Inherited a pond, trying to turn it into a pool!

[barma16]

My other half and I have recently bought a house, and inherited a +/-45k gal in-ground vinyl-lined pool. It wasn't opened last season, the cover had fallen in, and we have a season's worth of leaves (several large oaks on the property) and other accumulated organic matter in there. It's very brown!

Had a local contractor out to open it this week. The DE filter has been hooked up, the pool's been shocked, and algaecide added. The filter pressure rose 10lb in 10mins, but he recommended I leave it running overnight. It rose another 10lb (to 30psi), and all water flow seemed to have stopped. Since then I've been backwashing, cleaning the "fingers", and replacing the DE at least once daily as time permits. Planning to dedicate the weekend to making some progress, since so far there appears to be very little...

...which is how I find myself here. I saw lots of good info on the forum, so I've signed up. Of course now, I can't get at any of the info I had before, so rather than continuing to lurk it's time to speak up...

I'm a complete pool novice, but from what I've managed to learn here, the plan of attack is as follows:

Test the water (I have the recommended kit(s)).
Add generic bleach to get the pH to between 7.2 and 8.0
Keep working over the filter, including cleaning the fingers, as often as necessary
Repeat until the water starts to clear - re-testing and re-dosing about once every four hours.

I know there are a lot of leaves in there. We've tried to remove as many as we can with rake and leaf master, but the water is so murky we've no idea how many there are left. What I'm really trying to achieve is enough clarity in the water to be able to see what I'm doing to get the rest out!

Is there anything else I should be doing, or any of the above I shouldn't do?

Thanks in advance.
Mark

[Watermom]

Hi Mark and welcome! We need you to post a complete set of current water testing results for us to take a look at. Then, somebody here can better advise you.

The generic bleach is not to keep the pH in range. It is your source of chlorine. With this large of a pool, you're gonna need lots so go ahead to Walmart and load a buggy up with bleach. Ignore the strange looks you'll get from other shoppers! If they ask, tell them your clothes are extra dirty!! You might also pick up a couple boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart) which will be used to raise pH if necessary.

Post with some numbers and we'll go from there. Again, welcome. Glad to have you here with us.

[barma16]

Thanks Watermom. Results as follows:

K2006C Test Kit

Chlorine
10ml Sample - 2 doses R0870 resulted in no color change = no Free Chlorine
5 drops R0003 gave a very slight pink color.
1 drop R0871 cleared the water = 0.5ppm Combined Chlorine

pH
5 drops R0004 in 44ml turned the water yellow = pH below 7.0
10 drops R0006 = pH 7.0
12 drops = pH 7.2
14 drops = pH 7.4
15 drops = pH 7.6
17 drops = pH 7.8
18 drops = pH 8.0

Total Alkalinity
1 drop R0009 turned the solution red = 10ppm Total Alkalinity

Calcium Hardness
7 drops R0012 turned the solution blue = 70ppm Calcium Carbonate

Cyanuric Acid
The dot never disappeared = less than 30ppm Cyanuric Acid

Samples taken from the deep end by the skimmers, at arm's depth.

Pool was shocked Tuesday evening - I guess this isn't a good set of results?! Any advice on next steps much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Mark

[Watermom]

Most critical is to get the PH up above 7.0 ASAP. Add a couple of boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart) at a time slowly into the skimmer, while the pump is running, breaking up any clumps. Wait a couple hours, retest the pH and redose until you get the pH between 7.2-7.8. Once the pH starts to move, you may want smaller doses of Borax. You also need to raise the alk. Add 4 lb. doses of baking soda at a time. Over the next few days, continue adding baking soda until you get the alk somewhere between 80-120. (By the way, it is ok to add bleach, borax and baking soda within minutes of each other.)

In this big of a pool, it is going to take a lot of bleach. Every gallon (4 quarts) of 6% bleach will add about 1.3ppm of chlorine. You need to shock the pool back up to about 12ppm. Go ahead and add 8 gallons slowly in front of a return jet. Test as many times per day as you can -- at least two -- and more often than that is even better and will clear the pool that much faster. Each time, add enough to get back to 12ppm. When you get to where you can go from sundown one evening til sunup the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of cl, then you can let the cl drift down and keep it between 3-6ppm all the time. While you are clearing it, run the pump 24/7 and backwash the filter as needed. Lots of bleach! Scoop out as much debris as you can.


