Please help, just opened

[joecus]

Hello all, I opened my pool yesterday and found cloudy water and black spots in numerous places. I shocked it by adding three gallons of bleach and ran filter all night. Today, the black spots are gone but water is still cloudy. Here are my numbers.
FC .5
TC 3
PH 7
TA 80
CYA 95

I was surprised to see my chlorine so low. Is the algae eating the chlorine? How should I attack? Thanks for your help.
Joecus

[Watermom]

The algae is being killed by and consuming the algae. You need to maintain your chlorine at shock level to clear your pool. What type and volume is this pool? Since your CYA level is at 95, I'm assuming you have used trichlor tabs or dichlor powder in the past, both of which add cya. Your level is pretty high. You might want to consider doing a partial drain and refill to get it to a more manageable level, but lets hear the details about your pool before we make a recommendation.

By the way --- welcome! Glad you found us!

[joecus]

I'm not sure what happened to my last post so I will say it again.

Yes, I did use tablets and powder shock for a few years. Last year I switched to BBB. I did two partial drains and refills to get my CYA down to 95. My pool pool size is about 12,000. Again, last night I added three gallons of bleach. Today my numbers are:

FC 5
TC 7.5
PH 7
TA 80
CYA 95
My filter has been running 24 hours for two days. I see no improvement from yesterday. Still very cloudy, can just barely see the bottom drain (6ft). How can I determine if the cloudy water is caused by an algae? Can I beat it with cl alone? How high should the CL be to kill the algae? We don't have polyquat in stores near me but I could order it and over night it. I need the pool for a party Sunday. Thanks for your help.

One more thing, I just noticed bubbles inside my skimmer. Almost like when you take a bubble bath. I see the rainbow colors inside the bubbles, like you would see in soapy water. I'm in big trouble, any suggestions? What are my options? Thanks again.

Also, I used pool antifreeze in all my lines this winter. When I started this year, all the antifreeze went into the pool. Could that be causing the soapy bubbles? Cloudy water? Anything else?

[madwil]

yes, CL alone will kill the algae- polyquat works good to prevent, not so good to kill algae
at your CYA levels, you need to maintain 20ppm FC to shock the pool- maintain as close as you can 24/7 until the pool passes overnight FC drop test- lose <1 ppm FC overnight, and have <.5 CC ( TC - FC )
Can't guarantee completely gone by Sunday, but that's the right track!
you also need to get your pH up some- 7 is really pretty low- I'd add enough borax to bring the pH up to 7.4, shock the pool, then straighten out the rest of the numbers...
The bubbles are some residual from antifreeze or some reaction with oils... the shock process should oxidize that as well I believe...

[joecus]

Thank soooooo much. What is the maximum Chlorine level safe for swimming? Will higher CL levels kill the algae faster? How high can I go? Will a partial drain help me get the pool ready for Sunday? Can I safely drain 1/2?

[madwil]

the amount of CL that is safe is based on the CYA level- but the shock levels are safe for swimming! maybe a little hard on the swimwear, but no issues swimming at standard shock by the CYA best guess chart...

[Watermom]

Going higher than the shock level based on your CYA level isn't really necessary. That level of chlorine will do the job. It is still several days away from the weekend. If you are consistent with keeping your chlorine level up and run the filter 24/7, there is a very good chance that your pool will be clear for the weekend. Personally, I wouldn't want to swim with chlorine at shock level but it actually won't hurt you. Not good for swimsuits though. I wouldn't want to swim in water with algae in it, however.