Opening Day Help Needed.

[herb396]

Have a 25,000 gal in ground gunite pool, cover off today here in NJ, water is clear, but bottom and walls have silt from the mesh cover (lots of trees around).
Have my new Taylor K-2006 test kit out
Readings:
Ph -7.4
CL - 0
Alk - 130
CYA - 0

So what now,,vaccum to waste then lots of bleach? Don't know what my CYA was at closing las fall (new to the site) and new to 'not going to the pool store'.

[madwil]

yes- vacuum to waste, then start with Clorine and CYA- you may want to use a little of the triclor initially, to get some CYA in the pool, then switch to bleach.
If you don't get any CC when you add Cl, then you may not even have to shock the pool- just maintain the FC once you get it started!

[CarlD]

I would have to respectfully disagree with Madwil. I would DEFINITELY shock your pool to start. That's the first thing. Shock it to the 10-12 level. Your pH is fine so that's not an issue. I would do that before adding CYA. First things first. And vacuum the pool to waste. I have a robotic cleaner so I run that about 4 times to get the same effect.

Then you can use Trichlor tabs to maintain FC and add CYA, if you have them. The Tabs erode keeping a fairly constant level of FC to offset the lack of CYA. But you'll need to watch your pH and keep a couple of boxes of Borax handy for when the pH drops due to the tabs. If not, you'll need to use bleach and add CYA separately. Always use LESS CYA than you think you'll need. It's easy to add but hard to get rid of when you over-shoot.

Watch your CYA every week and when it hits your target (I recommend 30ppm for spring and early summer, and 50ppm for mid-July and August), stop using trichlor completely and stick to bleach.

I, too, live in NJ and have the same issues (not really problems, just the task you face). That's why by pure dumb luck I've found that CYA of 30ppm for the first half of the season and 50ppm for the second half works well.

BTW, I ALWAYS open to FC=0, and CYA=0. If I can, I open mid April with far less clean up. If I have to wait 2 or 3 weeks (like this year) I have green slime, which is now gone. It was gone, mostly in 2 days.

Carl

[herb396]

Thanks Carl. I vacuumed today & got about 80% of the bottom surface, added about 5 gal of bleach & will brush tomorrow and start up the Polaris.
Questions:
1. Should I be using bleach to shock (meaning to bring the Cl level up quickly) ?
2. For how long should I look to hold the shock level?
3. Then how long should I wait before beginning to add CYA (wait until the water is clear?)
4. I do not have the trichlor tabs, what might I use to add CYA? (or if I need the trichlor where should I get them?)

*Current status - After about 5 hrs my green slim walls have started to clear, CL was up to 2. (thanks for the helpful NJ neighbor info!)

herb

[madwil]

1- yep, bleach is good
2- hard to say- a couple days to a week maybe; maintain your shock levels until you pass on overnight chlorine test and CC <.5 and water clear
3- you can add CYA at any point- I would add some now to help you not lose as much FC to sunlight -but once you add, don't put more for a week and retest; just remember once you add CYA you need to adjust your shock/FC levels accordingly
4- CYA is at the pool store; sometimes at Walmart/HomeDepot/Lowes sold as stabilizer- read the contents and look for CYA, isocyanuric acid, or cyanuric acid

If your walls are clearing, you're definitely on the right track- now some patience and work will clear it all soon!

[Watermom]

I would wait a bit before adding the cya. Since you are dealing with a green pool and a dirty floor, you will most likely need to backwash some in this first week and backwashing will remove the cya. (Backwash when your filter pressure rises 8-10psi over your clean filter pressure.) Once you get your pool cleaned up, then you can either add some cya directly or use trichlor (or even dichlor) for awhile as your source of chlorine, both of which have cya in them. BTW -- cya is sometimes called conditioner. Check the label ingredients.

[CarlD]

Actually, there is a very clear way to tell when you are done shocking the pool. The way to tell when you are done is if you add bleach at night to raise your FC, and in the morning it has stayed high and not dropped to near-zero. Sunlight breaks down chlorine but starlight and moonlight don't.
In other words, your FC can drop during the day due totally to sunlight's UV rays breaking it down. But nighttime, if your FC falls, you are fighting something. So if FC stays up, or doesn't drop too much, you've killed what ever you are fighting. At that point you can think about adding stabilizer.

As Watermom says, it's sold as Stabilizer, Conditioner, or Cyanuric Acid. You don't have to use stabilized chlorine.

Carl

[herb396]

Thanks Carl & Watermom for the guidance. Hopefully you can hang with me for a few days to help me thru. My updated conditions as of 8:30 pm. This is after adding 14 gals of bleech over the last 24 hrs. The last 4 gals of bleech was at about noon today. (we had a cool, very over cast, cloudy day here in central NJ)
FC - .8
pH - 7.1
ALK - 130
CC - 3.2
CYA - did not test

Pump is on 24/7, backwashing 4 times a day (or as pressure rises). The water is basically clear, however it is has lots of suspended green silt floating thru it from the walls and bottom being brushed early today (so much so you can not see the botom in deep end). If I'm reading my chart correct, it is telling me to add about 3 lbs of baking soda to get my pH up a little.

Questions:
1. Do I add more bleech
2. Does it sound right; the 3lbs of baking soda?
3. Will continue with filter/backwash
4. Should I be doing anything else

Thanks, you folks are great.

[Watermom]

I think you need to add larger doses of bleach at a time. In a pool your size, adding 4 gallons of 6% bleach will raise your cl to about 9.6ppm. Since your pool is so green, it is immediately being consumed killing the algae. Try adding 6 gallons of bleach. If you are home in the afternoon, test and add more bleach. As many times a day as you can test and add bleach is going to clear the pool that much faster. Regarding the low pH, Borax is what you want to add, not baking soda. Baking soda is used to raise alk. Add a box at a time slowly to the skimmer breaking up any clumps. After several hours, retest pH and redose as needed. Do NOT test your pH when your chlorine is high however because you won't get an accurate reading. Test it before you add the bleach. Continue filtering 24/7 and backwashing as the pressure rises. Also, brush the pool walls and floors. That will help the chlorine get at the algae better. It may take a lot of bleach to clean this pool up but keep hammering it! Since this is a large pool and since you have no cya, you may want to consider shocking it with dichlor for awhile as it will add chlorine and cya at the same time. You won't want to use dichlor all summer however or else your cya will get too high. If you do decide to use dichlor, monitor your pH as it is acidic and will cause pH to drop and also monitor your cya. When you get to cya around 40 or so, discontinue using any form of stabilized chlorine and stick with bleach. (Of course, if you prefer not to use dichlor, you can just use large doses of bleach now and add the cya later.) Hope this helps.