Having Trouble Cleaning a Pool..

[BoredOne]

Hey PoolForum, let me first say that I've been trying to research this as much as I possibly can and have taken a liking to poolsolutions for my information.. That being said we're a first time pool owner and probably got stuck with a horrible pool for first timers..

We just got a house that the pool hasn't been used in who knows how long, and probably neglected even longer before that. So its in rough shape, however the filter (cartridge) and pump works. (just got new ball bearings in the pump since it was new but locked up, all good now)

So anywho I started out by shocking the pool.. First time all looked great it started to clear up and the green was going away. However as time went on the pool got very very cloudy and it just never stayed clean. Algae keeps coming back and keeps growing or just building up on the walls. I'm not really sure what to do here.. I've been at this pool for over a month and it doesn't look like its getting better..

I've been trying to keep the chemical levels at the proper amounts but it seems the chlorine level doesn't want to go up at all.

From the little tester the
Chlorine - .6-1? (its not very clear were it is actually its kinda a light yellow but can't really tell the difference)
PH - 7.6
Alkalinity - 100
Hardness - probably around 200 (it was a little lighter than the 250 on the test strip)



I'm not exactly sure about the amount of water in the pool but I estimate around 9k gallons..

Also the pool is really green in that photo cause I just finished brushing the sides, again..

[aylad]

Hello, and welcome to the forum!!

Clearing up your pool won't be hard, IF you have a little patience and a proper test kit! The test strips you're using are useless when it comes to clearing up pools. They can tell you if you have some, or no, chlorine in the pool, but that's about as reliable as you're going to get.

So...You need a test kit. A cheap OTO kit (uses red and yellow drops to measure chlorine and pH) will be better than the test strips, at least for now. It will read chlorine up to 5 ppm, but you can force it to read a bit higher by diluting the pool sample 1:1 with distilled water and then testing from that sample and multiplyig the result by 2. It's still a ballpark, but much better than the strips. The kit we really recommend is the K-2006, which has tests in it for most everything you'll need to know, and is able to read chlorine levels up to 50 ppm or so. You can find it online at several places, but one of the cheapest is at the Amazon link in my signature (plus the PF gets a small donation from the sale) Only buy it if it's Amato industries as the seller, though--some of the other companies are substituting a different kit that is NOT the same thing.

We also need to know if the pool has any CYA (also called stabilizer) in it. Can you take a sample to a pool store that uses drop-based testing and ask them to check for stabilizer? They're going to try to sell you a bunch of stuff, but just smile and say you have it at home--don't buy any of it, especially algaecides, phosphate removers, or calcium. Just get the CYA level and post it here.

Once we know the CYA level, we can tell you how high to raise the chlorine (the "Best guess chlorine chart" is linked in my sig, too) to achieve "shock" level. Then you just have to maintain that shock level until the pool clears. WE recommend testing and adding more chlorine 2-3 x daily, or as often as you can, because the more consistent about keeping the chlorine up, the faster the pool will clear up. We recommend plain, unscented bleach for the chlorine source, since it doesn't change any other level in your pool water except chlorine. And to give you an example, in 9K gallons, each gallon of 6% bleach you use will raise your FC by 6.7 ppm, so I would get several jugs of plain, unscented bleach to start with.

GEt your CYA tested, get a drop-based test kit of some sort, come back and post the result, and we'll be glad to get you on the right track!

[BoredOne]

Actually I do have the drop test.. It has 5 of the chemicals inside for testing Chlorine, PH, Alkalinity as well as an acid requirement test. The Rest of the info is from the test strips. As for the CYA it can be anywhere between 0 and 50 as the test strips spread it out that much, but if I had to guess I'd say around 20-30.. How often do I need to shock the pool? Cause I've been pouring a 10% liquid shock that we've been getting from winn dixie 2gallons every few days.. I figure the 20ppm would suffice.. Also should I be worrying about the clarity of the pool quite yet? Figure it should be clear so I can see the deep end to vacuum.. When I'm testing what am I testing for exactly? When you say "WE recommend testing and adding more chlorine 2-3 x daily" am I just watching the chlorine levels? And what level should it stay near..

Thanks-

[PoolDoc]

Hey One;

There are 3 critical chemical values that affect ALL pool water: chlorine, pH, and stabilizer. With pH, if you are between 7 & 8, you're generally fine. With stabilizer, if you are between 20 & 100, we can tell you how to operate.

SO, there's not really a CORRECT value for either pH or stabilizer. BUT, there is an important CORRECT chlorine level for you pool.

Unfortunately for you, your stabilizer level is what 'sets' that chlorine value. And, since we don't know what that stabilizer level is, because you are using the miserable 'goofy-strips' sold everywhere, we CAN'T know what the "RIGHT" chlorine level is for your pool!

This leads to all sorts of problems . . . and all sorts of wasteful and expensive chemical purchases. (Guess why the pool biz likes cheap test strips? So they can sell you expensive and useless chemicals!)

We can kinda, sorta, tell you what to do . . . but it's a matter of 'guess, try, and adjust' rather than "Do this". If you want to do a better job, you can get an expensive (sorta) test kit, and stop using so many expensive chemicals. The Taylor K2006 is the least expensive, and works fine. LaMotte makes a kit with DPD/FAS testing as well. There's a link to Amazon sold Taylor kits in my signature.

Meanwhile:

#1 - Run your pump & filter 24/7.
#2 - Add chlorine in the evening till you get to an orange-yellow reading on your OTO kit.
#3 - Wait a day - if that doesn't kill the algae (cloudy blue-gray, instead of cloudy green), add more chlorine to get to orange on your OTO kit.
#4 - Once you reach an EFFECTIVE chlorine level, hold that level for several days and BRUSH and vacuum your pool to stir up and kill any algae clumps or films.
#5 - After the algae has been dead for a couple of days, the pool should be noticeably clearer -- maybe even clear. If it's not, we'll have to look to see why your filter is not working well.

If you get a K2006, test your pool, and tell us what you find. We'll then be able to do a much better job of telling you how to operate your pool. By the way, the "Best Guess" page, also linked in my sig, explains the whole chlorine/CYA relationship.

Good luck!

[BoredOne]

Ok I kinda have a number for stabilizer. I brought water samples to 2 different places to get tested. One place tells me that its between 15 and 20 the other place tells me its fine its at 100 our something.however the water was sitting I'm the car fire a while before we got that tested. My mother and brother came in the store for the second one and they will believe anything so they of course got sold an arm and a leg and we left with 4 gallons of liquid chlorine chlorine tablets and algaecide because they refuse to listen to me.. So if I had to guess it would be 15-20. Would the 4 gallons be enough for one day our do we need more..

[PoolDoc]

Ok I kinda have a number for stabilizer. I brought water samples to 2 different places to get tested. One place tells me that its between 15 and 20 the other place tells me its fine its at 100 our something

In other words, we really don't have any idea. Hot cars shouldn't affect stabilizer readings.

It looks like it's a plaster pool. If it is, you can go ahead and do this:

#1 - Test the pH and make sure it's in range (7.0 - 7.8)
#2 - Run the pump 24/7 (should already be doing that!)
#3 - Add 8 gallons of PLAIN 6% bleach to the pool.
#4 - Repeat the following evening.

That will be sufficient chlorine to clear up the algae even if the stabilizer is 100 ppm.

DO NOT DO THIS IF YOUR POOL IS VINYL!!

If your pool is vinyl, you MUST find out what your stabilizer level is.