cloudy water

[Zac851]

What about those large 3" chlorine tablets I have? Can I use those? If so can I just fill my chlorinator with the tablets and then turn the flow control knob all the open? I also have a little floating one as well

I have a costco membership so maybe they carry something similar to SAMs

[PoolDoc]

You can put them in the skimmer. If you put them in the chlorinator, there's no telling when they'll dissolve. Those units have VERY erratic performance, in my experience. But, in the skimmer -- if you have a timer, make sure your pool is never off more than 8 hours at a time.

You can use the floating one, TOO.

BUT . . . add 2 boxes of borax SLOWLY through the skimmer. (You can even do it while the tabs are in the skimmer, but do NOT let ANY other chemicals EVER touch trichlor!!!!) Wait 4 hours; check the pH. Add 2 more if the pH is below 7.6

Costco? No. We checked. They went over to the dark side, and are selling AquaChem devil-blend chlorine.

But you can buy bleach there. Use bleach to GET YOUR CHLORINE UP. You can use the tabs, but USE BLEACH TO MAKE UP THE DIFFERENCE! You are not going to be clear by Saturday. And, if you don't keep your chlorine up, you won't be clear by Saturday week, either!.

Do you have an OTO kit? (If you don't get one). Do NOT let your pool get below dark yellow, even for a minute, while there's the slightest trace of green in your pool.

Post tomorrow with test readings, info on what kit you have and how you are testing, and pool appearance.

Also, check your chlorinator and make sure (A) it's empty and (B) it's turned on FULL. We can use the cal hypo you've got, soon, but we have to be 100% sure there's ZERO cal hypo in that feeder. (Best thing would be to remove it altogether!!)

[CarlD]

Here's the entire system. The person who opened the pool left the valve all the way to the left in the closed position which I believe controls the drain in the bottom of the pool. The valve next to it is the skimmer I think and I'm not really sure what the two valves are on the right. I just added two more gallons of bleach a little earlier and I'll report back in the morning with results.

In the picture, the two valves to the left control water coming FROM the pool to the pump. One is undoubtedly the skimmer, the other is from the low drain(s). The two on the right are for the returns--filtered water coming back to the pool, after passing through the in-line chlorinator. The pipe coming directly out of the right side of the filter and going straight into the ground is your backwash drain line.
Hope this helps.

Carl

[Zac851]

good info thanks, and sorry, I forgot to add that those last numbers I posted were done with my new taylor kit that UPS delivered today. I'll go pick up the Borax and stock up on bleach from costco tomorrow and start off by adding a couple bottles of bleach tomorrow afternoon and then test the following morning and drop some tabs in the floater and skimmer and see how good it looks by the weekend

[Zac851]

Just thought I would post a update real quick. I put 2 gallons of bleach into the pool, and then 3 tablets into the skimmer and filled the chlorine floater up with 4 of my tablets. The 3 tablets in the skimmer already dissolved when I got home late last night and the 4 tablets in the skimmer were just dissolved a small amount. They might have all 4 gotten about a half inch smaller. Thats with the floater opened all the way and I always run the pump 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Anyway, It's amazing how much more clear the pool is. I can easily see the bottom on the shallow side very clearly and I can see the bottom on the deep side although the deep end is just a tiny bit cloudy still... I'll test the pool numbers with my Taylor K0006 kit when I get home from work late tonight and post them up and see if you guys think I should make any changes...but otherwise I think everything is coming along great. I've got to run to the local pool place today and pick up a new vacuum hose since mine has a broken end and wouldn't stay attached very well when I vacuumed the other day. I can easily see the sand/dirt every where that I missed when I vacuumed blindly in the cloudy water...but from what I can tell...I dont see any algae anywhere at all. Just dirt.

Oh, and one more question. There is a underwater light on the deep end of the pool that's built into the pool wall and the bulb blew. Is there a standardized size for pool bulbs that I can use for a replacement?

[PoolDoc]

Is there a standardized size for pool bulbs that I can use for a replacement?

Replacing pool bulbs can be very tricky. The bulb may be standard, but the lamps are not. You need to make sure you know the type of lamp, and that you have replacement gaskets available BEFORE you try to remove the lamp. Otherwise, wait till you don't mind if the pool is unusable for 2 weeks, because you've got a messed lamp and wires in the water.

[Zac851]

Just got home and tested with my k0006 kit.

Free Chlorine - 1ppm
Combined Chlorine - 1ppm (I thought these would be different)
pH - 7.3
Total Alkalinity - 90
CYA - 0

I'm about to go add 2 boxes of the Borax that you said to add and then test later on tonight before I go to bed. I was always under the assumption that 7.2 pH was great but after reading your link - http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/hiphpool.html I'll just take your word for it.

I'm still a little confused on CYA though. I understand its a chlorine stabilizer but why don't I have any traces of it in my test? Is there not any CYA in my 3" chlorine tablets?

Either way I know the Cholorine numbers need to come up or I'll be back green shortly. I think I read on here somewhere that 5-10ppm was idea? What do I need to do next? I was going to add the borax tonight and test pH in the morning and I guess I need to get the chlorine numbers up and add the stabilizer to it. The closest pool store to me is a leslies pool supply. What is the best CYA to pick up from there? I've got to go there in the morning to get a vacuum hose since the pool place I stopped at today only had 40+ foot hoses.

[Zac851]

Oh forgot to post pics of how clear its looking as of 20 minutes ago. Thank goodness I didnt pay the pool place the $500 they wanted to do everything.

Entire pool with algae dust



Steps with algae dust

[PoolDoc]

Glad it's working our for you!

[Zac851]

Ok so I added one four pound box of borax just to see how much pH would rise from 7.2 on my last test and two bottles of bleach (1.42/each) before bed and checked it this morning. I grabbed my cheap Walmart kit rather than my Taylor kit which I'm thinking was a bad idea. It looked like chlorine was 4ppm and I couldn't tell a differnce between free chlorine and combined chlorine and I got what looked like almost 8.0 on pH. I don't see anyway that pH came up that much from one box of borax. I should have used my Taylor kit. I'll test again when I get home in a bit to see what I get.