Looking For Some Advice

[Watermom]

Hi WildM and welcome! You are right that you are not taking your chlorine level up high enough. Go ahead and take the chlorine up to 12. Each gallon of 6% bleach will add about 1.3ppm of cl. You will need to test as many times a day as you can and each time, take the cl back up to around 12. Actually, since you do not have a vinyl liner, forget the 12 and go ahead and take it up to 15. It won't hurt a thing and will clear it faster. Good for you getting the Taylor test kit. This will make things much easier for you! When you get to the point where the water is clear, you don't have more than 0.5 CC and you can go from sundown one evening til sunup the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine, then I would hold the cl at the high level for one additional day for added insurance and then let it drift down and keep it between 3-6 ppm all the time.


Your pH is good at 7.4. I would leave it right there. TA is also OK at 90. You do want your calcium hardness to be between 200-400. In fact, if you want, you can use cal-hypo as your source of chlorine for awhile. It will be convenient and will add calcium at the same time as chlorine. When you get the CH in range, then switch to bleach or liquid pool store chlorine if you can find it for a good price. It is usually 10 or 12.5% sodium hypochlorite. Since you have such a large volume pool, it will mean fewer bleach jugs to take to the recycling center!

A week after you added the CYA ,test the level. I think you'll find that it will still be too low. 6 lbs. will probably only give you about 20ppm of CYA. So, you'll most likely need to add more at that time. But, give it the week before deciding. It is easy to add more if needed, not so easy to remove if you get it higher than you want it. After you get some CYA in there, you'll be able to go to testing and adding chlorine in the evenings only. But, until that time, frequent testing and dosing.

Run the pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the pool and backwash as needed when your filter pressure rises 5-10 psi over clean filter pressure.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted on how things are going.

[aylad]

Just wanted to add a note to Watermom's post....if you add the CYA through the skimmer, and then backwash the filter before the CYA dissolves, then you are washing the CYA out and will need to start over. IF you anticipate frequent backwashing, then I would put the CYA in an old sock and hang it in front of a return so that backwashing the filter won't waste the CYA.

Janet

[PoolDoc]

While your CYA is low, you'll be much more effective with your bleach if you add it in the evening, so it can work all night long without being broken down by sunlight.

[WildM]

UPDATE: Everything Work As Stated - Shocked The Pool 15PPM For A Couple Of Days And Everything Cleared Up - All The Leaves and Gunk Are Removed And The Pool Is Starting To Look Good
Step 2
Pool Is Clear - It Does Seem Hazy At Times / Not Crystal Clear - Have Been Swimming Temp Is Around 76 to 78 Deg Here Are My Readings (I Have Not Had A Bunch Of People Over Just A Few At A Time / Most Of The Time It Is Just Myself As The Wife Thinks It Is Too Cold)
PH 7.6
FC 3.2 Added 1.42 Gal Bleach At Night Next Night (Day Later) FC 2.4 - I Run The Pump At Night Which Is The Same Time I Add The Bleach - It Is Off During The Day Unless I Go Swimming / Vacuum And I Turn It On
CC 0
TA 90
CH 200
CYA - 0 To 30 - Not Sure On The Reading I Can Fill The Taylor Tube And It Is Cloudy - I Put In 10LBS Over A Week Ago In Stages (Sock In The Return Method) Does The Dot Disapper Completly Or Is It Cloudy / Hard To See - I Think I May Need To Add More CYA But Do Not Want To Add Too Much But It Seems Like I Am Adding A Lot Of Bleach Each Day - How Much Is Normal I Would Say The Pool Is Around 40,000 Gallons A I Add Around 1.42 Gallons A Night

Thanks For Your Help

[Watermom]

I'm not clear on something. Have you added a total of 10 or 16 lbs. of CYA? Also, how did you add it and how many days has it been since you last added it? (If you added it to the skimmer, did you backwash any within 4 or 5 days of adding it?) In regards to the CYA test, you read it when the dot completely disappears.

You need to be running your pump more. Probably a minimum of 8-10 hours a day split into two 4 or 5 hour sessions, although right now while it is still somewhat cloudy/hazy, you should run it 24/7 to allow your filter to do its job clearing the water.

I would say for this big of a pool, only adding 1.42 gallons per night isn't much. That equates to only about 2ppm of chlorine. When you test it in the evenings before you add bleach, what is the cl reading? I would like you to do something. Test this evening before you add bleach and note the cl level. An hour after adding the bleach, test again. Then, test it again in the morning within 2 hours of sunrise and note that level. Then, report all three of those readings here.

TA, pH, and CH all look fine.

You're doing great! Keep up the good work!

(BTW - I agree with your wife --- water in the mid-70s is too cold. !)

[WildM]

I added 6 lbs of Stabilizer through a sock in the return before 6-16-11 within the next few days I added another 3 lbs same method (9 LBS Total) - It has been a couple of weeks so my CYA should show up but it is not what I would except it to be based on your advice and the company that built the pool. When I do test the CYA it is hazy all the way to the top, but it is reading better then when I had 0 CYA. Note: Back Washing I seldom need to do, I will do it just because some times but after I cleaned up all the crap and leaves out, the sand filter stays around 1 - I added the CYA after I cleaned up most all the leaves etc when I could see the bottom though the pool was still very hazy - So I would say that I did not back wash the CYA out of the pool based on how I added it through the retrun and seldom have to backwash.

On to the readings

Last Night
8:30PM - 3FC
9:30PM - 6.4FC (added 1.42 Gallons Bleach @ 8:30PM)
6:00AM - 5.4FC

[Watermom]

In a 40K gallon pool, 9 lbs. of stabilizer will only give you a reading of about 28ppm which isn't really gonna show up in a test. The minimum that can show is usually around 30. I think you just need to add more CYA. Add about 4 more lbs and then retest it in about a week and report your level. That should give you a level that can be detected and it should read about 40-45ppm of CYA.