New to this Forum from SoCal

[Watermom]

A question --- when you say 10lbs. chlorine, is this liquid or granular, and what is the ingredient? I'm suspecting cal-hypo because of your calcium hardness reading of 340.

[DirtRider67]

sorry, i meant 10 gallons of chlorine from Lowes. Lable reads: 10% sodium hypochlorite, 90% inert ingrediants, available chlorine 10%.

[Watermom]

Let's try shocking the pool up to about 12ppm this evening when the sun is off the pool. Then, test it again in the morning within 2 hours of sunrise and let's see how much chlorine you are losing overnight. If you lose more than 1ppm of cl overnight, that will tell us that the algae is not dead. Report back here tomorrow with your results. Run your pump 24/7 and clean the filter as necessary.

Until you can get a good kit like I suggested above (you need one!!) go to Walmart and pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit. (The one with the yellow and red drops.) That will be better than the strips. The OTO kit will only measure chlorine up to 5, but you can force it to go higher with a dilution method described here: Testing Without a Good Kit

Your TA is good, pH is ok at 7.2 but don't let it drop any lower. If it does, you'll need to bump it up a little with some 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart.) In fact, while you are buying the OTO kit, go ahead and pick up a couple boxes of Borax while you're there to have on hand. Your TH is ok but you don't really want it any higher, so no cal-hypo for this pool.

Report back tomorrow with the results of the overnight test.

Hope this helps.

[DirtRider67]

Great. thanks for the advice. is there a specific brand of shock that you could recommend or is it all the same? How much would you think i need?

I will order the good kit as you stated.

Thanks again.

[Watermom]

Sorry I didn't get back to you after you posted again. I spent the evening in my own pool.

It isn't necessary to buy "shock." Shocking the pool just means giving it a hefty dose of chlorine. Just use the 10% sodium hypochlorite that you already have on hand. In your pool, each quart of the 10% chlorine will add 1ppm. When you test, add enough to get back to 12ppm. Do this for a day or so and see if you are losing any overnight.

Keep us posted!

[DirtRider67]

Ok, so without using the good test kit because i do not have one yet, here are my readings with the test strip.

TH=1000
TC=3
FC=3
ph=7
ta=120
cya=50

water is a milky blue. i brushed the sides and sturred up a lot of white particles.
I went to wal-mart and got Bleach, Borax, Baking soda but have not put any in yet.
Not sure what the next move should be. Is it time to vacum to waste? or should i wait?

Ps...Watermom, why don't you have your computer at the pool with you???haha. Glad that you got a chance to enjoy your pool. Must be nice. haha

[Watermom]

Maybe I should build a floating desk that attaches to a pool float so I can do forum while I'm in the pool!!

Did you try the overnight test to see if you lose more than 1ppm of cl? If not, do it tonight. Since you apparently have no CC, I doubt that you have live algae, but the overnight test will let you know for sure. If you use the 6% bleach from Walmart instead of the 10% you already had, the dosage will be different. A gallon (4 quarts) of the 6% bleach will add about 2.4ppm of cl. Take it on up to 12ppm this evening after the sun is off the pool. An hour after adding the bleach this evening, test your cl. Then test in the morning within two hours of sunrise. Compare the two readings and post them here.

Also, your pH is a little low. Add a half a box of Borax slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running, breaking up any clumps. Retest pH a couple hours later and redose with more Borax if needed. You want the pH between 7.2-7.8. It is fine to add the bleach and the Borax one right after the other, by the way.

What do you think the white particles are? I'm not really sure what they might be.