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

[barma16]

LOL, thanks! I'm very glad I found this place early, otherwise I'd have spent a lot more money for a lot less progress, and had really no idea what was going on. You guys have all been a great help and kept me positive. Of course, it helped that the weather was nice over the weekend. Hanging out by the swamp with a beer and a test kit wasn't the worst way to spend the time...

That DE Filter sticky is excellent - from the description I don't think I need an acid wash yet, just more time with the filter running.

FC was 16ppm this morning, and still 16ppm at lunch when I ran home to check the level. Does this mean most of the algae is now dead?

[Watermom]

Sounds promising .......... especially if you don't lose too much the rest of the day and if you don't lose more than 1ppm overnight.

BTW --- You don't need a swamp to hang out by the pool with a cold beer!

[barma16]

BTW --- You don't need a swamp to hang out by the pool with a cold beer!

Who knows - once it's a pool and no longer a swamp perhaps I'll be able to persuade someone other than the dog to come through the gate

[Watermom]

You are funny. You made me laugh!

[barma16]

It's been a while, so I thought I'd stop in and give an update, and make sure I'm still on the right track...

The swamp is starting to look like a pool. For the last ten days I've been maintaining >15ppm FC constantly, and testing often enough to be in dire need of more powder and titration agent (delivery tomorrow, phew!).

The shallow end is now clear, and free of leaves and debris. The deep end is getting clearer, and the leaves are coming out, although this clouds things up a treat, so it's time consuming! The filter has been running non-stop, and a full charge of DE will now last two days or more if I leave the water undisturbed. Less when I pull leaves out, obviously... Either way, I'm not usually backwashing more than a couple of times a day.

pH is 7.2 and TA is 100 - I've added nothing but bleach since my last full round of tests.

I've not yet passed the overnight test - on my best night I lost 1.5ppm FC, and usually lose around 3.

I'll bump the pH back up a bit, but is there anything else I should be doing at this stage? Is there a limit to how long I should maintain shock levels, and when should I be thinking about stabilizing?

Thanks for all the help so far, I don't know what I'd have done without it.

Mark

[Watermom]

So that we don't have to re-read this monstrous thread, post a current set of numbers including CYA and your volume. You are doing great!

[Yeggim]

I would concentrate on getting everything out of the pool first. If there's a lot of muck in the deep end, it either has to be scooped out and/or vacuumed to waste. What's your plan in this regard?

If you vacuum to waste, any CYA (stabilizer) that you add will be diluted with the added water that you use to refill. That's probably not a big deal (money wise), considering the amount of bleach you've already bought to date for a 45,000 gal 'pond-soon-to-be-pool'.

Oh, by the way, outstanding job so far. I think it's almost swim time. Here's what I would do:

Keep up the shock levels
Keep an eye on your PH
A quick vacuum to waste from the deep end.
Filter 24/7

After vacuuming to waste, let everything settle (still filtering 24/7) and go from there. If you still have a layer of debris, muck, whatever covering the entire bottom--another quick vacuum to waste. You'll be able to judge the amount of muck that's down there on the first round of vacuuming by what's coming out of the discharge. It will pile up at the end of the discharge hose if it's bad down there.

As far as CYA (stabilizer) is concerned, I'd bet dollars to donuts that you have some in there. I remember you saying that you tested in the morning and tested at lunch without losing any Chlorine awhile back. That's would lead me to believe that you're closer to 30 than 20 with your CYA--if it was sunny or partly sunny that day.

Speaking of sun, how much sun is your pool exposed to? Are you losing a lot of Chlorine on sunny days? If I were to decide to bump my CYA up, I'd do it in 10 ppm increments. I'd make sure to test first and have enough R-0013 reagent to test at least two more times after that. And last but not least, make certain I had the right numbers for my volume of water.

At 45,000 gallons, 60 ozs of dry stabilizer will raise your pool 10ppm. That's by weight. About 63 ozs by volume will be the same. If you haven't already, check out the Pool Calculator. Plug in your numbers in the 'Now' columns. You can plug in your target numbers it will giver you amounts to add to achieve those target numbers based on your 'Now' numbers. Down the bottom there's a reverse of 'Now' and 'Target'. You plug in the amount of chemical that you want to add and it will give you the result based on that amount. Every computation on there hinges on the size of your pool, so make sure you have that field filled with your proper pool volume.

http://www.poolcalculator.com/