Hot Weather Came quick! Green pool needs attention :)

[waste]

Woody, welcome to the forum, it's a great resource for pool owners who have the time and inclination to take control of their investment.
10 gal sounds like a good start, especially since you didn't have any 'numbers' - chem test #s.
When you get the #s:
free cl
total cl
pH
total alk
cal hardness
CYA - stabilizer
it will help the folks here help you better. Also it'd be nice to know what % the bleach is. mwsmith (a highly respected member here) has a bleach calculator which can be linked to from any of his posts (just do an advanced search for his name), which should be able to help you with dosing the pool.
Good luck with your 'swamp' - hopefully if you post next week, it will be to say you had a great pool party Sunday!! (Oh yeah, chlorine is a sanitizer - there are others but cl is the preference here and I sincerely hope you didn't have Baquacil as a sanitizer last year, it doesn't play well with cl)

[scarywoody]

actually last year i converted from baq to chlorine and it was a small nightmare. This year starting without the baq should be give me a quicker swamp to swim time thx for the response

[scarywoody]

TESTS ARE IN!
AFter 10 gals of bleach

FC 1.5
CC 3.5

PH 8.2
ALK 160
CAL 200

I have the ps223 test kit and couldn't figure out what the #9194 cya dispensing bottle was and by the time I did I had to leave for my tee time. Im sure its close to 0 though.

Where should I go from here, should I add more bleach and crank of the FC, add some ph decreaser, and then my algicide? I think the alk and calcium can wait until I get the algae under control.

thanks

[mwsmith2]

I would keep slugging bleach in there. Any presence of CC indicates that you aren't done yet. I'd try to get your pH down to the 7.6 range. Since it's at the top of the measurable range, you really don't know how high it is.

Also, getting a CYA number from you will be very helpful, as that will guide our next steps. If the CYA is 0, then you have other fun to deal with!

michael

[scarywoody]

FC=1
CC=4

CYA=8

ALK 120
CAL HArd=190

PH= 8.4

YIKES, so I just put in some ph decreaser. SHould I put the cya in next and continue on with the onsloght of bleach or should i wait for the PH to stabilize?

[dalparadise]

No kidding...your CYA is 8? I'm wondering how you can even measure that -- usually it's in increments of 10. It needs to be in the 30-40 range in order for your chlorine to hold in the pool and do its job. Right now, with that 90 degree heat, you probably lose half your chlorine every dayto sunlight, before it can kill the bad stuff. Some is doing its thing, though -- the CC of 4 shows that. Run some pucksand keep using bleach.

The pucks will raise your CYA automatically and will keep a continuous dose of chlorine going into the pool. It'll help you keep caught up without pouring gallons of bleach into an unstabilized pool.

Both the pucks and the bleach will lower your Ph a bit on their own, as well. I'd work on clearing the water before worrying too much about Ph. Yours is high, but not out of sight. Plus, you may plummet into acidic range quickly by chlorinating so heavily.

In any case, it's best to move slowly and handle as few variables at a time as possible.

[scarywoody]

thanks for the advice. I took my water too a pool place to get all the measurements and compare them to mine.

Well in a frenzy before i had to go back to work. i added 3 lbs of ph decreaser and added 3 lbs of cya in the skimmer. I read that the cya will decrease the ph a bit too, so i didn't want to add their full recommendation to decrease the ph. I'm going to keep checking and let the filter run for a couple days before i do any backwashing and I'll keep an eye on the FC/CC.

On a side note, after further review of their recommendation sheet it looks like they wanted me to add 6 lbs of ph decreaser to bring down my alkalinity (it was 125, i guessed 120 from memory).....then it recommends I put in an idditional 3.75 lbs to decrease the ph. I think these guys are wanting me to swim in acid. Seem odd to anyone else?