Water circulating before testing?

[onemsmom]

No, this is an old pool. Re-filled in the early spring (well water) when liner was replaced. Water was clear & beautiful off & on for a while (had a pool guy coming). Here is the recent series of events as I rememer them:

pool went green
pool guy said the water had "phosphates" or "sulfates" or something, can't remember.
he put something in to treat it
pool guy became undependable
I fired him & started to go to pool store - did everything they told me
pool was clear & beautiful for several weeks
left for 5 weeks (had a new pool guy come - did chemicals only)
he said it kept going green
was starting to get green when we got home & we didn't deal w/ it right away. Then got quite green (of course!)
added some kind of green out stuff pool store told us to add
became cloudy but not green
added clarifier (husbands idea)
still cloudy
added stabilizer (pool store's directions)
got frustrated with pool store - found this site
in the time it took me to get the kit - it turned green.

Here I am. The pool is green AND cloudy.

Had to be out much of today due to prior commitment. Bought O ring today & bleach, will start dealing with this again late tonight & can stay on it from tomorrow on.

I truly appreciate your help.

No recent well water added, actually we've had tons on rain & have drained it off a couple of times lately & it's probably going to pour again this afternoon. and, as a matter of fact, it's a little high now. It pours almost every afternoon here for 15 min or so.

Just FYI - this pool is swimmable most of the year - we live in south-ish Fl.

I hope I have given you all the puzzle pieces you need,

Jennifer

[Watermom]

OK. Glad to hear it is green and cloudy (algae problem) rather than green and clear (metals problem). Go ahead and keep hitting it with bleach as frequently as you can test and redose. Also, run the pump 24/7. It will clear if you consistently maintain shock levels.

As far as whether or not to drain and refill, it is your call. If you can live with the high cya and the subsequent higher chlorine levels, then fine. If you stop using any stabilized chlorine and if you continue to have rain additions and subsequent drainings when the pool gets too high, over time, your cya will come down. But, it will take time. When you do get a lot of rain, run the pump and circulate for awhile after the rain so it gets mixed in with the rest of the water before draining. Otherwise, you'll be draining mostly off the top of the pool via your skimmer which will be the rain water which has no cya in it. This might be the best plan since you are on a well and will avoid the necessity of adding well water and dealing with the possiblity of metals in the well water.

On the other hand, if you want to try and do a partial drain and refill, you'll have to do so carefully with well water. Read through some of the threads in the metals section for some info about dealing with well water.

[onemsmom]

o.k - I am keeping chlorine levels up today & it's starting to look a little better. Here are some questions.

How long after it's not green any more does the chlorine level need to stay up at 20/25?

Once it can be allowed to go down, where should I keep the chlorine # on a daily basis?

Are you saying I should not put the tab back in ever, or just until CYA, etc. are down?

When will it be safe to swim in?

When should I do the full test kit again to report numbers to you again?

p.s. I have been draining from the bottom (i.e. using suction to vacuum the pool while other end of hose is draining out of the pool. This is getting green junk from bottom of pool out of pool w/o going through filter & simultaneously draining pool).

[Watermom]

I would keep the chlorine at shock levels until the pool is clear AND you can go from sundown to sunup without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine. After you can do this, then you can let the chlorine level drift down and then with a cya of 90, you'll need to keep the cl between 5-10 ALL the time. (Necessary chlorine levels are based on your cya reading. Take a look at the "Best Guess" table at this link:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

You should not use any more tabs or any more types of stabilized chlorine products unless your cya level is less than about 30. Then, you can do so for a short while but will need to monitor the cya level. We usually suggest 40-50ppm for cya. Those tabs add a lot of cya quickly. They are fine to use if your cya is low, but if it is 90 as yours is, you should not use them.

You can swim when the water is clear and when you aren't losing more than 1ppm of chlorine overnight.

You should be testing cl at least 2 or 3 times a day and even more often will just speed this process up. Each time, take the cl back up to shock level. Test your pH once a day. Don't retest your cya for awhile. It doesn't change very fast unless you drain and refill a lot of water. While you are clearing this, you might post once a day or once every couple of days to let us know how it is going. If you are consistent with keeping cl at shock level, it should clear pretty quickly. Good luck.

[onemsmom]

Ok, I'm working my hardest to keep the ppm up! It drops quickly! Seems like I'm adding 1.5 to 2 gals of bleach every hour or so. Pool is still green, but is much less cloudy.

the pH is 8+ (way more purpleish than the 8 color)
took 5 drops to clear it.

should I be doing something to lower the pH?

TA is 180

Need anything else? I assumed you didn't want the Ca.

Thanks,

Jenn

[aylad]

Don't worry about the pH bewing a little high, it will usually test falsely high when your chlorine is above 10 ppm or so. However, what do you mean when you say it "took 5 drops to clear it"? Most pH blocks just take the water sample, add 5 drops of the phenol red, then shake and read.....there should be no other drops to make it clear.

The chlorine is being consumed quickly, but that's normal for a pool with algae in it. As you make progress in killing it off , your chlorine demand will drop, but for now just keep hammering it, keep the filter running, and we'll help you get it cleared up!

Janet

[onemsmom]

Thanks, I feel better now.

It's the "acid demand" test to be done after you add the 5 drops of R-0004 & get the pH color. It says to add R-0005 dropwise & count - compare with color standards until desired pH is matched. See treatment tables to continue.

It took 5 drops until it was in the 7.5 range. I can't find a "treatment table" anywhere, so I wouldn't know what to do. I'm glad I don't have to worry about it until we are through dealing with the chlorine.

Ya know, the pool store had me add a whole bag of "stabilizer" about 2 weeks ago. Is that why my CYA is so high & causing me all of these problems?!

[Poconos]

Since I just modded your post in I'll jump in without having read the whole thread. The acid demand table should be in a little book that came with the kit. Don't have it in front of me but that is what I remember. Some book about water chemistry I believe. Been filed away for years. With 5 drops of ADR to get you to 7.5 says you're pretty high. I know that purpleish color. That table should tell you how much acid to add based on number of drops and pool size in gallons. If someone has that little book please chime in. And yes, that stabilizer jacked up your CYA. If there is suspicion the chlorine level is messing up the pH reading you can try adding a drop of thiosulfate from the alkalinity test before adding the phenol red. That should knock out the chlorine and it will shift the pH reading a little but not much.
Al

[onemsmom]

Well, I'm seeing blue this morning!!! (Though I still can's see the bottom) Woo-hoo. It still fell to 16.5ppm over night, but it's blue. I'll keep the #'s up today. Maybe this will be the last day/night of this, I'm sure making a lot of trips to Wal-Mart for bleach.

I'll report in tonight or tomorrow with updates.

Thanks sooooo much for your help. I see a "blue" light at the end of the tunnel.

[Watermom]

Glad to hear there is progress! Consistency is the key. Keep up the good work and keep us posted about how it is going. Hopefully you're about to turn the corner on this.

Re: buying lots of bleach at Walmart. I often get funny looks when I am loading the buggy up with as many jugs of bleach as it can hold at one time. I just tell people my house is REALLY dirty!