keeping up

[Beast]

Thanks for the welcome. Still waiting for the testing kit. Water is still super cloudy.Found the bottle of "algicide" mom in law threw in pool. its called hth algae guard 3x concentrate. I wish she would listen and not ad anything. Main ingredient in this bottle is alkyl (60%C14,30%C16,5%C12,5%C18)dimethyl benzyl ammonium chlorides.....15%
Alkyl (68%C12,32%C14)dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chlorides.......15% and the rest inert
The filter itself has been bogging down...keep taking it apart and redoing the DE. Filter says add $lbs of DE when you prime it but that seems to bog it down. Today i cleaned it out and added 2 lbs and its running so much stronger. Is this OK? the gaskets and the filtering fingers seem to be fine... no tears or dried out rubber. So I hope that works better. I can't wait for this kit to show up so I can post some #'s for you guys/gals to help me with

[CarlD]

Mothers-in-Law are put on this Earth to keep us humble!

Do NOT put that stuff in your pool. You were fine and it all created problems. Pool care isn't magic, and there's really no guess-work about how to do it. It also doesn't have to be hard.

From your original post I'm guess you chlorinated with di-chlor powder or tri-chlor tablets. Mid-summer it goes green. Why? The powder and tabs add stabilizer far beyond what you need until the "standard" level of chlorine isn't high enough to kill algae--or sanitize your pool. Then the pool store plays "GOTCHA!" and takes multiple injections of $$$$. It's not hard to see what's happening. You need to figure out the B-B-B method and you will have a cleaner pool and spend a lot less time cleaning it up.

Over at Ben's other site, Poolsolutions.com, is this nice intro to the B-B-B method. It's really pretty simple:

http://poolsolutions.com/gd/the-BBB-...pool-care.html

Carl

[Beast]

OK after a long wait for the test kit to come we finally have some #'s

Ph 7.4
CYA less than 30 (water was @ very top of tester and it was just out of sight)
TA 140ppm
FC .6ppm
CC 7.8
CH 100ppm

After reading an awesome post from Waste......I cleaned out the DE filter completely by soaking the fingers in cleaner for a few hours then in an muriatic acid bath for a few more. I could not believe the difference in flow. And BTW the mother in law struck again. After getting my Brother in law to add bleach( I asked him to do 2 gal and he did 1) she threw in a bag of shock. calcium hypo...? That was just about 24 hours before I got my water sample. Please just tell me what I need to do to get this pool water clear and get my mother in law from making faces at me....she loves giving the pool guy $$ Much Thanks in advance

[Watermom]

I'd like you to try the chlorine tests again. I sorta doubt that you have a CC reading of 7.8 and then repost.

[CarlD]

Your MIL actually didn't do anything wrong, by pure dumb luck. You hardness level is low enough that Cal-Hypo "shock" won't raise the CH level enough to matter, and it DOES add chlorine to the water.

Saw a joke on a political forum the other day describing someone's mind as being like a spare bedroom: Always made up and rarely, if ever, used. But she's smarter than you. Just ask her. She'll tell you.

Carl.

[Beast]

OK I retested the water and this time the FC came out to 7.2 and the CC came out to .4 the rest remained constant. since the filter was completly cleaned out the pool looks bright and blue. still cloudy (can't see the bottom) but feel encouraged by progress. and look forward to more progress.

[Watermom]

Since your pool is still cloudy, go ahead and continuing shocking the pool up to 15ppm. Test the water at least twice per day and more often is better and each time add enough bleach to get back to 15. Run your pump 24/7 and backwash as needed. I'd stay away from cal-hypo since your pool is cloudy. Bleach will not cause cloudy water problems.