and don't know anyone who does.

I looked around a little last night and today. Pardon my ignorance, but is this dichlor?

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/...ps22770de9.jpg

BTW, your links to the dichlor pages did not work for me

Yes, that is dichlor. What brand is that and where did you find it?

(The links didn't work for me either. Thanks for letting us know so we can get them fixed.)

Yes. That's the right stuff.

Thanks for the tip on the links; they are fixed now.

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Originally Posted by Watermom

Yes, that is dichlor. What brand is that and where did you find it?
(The links didn't work for me either. Thanks for letting us know so we can get them fixed.)

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It is called Chlor Brite. I got it at Leslie's pool supply. I believe it is their house brand.

Well, the drain/acid wash/bleach clean went well Saturday. I rented a trash pump which worked great and my wife was a trooper and helped with the cleaning. It _only_ took us about 7 hours. Then, a mere 20 hours after I started refilling the pool, it finally got to the right level yesterday afternoon.

I bought a 25 lb bucket of the dichlor I posted earlier and thought I was being fairly conservative by leaving what I thought to be 4 lbs in the bucket yesterday. Based on my initial test this evening with the HTH 6 way drop test (2006C is en route) I either put more than I thought, my pool is smaller than I thought or I am horrible at testing the water. Full disclosure: I thought it would also be a good idea to have a couple of the chlorine pucks I had bought earlier floating around in the little basket.

Here goes:

Based on the nice shade of orange with the OTO drops and this link http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...sults-by-color, it appears that my chlorine is somewhere on the order of 20-25 ppm.

The Alkalinity test says that the sample should turn from green to red as you add drops. Multiply the # of drops by 10 to get ppm. I gave up after 20 drops. The sample was no longer green, but I wouldn't exactly call it red.

The pH read low. The color was very close to the 6.8 lower box.

When I added the 5 drops of the hardness indicator to the sample it did not turn red to indicate hardness.

The CYA black dot test really had me questioning my eyesight, but the best I could tell is that my CYA is 90-100 ppm

The good news: My pool looks great and my barracuda is doing it's thing as I type. The water *looks* great.

The bad news: It appears that it might eat the flesh from our bones if we swim.

I am going to let the TX heat work on the pool tomorrow and re-test the water tomorrow evening and post my results. And yes, I took out the chlorine puck basket.

No dangers.

CYA = 100 and FC = 20 is no problem. Dermatologists *routinely* prescribe 50 - 100 ppm "bleach baths" (Google that phrase) for adult AND pediatric patients with skin problems! And that's with NO CYA present.

But, wear old swim suits. People are FAR less chlorine sensitive than women's swimwear. Ironically, the most expensive women's swimwear is the most sensitive; the least expensive is next. Mid range swim gear made by competition swimwear companies is the least sensitive.

Test your pH by mixing 1/2 cup pool water with 1/2 cup distilled water (from Walmart). Surprisingly, adding distilled water doesn't change the pH, but it does reduced the effects of high chlorine on phenol red.

Watch the videos for further info:
http://pool9.net/tk-guide/
http://pool9.net/tk-interfere/ <= explains the yellow/blue TA result