White hard buildup on vinyl liner

[reddolphin]

Update got some bigger flakes off and they fizzes in vinegar and dissolved leaving nasty green stuff left. When putting some in water it turned water green but did not dissolve.

[reddolphin]

Ben-

My husband said you were going to post some pics and some instructions. Will that be on this thread or a new one? The pool is about half way full. Will continue filling today. We are on a shared well, so we can run nonstop overnight, but during day, we run for a few hours at a time so the neighbors don't complain.

[PoolDoc]

Yeah. I'm going to post it here. I ran out of time yesterday, and am supposed to be gone most of the day today.

But, keep filling and
#1 - Keep your pH low-ish => 7.0 - 7.2 . Add small doses of acid to maintain this. I told your husband how to use muriatic (plastic gloves, glasses, avoid splatters by partially submerging the jug before pouring, watch the fumes, 1 quart doses).
#2 - Do NOT add any calcium, alkalinity, baking soda, washing soda, hardness . . . NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE TELLS YOU.
#3 - If your pH gets too low, add a little borax. (1 box doses, added SLOWLY via the skimmer with the pump on)

Run your pump 24/7.

Lemme know when your pool is full and your pump is on.

Ben

[reddolphin]

Thank you so much!

Was he to pour 2 gal of bleach in once it is full, too?

[madwil]

yes- keep the chlorine levels normal; that will sanitize the pool at the same time the other crap is being taken care of- the chlorine shouldn't drastically affect the other stuff dissolving...

[reddolphin]

Pool has been up and running since last evening.

We put 2 gallons of bleach in this morning, chlorine is testing as not having any. Should we keep putting bleach in or can we use the saltwater chlorine generator?

Also, put 2 gallons of muriatric acid in it, Ph is now testing between 6.8 and 7.2 on the test kit, closer to 6.8. Should we go ahead and add a little borax or not yet?

If we test the total alkalinity correctly, it is 190?

[reddolphin]

Also, do we need to wait for all this to dissolve before using it?

[PoolDoc]

Not at all! Swim away.

Sorry I haven't posted the pics and explanation yet -- will do so today.

Meanwhile, go ahead and treat the pool. You can use bleach + stabilizer OR use dichlor. Sams has 50# of diclor for about $110, which should last you through the winter. Ideally, you'll get a DPD-FAS Taylor kit, so you can manage high chlorine, stabilizer AND work on your high TA. Regardless, you need to be adding a gallon of bleach each PM till you get the pool stabilized.

Regarding pH & alkalinity, you'll need quite a bit of muriatic acid. I'll explain more later, but for now, what you need to do is lower the pH to 6.8 and then LET IT RISE BY ITSELF. You can accelerate the process by adjusting the pool return eyeball so it 'ruffles' the water's surface.

Ben

[reddolphin]

I deeply appreciate all your help. Loved the new thread, will be interesting to see what other's experiences are.

[BigDave]

reddolphin,
I noticed you said you use water softener pellets. This is for salt in the pool for your SWCG? I've noticed that some of the pellets have other stuff (features) besides NaCl. Unless someone here says I'm wrong (and I may be) I would avoid using specialty pellets ( especially if the label lists other non-salt stuff ) and stick with just water softener salt ( rock salt for driveways has lots of dirt and rocks and other icky junk I wouldn't want to swim with ).