New pool owner, need some guidance please

[BigDave]

Steve,
I think you mat not be finished with the algae battle.
If your CYA is still around 20 (may be higher if you've been using trichlor in the feeder), Ben's Best Guess chart puts your shock level at 12 ppm Free Chlorine(FC). I understand your FC test only goes to 3 ppm - you can use the "Shot Glass" dilution method to get a (slightly less accurate) measure of your FC. In a clean vessel, rinsed with distilled water, mix one part pool water and four parts distilled water and test this mix for FC them multiply your reading by 5 to get the FC in the pool.
What I would do if I had your pool:
1) I'd be really happy 'cause I don't have a pool right now.
2) Shut off the trichlor feeder until the algae is gone.
3) Measure CYA. Use Ben's Best Guess chart(http://poolsolutions.com/gd/best-gue...e-chart.html#a) to determine shock level.
4) Measure FC.
5) Add bleach (aka liquid chlorine and sodium hypochlorite solution) to bring the FC to shock level (or slightly above). Use pool calculator (http://www.poolcalculator.com/) to estimate dosage.
6) Brush the sides and bottom and vaccum / remove all the junk possible.
7) Repeat steps 4 - 6 as often as possible (at lease twice a day) until no more than 1 ppm FC is lost overnight (measured in the evening and in the early morning).
8) Clean the filter as necessary.
9) Keep the pool at shock level one more day.
10) IF the CYA is still low, turn on the trichlor feeder then shut it off when desired CYA level is reached.
11) Every day ( with feeder on or off ):
11.1) Measure FC add bleach as necessary to keep the FC between Min and Max on Ben's Best Guess chart for the CYA Level.
11.2) Measure pH and use Borax to raise and muriatic acid to lower.

[SteveInFLA]

Great information from all of you ! A question about the bleach, the only jugs of bleach we have at the house right now are HE and I see no info on the percentage of chlorine or anything on it. What type should I get and how does the 2-1/2 gallon jug from Pinch-A-Penny @ 10.5% @ about $4.50 compare to an equal amount of the bleach you guys use (chlorine wise) ?

Thanks,

Steve

[aylad]

I use the 182 oz jug from WalMart, it's 6% and I think sells for about $2.54.
What you're using may be just fine, but I would look for an 800 number on the label and call the company to see the percentage of sodium hypochlorite (chlorine). Sometimes they can be as low as 3%. The 10.5% stuff would be a great deal if it is still 10.5 %.....but it depends on how they store it and how often they rotate stock. Higher percentages of bleach tend to degrade faster than the lower concentrations. Somewhere around here, there's a post containing a method for actually testing your bleach for percentage, I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: This thread may help you out... http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/archive...hp/t-7035.html


Janet

[BigDave]

I did a quick google search for HE and Bleach and didn't find anything that was bleach - mostly HE Laundry Detergent with Bleach Alternative. You probably don't want detergent in your pool. I made this mistake, I bought a big orange box that I thought was an economy size Arm and Hammer baking Soda. It turned out to be Arm and Hammer laundry detergent enhanced with baking soda. I put it in my pool, my pH and Alkalinity went up as I expected them to. It took me a very long time to figure out why my pool was so cloudy and smelled funny. I felt really dopey when I finally did.

[SteveInFLA]

I've seen those big Arm and Hammer boxes and I can easily see how that can happen. The HE bleach I was reffering to says "Great Value Rain scent bleach" and that's all, no info on the percentage of chlorine or anything else. I think it came from the grocery store my wife shops at (Publix). I'll check at Walmart and read their bleach. It seems to me that the local pool supply I've been dealing with cycles through their liquid chlorine supply pretty fast, they have it in what I would guess is about a 400 gallon poly tank outside and every time I go there, they are reffilling the containers and have customers lined up swapping their emptys.

I bought 15 gallons on this last Thursday and a new bucket of trichlor tabs. I dumped the 15 gallons in the skimmer Thursday evening and Friday morning the entire pool was sparkling, I checked FC Saturday morning and it was around 3.5 or maybe 4. I then put 3 tabs in the feeder Sat. evening and turned it on full. I just checked the FC again (Monday PM) and it's now about 1.0 and I'm seeing a very small amount of green trying to show only on the white steps in the diamond shaped recesses. So I'm not sure why that is already trying to come back, I'll check it again tomorrow and post the results. And I'll go get the CYA checked again.

Also on Saturday, I vacuumed a little bit that I had missed, no green just a little debri and then the water when from crystal clear to a little cloudy white and it still is. I've been running the pump nonstop and have cleaned the filter but it still very hard to see the bottom drain that's about 9 feet down.

Should I get some clarifier or what else is recommended ?

Thanks very much !

[BigDave]

YIKES!
Is this right?
According to the pool calculator 15 Gallons of 12.5% LC (is it 12.5% LC?) from the pool supply in your 24' round x 4' deep pool (13,500 gallons) woud give you 140 ppm of free chlorine - WAY WAY WAY too much!

Please Please Please
Get some reliable test numbers
You can't trust most tests with FC that high I have no idea if you cl test is even close.
Have you been using the dilution method?
I'll check the above calculation.

Are you sure 15 gallons? Even super cheapo economy bleach (as low as 3%) would have run your FC to 35 - completely unreadable on most tests especially if your test only goes to 3.

Turn off the feeder. Back away from the chemicals.

Don't go in the pool.

Would one of the forum experts please look at this - I'm concerned about this poster's pool.

(I wrote this before I saw how much LC you dumped in)
Also avoid the scented bleach - I made this mistake as well, lavender bleach, I ran out of bleach in the pool shed and robbed it from the laundry room - Doh! it takes a long time for the scent to go away it doesn't really smell much like lavender in pool but just kind of off.

[Watermom]

Big Dave ---- His volume is 20K. There was another poster who started up in the middle of this thread who had the 24ft AG pool.

Even still, Dave is right. You added WAY TOO MUCH chlorine! I hope you didn't totally bleach out your liner! With that kind of chlorine level, I can't imagine how you could have any specks of green left anywhere! What was the percent of the liquid chlorine you added 15 gallons of?

I also have a hard time believing that with chlorine taken that high, your cl level could have dropped so much so fast.

Get that CYA reading. Also, let a reputable pool store test your water and then post all the results here.

You need to get some reliable readings.

[BigDave]

I checked it. - I could be wrong but...
24' (pool Diameter in ft) / 2 = 12' (Pool Radius in ft)
PI * 12' (Pool Radius in ft) ^ 2 = 452.39 (Pool surfdace area in sq ft)
4' (Pool Depth in ft) * 452.39 (Pool surfdace area in sq ft) = 1809.5 (Pool Vulume in cu ft)
809.5 (Pool Vulume in cu ft) * 7.48 (Gallons in a cu ft) = 13,536 (Gallons in Pool)
15 (Gallons of LC) * 12.5% (Concentration of LC) = 1.875 (Gallons of pure LC)
1.875 (Gallons of pure LC) / 13,536 (Gallons in Pool) = 0.0001385 (fraction of LC in pool)
0.0001385 (fraction of LC in pool) * 1,000,000 = 138.5 (parts per million LC in pool)
I know it's supposed to be done by weight but ... DANG that's alot of bleach!

Please check it. Look around this forum for help on reading high cl levels.

If stuff in your pool really consumed that much chlorine and your level really is 1.0, you'll need to bring that up but you really need the advice of somebody here with real experience to help you figure out where you are.

You need to figure out where your FC and CC really are.