At that time, you'll want to add some CYA. Sometimes it is labeled as stabilizer or conditioner. Check the ingredients and if it says cyanuric or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff. Add about 6 lbs. slowly to the skimmer. Run the pump 24/7 for the next 4 days while it is dissolving in the filter. Don't test for it for a week and then when you do retest, post the reading so we can help you decide if you need to tweak it any. Until that week passes and you get a CYA reading, you'll probably have to add bleach at least twice per day. Each time, take the cl up to about 6. After a week, you should be able to test and dose in the evenings only.

If your pool store sells liquid chlorine in 10 or 12.5% concentration of sodium hypochlorite, use that if the price is good. It will save you from having to buy so many jugs of bleach. Let us know if you find any and what the strength is and we can calculate dosages for you. Another option since your CYA is also low is to use dichlor shock instead of bleach for awhile. It will add CYA as well as chlorine. If you use it, you won't want to add any CYA separately. But, you'll need to keep an eye on the CYA level and when it gets somewhere around 40-50, quit using it and switch to either bleach or liquid pool store chlorine. One other thing, dichlor is acidic, so get the pH raised before you start shocking the pool and monitor the pH. PH CANNOT be checked accurately when the cl is over about 10ppm -- assuming you are using the K-2006. With other kits, it can't be tested accurately when the cl is over 5ppm.

Good for you for getting the good kit. That is going to make this a lot easier. I know this is a lot to absorb. Hope this helps. Come back with further questions and keep us posted with your progress.

[barma16]

Excellent, thank you for the advice. The water chemistry was a little intimidating to start with, but once I'd worked it out it wasn't so bad. I feel much better knowing I can actually measure these things, rather than just blindly throwing chemicals at it. One question before the fun starts - when you say "while the pump is running", do you mean running through the filter, or recirculating? I would guess running through the filter.

The problem with that is the rate at which the filter clogs completely. I've been adding one scoop (as opposed to the recommended-by-the-pool-guy 2-3) DE to the skimmer after any backwash to try to keep the water flowing a little longer. 2-3 scoops sends the pressure shooting quickly up to 20psi above the level it sits at without DE, at which point there seems to be no perceptible flow of water into the skimmers or out of the jets. It'll go +10psi in a matter of ten to fifteen minutes, at which point there is still some very weak flow, but it'll hit +20psi within half an hour, at which point the water doesn't appear to be moving at all. I can keep on top of that over a weekend, but work gets in the way during the week. Do I need to keep the water moving through the filter for the above to do what it needs to do, or will recirculating (or even stagnation) still do the trick?

M

[Watermom]

I'm not the equipment expert around here and can't really help you with your DE filter. (I have sand.) If you have to put it on recirculate for today while you wait to get the filter working properly, I guess that is better than nothing. Go ahead and get some Borax in there ASAP and then some bleach. Hopefully, someone will come along who can help with your filter. Chlorine can kill the algae but you're gonna have to have a working filter to get rid of the dead algae.

[barma16]

Understood. The filter works just fine, I think - too well, really! I believe it's clogging quickly because of the amount of material it's trying to remove, rather than any fault. Unless I hear otherwise I'll just run it on recirculate for today while hopefully the Borax and bleach start taking effect, then run it through the filter over the weekend when I can be there to keep it cleaned and the water flowing. Thanks again.

[PoolDoc]

Live algae clogs DE filters almost instantly -- the solution here is to kill the algae. It will then filter more normally.

If the algae is not dying at 10 ppm, take the levels to 15 ppm, and then 20. You've got to kill the algae, in order for your filter to work.

Ben

[barma16]

It's all starting to make sense, thanks!

[barma16]

OK, so yesterday afternoon I added 8lb Borax, 8.4 gal (6x1.4Gal bottles) 6% Bleach, and 4lb baking soda. I didn't get a chance to test again until this morning, when I had 3ppm Free Chlorine, pH still below 7.0, and 40ppm Total Alkalinity. An hour ago I added another 6 gal 6% bleach, 8lb Borax and 4lb Baking Soda, and will test again in another hour.

Meanwhile I've managed to pick up some 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite - is it reasonable to assume that 4gal 12.5% is roughly equivalent to 8.4gal 6%, so I should halve the volume to add the same dose?

I'll be testing and dosing every couple of hours today, tomorrow, and probably Monday, hoping for some decent progress!

How can I tell if the algae is dying at 10, 15, 20ppm? Will the water clear, or will dead algae just turn it a different color until it's filtered out?

Thanks!
Mark