I too am having issues with no FC reading

[Timmy]

I have opened my solid covered IG 30k gallon liner D.E. pool for 7 years straight with the water being crystal clear and roughly a 2-3 FC. This year, not good. Water was very cloudy (could barely see the bottom at the shallow end) and there was 0 FC. Connected filter (Hayward EC65) Saturday morning and added roughly 6 gallons of bleech. Let it run for hours then we pulled the cover. Cloudy mess, but not green. I was stumped as I did not change my fall covering procedure at all. I found this site and saw a few others with similar problems, so I kept shocking and adding bleech as my FC would read .5-1 throughout the day. I was also running the filter non-stop. By Sunday morning, it was a little clearer, but FC was still around .5. Added more bleech (good thing recycle pickup is this week) and by mid-morning noticed some white crap that looked like boogers floating around the pool. I assume it was dead algae that was being killed by shocking the pool. Also, CYA was 0. I was going to adding some floaters with tablets, but saw it was recommended to hold off and use bleech only.

This then caused my pressure in the filter to rise 15-20, so I backwashed. Kept adding bleech, backwash. Also tested for CC and noticed a little.

Woke up Monday, shallow end was clear and could now see the drain at the deep end, though still cloudy down there. I also could now see a huge pile of worms at the bottom of my pool. Since I fertilize my lawn which is roughly 5 feet away, I wonder if that is where my problem started. Have always fertilized that area, but never saw this many worms before. I could now see the white crap on the floor of the pool in areas. I brushed all those areas, along with the walls a few times on Monday. Backwashed again mid day and skimmed dead crap off surface. By 8PM pressure was still holding steady around 8psi and pool was pretty clear. FC was still around 2 or so. CC was zero. I was still not sure if I should add stabilizer or tablets, so I hit it with another 4.5 gallons of bleech to run overnight.

Woke up this morning, FC was around 3 which was lower than I had hoped for since my addition of bleech last night should have had it up around 7-9. CC was still at 0. Added another 4 gallons this morning and off to work.

So after all this you are probably falling asleep, but here is my question (finally). Since the pool is now crystal clear and obviously does not have any stabilizer in it yet, is it safe to add a couple of floaters with 1" tabs and add a little stabilizer? I would also like to put my solar cover on to help hold the FC as much as possible since the pool gets full sun from 10-5, but saw the mention of gas release with the ammonia breakdown.

Thank you everyone.

[madwil]

I would probably use the tabs, and start some stabilizer to retain FC, but you clear or not you still have a problem if your losing Cl overnight- nowhere for it to go but kill something/oxidize something.
Keep adding bleach as frequently as you can to try to establish shock level of FC, and maintain it, until you can hold it overnight (lose<1 FC between sundown and sunup) and your CC is <.5.
With 0 CYA, you should probably shoot for 5-10 ppm. 1 gal 6% should give you 2ppm in 30k gallons, so if 0 now 5 gallons should give you 10 (if it's not used killing something). if you measure 3, like this morning, add 3.5 gallons bleach...
Also, if possible get the worms out- as they decay they'll just add more gunk to be oxidized and use up more FC!
Otherwise, you're on the right track, you just need to keep at it until you pass the overnight test.

[Timmy]

Awesome, thank you. Worms are out, so that is a plus. Will ask the wife to add some more bleech during the day and throw the floaters in. I was hoping it would have been resolved while I was home for the extended holiday weekend, tough keeping up with it from work.

I also forgot, what is your opinion on using the solar cover? For the past 4 years it does wonders on protecting the FC from the UV rays. Just not sure if there would be an issue with the release of whatever it is the FC is fighting underneath.

[madwil]

not sure about the cover- don't use one myself. I know there is some offgassing during oxidation process, but others have said it is minimal/not hazardous. So I'm not sure...

[Watermom]

If you do put the cover on while shocking, don't cover it completely. Vent one side so the fumes don't damage it.

[Timmy]

Thanks.

I think I am just about there. Added a little stabilizer last night, checked pool this morning and FC was close to 15 after hitting it again last night and it is crystal clear, the way I am used to seeing it. CYA was around 20 this morning, so it is climbing a little. Filter is also running steady at 8psi. I left the cover off today to burn off some of the FC and checked it about 15 mins ago. Was right around 4-5. Will check tomorrow morning and see how the FC looks.