URGENT...Need help.. grad party 7 days...cloudy foamy pool not holding chlorine level
I am so glad to have this forum and hopeful you can help us get our pool straightened out. My son’s graduation party is exactly one week away and I’m in a panic. We have not been able to use our pool for the past 2 years. 2 years ago our auto cover broke and we developed a leak in a pipe under the main drain (we closed the main drain and no longer use it). I don’t know if either of these facts matter but wanted to report in case they do.
2 yrs ago we were losing water and constantly refilling until we discovered where the leak was…resulting in never being able to truly stabilize water levels. We swam maybe 10 days all season. Pool was closed with a closing “kit” recommended by the pool supply store. Upon opening it was green, over 6 inches of debris and various living and dead frogs/tadpoles. After almost $900 in various “must add” chemicals from the pool store after over a dozen water analysis from their computer we still never got the water clear. We did not swim at all last year. They constantly had us add Phosfree for a phosphate problem. Their test always said phosphates were too high but they didn’t know how high because their test only read to a certain level…so it was hit or miss with how much to add. We also battled the algae originally, were told to use clarifiers and something to cause dead algae and other suspended particles to fall to the bottom. Pool was closed by friends using a closing kit from a pool supply store (sorry…don’t know what it was comprised of …we weren’t able to be there for closing.
So this year, we opened and the same green conditions and frogs galore. We decided to have a PROFESSIONAL pool store come and open us “properly”. That was a week ago and we are still not “open”. When they checked the chemical level all he said was that there was “nothing in it”. He instructed us to brush sides and steps and vacuum to waste until it was clean and then add algaecide and keep vacuming. He sold us $180 worth of chemicals and said not to bother to add until the algae was gone and the pool was clean. So once we used the algaecide and swept until clean, got the fill level right we began to add chemicals.
We Added:
Banish (32 oz) algaecide 4 days ago
Bioguard Maintain (smart shock, multipurpose contains 63.05% Sodium dichlror-s-triazinetrione, copper metallic 0.26% “other ingred”…Available chlorine 39%) 10 lbs, 2 days ago
Maintain by BioGuard (granulated stabilizer) 5 lbs,
5 Smart Stix Chlorine stix to skimmer (in for 24 hours…removed yesterday when we added BORAX)
No matter how much chlorine we add it doesn’t hold and we end up with a 0 reading again.
We called the pool service who was supposed to have opened our pool and they started with” bring a water sample and we’ll look at what you need to add”. I thought here we go again and got online.
Growing up we had a vinyl lined in ground pool for over 20 years. I never remember my father using anything but chlorine, occassionally shocking and very occassionally algaecide. I do remember him using baking soda less than a handful of times as well as bleach…but that was it. The pool opened every year clear and basically clean and it was not hard to maintain. So when I found your site it was like “going home”.
Last night we went to Walmart and got their 6 way test kit. When we tested we had: Chlorine =0, Ph= 6.8 (down from 7.2 the day before), Alkalinity= 200, Hardness= 310 and CYA= 32
We added 1 box of BORAX (slowly) and about an hour later added 3 gallons of Great Value Bleach (6% sodium hypochlorite, 94% “other ingredients”) . Filter has been running 24/7 for 3 days.
This morning we had white foam all over the top of the water and water is still blue but cloudy. Foam may be lessening since earlier this a.m
Test results as of this morning: Chlorine= 2.4 ,Ph= 7.4 ,Alkalinity=210 , hardness=320 , CYA=40 Water temp= 70 degrees, PSI= 19
Should we be concerned with the increase in Alkalinity?
We have an 18x36 in ground vinyl lined pool. Hayward Triton 2 sand filter (new last year) ,new pump this year (old one got struck by lightning and fried) Hayward Max Flo 2HP. We also have a 350,000BTU Starite heater but have not put it on this year (or last).
Filter PSI is 19…do we backwash to waste and if so what will happen to water balance?
So many questions swirling in my head...don' want to be impatient or act impulsively but need to make quick progress:
Do we let auto sweeper run in between vacuuming?
Do we add more bleach now or wait until tonight? How much?
Do we need to add muratic acid?
Do we need to increase Ph?
Do we need to add more BORAX?
Can we run heater when water clears?
If yes to any of the above what, how much and when.
I am hoping you can help us get our water straightened out so guests will be able to swim in 7 days. The only kind of party my son wanted was a swim party….should be easy enough rightThank you in advance and when responding use the Pool Care for DUMMIES approach…please be exact in what we need to do and don’t assume we know ANYTHING. It would help to give exact products, brands, when and how to add, how long in between adding things etc…. A recipe for success is what we need. Looking forward to learning and using this forum for a long time to come.
Thanks much .
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Re: URGENT...Need help.. grad party 7 days...cloudy foamy pool not holding chlorine l
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