Having Trouble Cleaning a Pool..

[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.

[BoredOne]

Well I was running the pool pump 24h a day however it just want having it.. Today the motor is turned off looks like it seized up again.. So I as will as my pool are at a stand still unless pumps turn off if it gets to hot..

[aylad]

You can still add the chlorine around the perimeter of the pool, but go behind it to stir it up well in the water--clean broom, boat paddle, etc. However, you're not going to be able to filter the dead algae out of the pool until you get a working pump...

Janet

[PoolDoc]

At this point, unless your pump is just overheating due to high outside temps and poor air circulation, which you might be able to fix by some clean up and a fan . . . you have a choice.

#1 - You can work on the pump and forget about the pool till the pump is running.

OR

#2 - You can run go buy a new pump, install it ASAP and keep working on the pool.


It's just not practical to clean up a pool with no working filtration system. Sorry.