3rd time's a charm...

[Missy]

I hope. I've attempted to post this twice before...hopefully this time I'll have appeased the forum gods well enough to at least get this thread to the Mods. All right, so I'll try and make a long story short, here...I've got a cycling algae problem, and I can't hold a chlorine level for more than a couple hours. Here's the deal; had a buttload of leaves in the pool, have scooped and vacuumed my brains out, and at this point I'm getting very little, if anything when I use my leaf rake, and pretty much the same when I vacuum. Obviously the leaves have created a happy breeding place for algae, and my pool looked more like a pond when I started my journey. I've gotten it to the point where it goes between clear in the shallow end and dark teal-ish in the deep end, and cloudy light teal in the shallow end and darker teal in the deep end. I can't, at this point, get it to the point where I can see more than halfway down the deep end to try and look at what I'm dealing with as far as foliage goes...for all I know I've got a darn bonzai tree growing down there.

Here's the thing, I know that I'm going to keep getting algae with leaves in the pool, but I need help figuring out a way to either A) Get the deep end clear enough for me to see what needs to come out, or B) Get all the crap off the bottom so that I can clear up the water. I feel like I'm in a catch 22 here. I've got a chlorine feeder which has been going on full, but I have absolutely zero chlorine in the pool...I dumped in 2lbs of powdered shock (the calcium stuff), and 4gal of liquid shock (my mom is on her way to BJs to get about 12 gallons of bleach) about 4 or 5 hours ago, and I just quickly tested the level, and it read 0. I'm so frustrated I don't know what to do anymore. I used algaecide last week, and neutralized it yesterday (it was the copper algaecide)...it definitely worked to clear things up from where it was, but I'd like to KEEP it clearish, rather than have it get all nastified again...so if anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Here's all the pool details;
I've got an 18x36 in ground pool with a 10' deep end and vinyl liner. We're running a sand filter, and have a (completely useless) chlorine feeder.
Yesterday I got my levels tested, they were;
FC & TC - 0.0
pH - 7.6
TA - 100
CH - 300
CYA - 60
Copper - .5
Iron - .15
I had the water tested before I neutralized the algaecide, and I plan on taking the water to be tested again tomorrow. After reading through the forums here, I'm getting at least 12 gallons of bleach, I just need to know how much you think I should dump in there to try and get the pool to hold on to some of it...and whether or not you think I should get a chlorine dispenser to put in the pool until all of this is cleared up.
Also, I've been running the filter constantly, and backwashing at least once a day, sometimes twice...and I've been vacuuming everything I can (to waste) about every other day, since it usually stirs things up, and often takes about a day for the grime to settle again.
Any help you guys could offer would be SO appreciated...thanks so much for reading!

[Missy]

PS. I just dumped in a little less than 6gal of bleach...it was the 4 of the Clorox 1.4somethingorother gallon bottles...hence the approximation rather than an exact number.

[PoolDoc]

Missy, with that level of algae (pond-like) and debris in the pool, it can take enormous quantities of chlorine to clean up the mess. In some cases, it's easier to drain. But that is NOT an option for you, with an inground (IG) vinyl pool -- draining would likely destroy your liner.

Regarding more testing at the pool store -- just don't.

Get a cheap OTO / phenol red testkit (Walmart or whereever) and use that. If you go to the store, they are going to try to fix everything at once and that does NOT work. Instead, use the phenol red to make sure your pH stays somewhere between 7.0 and 8.0, but otherwise ignore pH readings for now.

DEFINITELY, ignore all your other readings for now.

I'm guessing your pool is about 24,000 gallons, but without a little more info, I can be sure. However, that will be close enough. At 24,000 gallons, each gallon of bleach will add about 2.5 ppm of chlorine. You need to be adding 20 ppm doses in the evening, and 5 ppm doses each AM, until the pool 'wakes up' with a chlorine level over 5 ppm.

Meanwhile, brush, vacuum, filter, and generally do all the physical cleaning you can do.

Other than that, be patient. Depending on how well your filter and pump are sized, and just how much goo you have, getting to 'sparkling clear blue' could take from 1/2 - 2 weeks.

If you get impatient, a typical pool store will be VERY happy to sell you all sort of stuff to help you 'speed up' the process. And, with their help, you ought be able to get things clear in 1 - 4 weeks.

As I've noted in years past, cleaning up pools takes a few basic chems, appropriate testing, and basic cleaning PLUS the secret ingredient: P.O.P.*

PoolDoc




*P.O.P. - Pool Owner Patience!

[Missy]

Hey PoolDoc, thanks for the reply! I was actually only going to take the water to the pool place for testing to check the metals in it, since the drop kit I have doesn't test for them...I learned quickly that those guys just want to help lighten the burden of my wallet, so when I go in there for anything, I go in, get what I need, smile and nod at the things they tell me I need, and go on my merry way. I used that spiffy pool calculator, and it gave me an estimate of 29,100 gallons....I'm actually on my way back outside to vacuum some more, so I'll check my chlorine level while I'm out there...hopefully it didn't drop too badly. Thanks again for the help, and I'll keep you guys posted on my progress...hopefully I'll make some headway soon.


***Note*** it's now 2102, and I just got done vacuuming what I could out of the pool, and holy poop sticks, batman! I can see the bottom of my pool!!! All the way to the bottom, even in the deep end! You guys and your bleach...it's flippin' brilliant. I was confident in your bleach method...though my mom wasn't...she thought I was going to bleach the liner...she's a convert too now. All the money we spent on liquid and powder chlorine, and $15 of bleach gives us better results than anything. I love it...thank you, thank you, thank you!