isdsms' pool

[isdsms]

Well, the good news is that you found us and we can help you get this cleared up.

A couple of questions:
-- Do you have a good test kit? If not, you need one and the one we recommend is the Taylor K-2006 or the 2006C which you can order from Amazon from the link in my signature line. Well worth the money.
-- What kind of filter do you have?

I would suggest not using the cal-hypo. Your calcium hardness reading is already pretty high and vinyl pools do not need calcium. When the level gets too high it can cause cloudy water problems. For the time being, I'm going to suggest that you use something other than bleach --- dichlor shock powder -- for three reasons. One, it will be convenient to shock with and with a large volume pool that is green, it is going to take a lot of bleach bottles. Two, it will add stabilizer (cya) to your pool which you need. Three, it will help to lower your pH. You will not want to use it all summer, however, or else your cya level will get too high. Use it for awhile and monitor your pH and your cya level. I'd aim for around 35-40ppm of cya and then switch over to using bleach.

Test your pool a minimum of twice a day and 3 or more times per day is even better and each time, shock it back up to about 12 or so. The key to killing algae is to sustain the high cl reading without letting it yo-yo up and down. Also, run your pump 24/7 right now while you are working to clear this mess.

Read through many of the posts on the forum and also on our sister site, poolsolutions.com where there is lots of good info that you will benefit from. Keep us posted of your progress and come back with further questions. Stay out of the pool store!!!!!! (except to maybe buy some dichlor)

Welcome to the forum!

What do you do when you have so much algae dead and waiting to be killed, that the filter and skimmer socks clog up every 30 minutes or so?

[Poconos]

Only two choices, keep cleaning the skimmer socks and do quick backwashes. By quick I mean to backwash for maybe 30 seconds or so just to flush the bulk of what was caught. Don't attempt to get the filter perfectly clean as you would in normal operation. The second option is to let the crud settle then vacuum to waste but this uses a lot of water and it takes time for the fine particles to settle. Cleaning the skimmer socks is the easiest and obviously doesn't use additional water.
Al.

[isdsms]

Only two choices, keep cleaning the skimmer socks and do quick backwashes. By quick I mean to backwash for maybe 30 seconds or so just to flush the bulk of what was caught. Don't attempt to get the filter perfectly clean as you would in normal operation. The second option is to let the crud settle then vacuum to waste but this uses a lot of water and it takes time for the fine particles to settle. Cleaning the skimmer socks is the easiest and obviously doesn't use additional water.
Al.

There must be so much crud in the deep end that the filter, even with the socks in place, clogs every 1/2 hour or so. This makes it impossible to run the pump more than 6-7 hours a day due to work obligations. Can't really see the leaves,etc because the water in the deep end is so dark. This makes it very hard to clean them out. I pour in bleach to approx 30ppm only to have it drop to 10ppm in 24 hrs with little change in the water's character. My plan is to head to Costco and buy them out of bleach today and raise to 40-50ppm. If this doesn't clear things up, I will lower the water level way down and try to get the debris out. Tell me where I am going wrong.

[aylad]

You're not going wrong, it just takes some patience and persistence to get it all cleaned out. The quicker you can get the debris off the bottom, the quicker you can get the water cleared up because all your chorine isn't being wasted trying to sanitize the junk on the bottom. IF you can get a leaf net and just net as much of the stuff out as you can, it will help. The stuff has to come out of the water, and you can either net it out or let the filter get it, but that's going to mean very frequent cleaning for awhile. Adding bleach to 40-50 isn't going to clear it any quicker than bleaching it to 30 and holding it there--you just need to concentrate on getting the debris out. It takes work, and it is not a quick process, but it will work if you can stay the course..

Janet