Accepting the challenge

[lstinthot]

I took the water into work and it read 7.9 with the equipment there. They do not use drop wise testing, is it possible to affect meter equipment?

[lstinthot]

Turning pool over to happier home owner. They were going online today to order their own test kit using the link provide on this web site. I will be a coach for them. Started showing them how easy it is to test water and talked about not putting any more stabilized shock or chlorine in the pool. The pool is making progress, still cannot see the bottom of the deepend. It has been at shock levels (25 to 35 ppm) for about a week. Vacuumed alot of sand out of the deep end today. Had home owner install a valve between pump and filter so we could slow the water down a bit. Filter is rated at 20 gpm per the side of the filter. Pump is 1 1/2 Hp pentair pump.

Will keep posted as pool clears with pictures. Just in case others want to see a really bad pool with high CYA cleared and what we had to go through.

[chem geek]

Since the CYA is still high, I would do a partial drain/refill and also try to remove as much physical debris as possible from the pool. Both steps will reduce the amount of junk that chlorine and the filter need to clear out.

[lstinthot]

We have been doing drain and refill for the last month by a 1 or 2 at a time. Using rain water and well water to replace water that has been removed. Decided we will maintain a high CYA pool until the levels drop due to splashing once the kids start swimming and keep lowering level before a storm. We have been vacuuming blindly each day. Can not see the bottom of deepend. Just vacuum until skimmer basket does not collect stuff anymore.

We did slow down the pump flow rate with a valve on its discharge. Will vacuum up today's sand mess and see how the lower flow rate does.

[lstinthot]

The bottom of the deep end is visable. Looks like the filter is blowing through even with the lower flow rates. This may account for the longer clean up time. It has been two weeks of high Cl levels. vacuumed today and got some leaves in the skimmer basket. Pressure really has not been climbing, so my guess is the filter may not be doing too much. For as dirty as the water has been I would have guessed we should have been backwashing at least every day or so. I was going to put some DE in the skimmer to help get the clean up moving along faster, however after I backwashed the filter, rinsed and lined back up to the pool, there were streams of sand where the jets shoot back in the water.

Holding off on putting DE in filter until sand no longer shooting through.

[Watermom]

I agree. Do not add the DE if you have sand blowing through the filter.

[lstinthot]

Today the pool is looking pretty good. Vacuumed and put some DE in filter two days ago. I was not able to check on pool yesterday due to being out of town. Today, the deepend is pretty clear. Pressure came up on the filter 8 pounds so the home owner backwashed this morning. After backwashing, there was lots of sand in the bottom of pool. He said he only rinsed for a short time. I suggested he rinse longer. We vacuumed again and put more DE in filter today.

Cl` = 32 ppm
CYA = 90 ppm


Next we will be working on stains. Did the vitamin C test on the stairs and the stain went away. Told home owners we will address the stains after we can see the bottom of the pool. Did not want to waste the Cl`. We are going to order the stuff to address the stains now.

Pictures as of today.
Stain.jpgDeep-end.jpg

[lstinthot]

Results tonight were pretty good. Cl` was 27, Pool alot more clear. I added DE to the filter this morning. Pressure came up 4 PSIG, so that is a good sign it is removing junk now. Here are some pictures from todays results. Did not add any more Cl` tonight. Will test in morning to see what drop over night will be. May start to let Cl` levels drop to treat for strains.



Most-of-pool.jpgDeep-end-evening.jpg

[lstinthot]

Forgot to take pictures while at the pool today. But it is clear and the home owners are happy. Took about 18 days to get it clear dealing with pump that is too big for filter and equipment not working like it should have. I took a couple of days off from monitoring the pool and went over to help them start testing with their new test kit. He told me he put a bottle of 12.5% Cl` in today, I told him I would expect his Cl` level to be 13 then. We went out and tested and it was right at 13. Numbers are very predicable now with the expected usage from day to day.

For all those out there with a mess on their hands, it can be done and when it is, it is nice to be able to predict what numbers your test kit will tell you.

[aylad]

Good job on the pool--hope everybody has a great swim season!!