New Member, yucky pool

[Old Bat]

This is nice to have somebody give me some direction in this.

Well we got it empty today except some bottom sludge. I started scrubbing. The stuff is coming off the bottom quite well. With a scrub brush and elbow grease and then I'm sucking up the sludge with a shop vac.

Having problems with the walls. I think we really screwed ourselves and put the liner in upside down. We have the smooth side to the inside, (the swimming side). And seem to be having more problems than ever. It looked like the right way as the seam edge is then to the outside. The entire walls have what I assume to be calcium deposits, but have never had this bad of problem before. Very rough, white. I've got some lime a way. But could I maybe uses like the thick toilet bowl cleaner?

I saw on another thread that you get a % of amazon sales through the links. I will definitely try to use that link for all my shopping on there. This site is wonderful and I'm so thankful to have someone to ask. Money is tight and I think we could save a lot this way.

For start up we do still have some Sock It left from last year. We could use that up first and then switch to bleach or not? Thanks so much for your help.

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Hello again, So that I can order through Amazon and have it get here when ready to fill, could you give me an idea what I need to order? I'm going to town tomorrow to buy the small test kit for temporary and will order the better one. I'll also pick up bleach, and whatever else you say I need from WalMart.

So the manual that came with the pool says 5200 gals if dished. It is dug down quite a bit to about 5' at the center. We have well water, high calcium not too high of iron but some iron. We once had the pool turn bright green when we chlorinated. Pool store guy said it was copper. But that only happened one time. I don't understand either.

What should I buy for a stabilizer? I'm really dumb on stabilizers. But after reading more see that it's very important. I'm anxious to get filling but will be a while before it's all scrubbed. I have a messed up rotator cuff in my shoulder and can only scrub for so long. Also, just from your experience I would think we'd need to lower PH? I will test, but don't get to town every day so would like to have the stuff on hand if possible. Thanks again for helping.

[PoolDoc]

Just finished reading through your posts:

1. Do not use the Sock-it now. It adds calcium and you're going to be trying to REMOVE calcium.

2. Can you do a white bucket test on your fill water?

• Take a CLEAN 5 gallon white bucket;
• fill it with 4 gallons of whatever water you'll use to fill the pool;
• add 1/4 cup of bleach and 1/8 cup of baking soda; mix and cover;
• wait 24 hours and inspect to see if there is any sediment on the bottom;
• wait 24 more hours and inspect again.
• Tell me what you find -- color and amount.

3. When you refill, lets use ONLY 3 chemicals: bleach, borax and muriatic acid.

Read the muriatic acid page, so you can handle it safely
Add 1 qt of bleach each evening
Use 20 Mule Team borax if the pH gets below 7.0 -- 1/4 box added slowly via the skimmer
Use muriatic acid if the pH gets above 7.6 -- about 1/4 of a gallon jug.

4. If you can buy 1 - 2 lbs of stabilizer at Walmart, do so. Put it in a sock, and hang it in front of a return. If you can't get it here, you can order it from Amazon:
Kem-Tek Stabilizer 4lbs

[Old Bat]

Luckily for once I do have a clean bucket with a cover! Yes, I will get that started in the AM. This is so exciting!

Hopefully if both of us work on it we can get it all scrubbed down tomorrow and start filling soon. Will get all the stuff to start tomorrow. Oh, I hate WalMart on a Saturday! Always seems to be when I end up there though.

Thank you both for your help. Perhaps this year I will finally be able to enjoy our old pool instead of just endless drudgery and worrying about what it looks like on the Google map. (Yes, the last update of the map it is hideous). Oh the shame.

[Old Bat]

Well, rats. Went to order the Taylor 2006 test kit on Amazon. It said they had 1 left. But when I clicked it said not available. Added it to my wish list. I am still owed a Mother's Day present. When it comes in again I will collect on that. So will just have the little one to start with.

[Old Bat]

Hooray, We are on the way back. Just started it filling. Fingers crossed for the liner. But the liner is clean!

In the bucket where you said to put bleach and baking soda. The water has a white film on top. The water is colorless but quite cloudy. Don't know if this is telling anything. Will check it again tomorrow AM.

I'm really wondering how we ended up with so much calcium on the liner. I can understand at the water line, but all up and down and even some on the floor. I was quite an acidic adventure removing all that.

And I see that we should create a signature line with our specs. I will attempt it. Thanks much pool people!

[Old Bat]

2012.05.29.15:30
Anybody here? My bucket still cloudy with some slime accumulating on the bottom.

Pool is filled. Have not treated in any way. Not sure where to begin. I ended up with the 6 way test kit from Walmart. My husband bought it for me for a late Mother's Day. He didn't know it wasn't the same so this is what I have for now.

Tested the new water. PH is 7, Alkalinity is 490! Hardness is 590! I think these are quite alarming. Trying to figure out which thing I should do first.


2012.05.29.16:03

I'm not sure where my posts are going. I'm very confused about the pool AND the forum. I'm not able to post new threads yet. And the only way I see this thread is by clicking an old link in my email. Where are you Pool Doc? Thank you if you can help us.

[PoolDoc]

+ Your existing post is in this section: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/forumdi...amp-Operations

+ You can post in most of the other sections, but NOT in the "Getting Started" section, which is a 'gateway' section.

+ Regarding the forum; we've been slammed over the weekend. There was simply no way to keep up.

+ TA=490; CH=590? The white bucket test couldn't work -- adding backing soda that created a mess.

+ Let's try something different:
-- Test your fill water's (well water?) TA and CH, and report those.
-- Let me know if you have access to Arm & Hammer Washing Soda at Walmart.
-- Dump and rinse your bucket.

Added note: I called the head chemist at Kem-Tek; they've been using a process to remove excess calcium and alkalinity that's very close to the "lime softening" process used in the potable water treatment business. I think you are going to need it -- but he was out, and will be on vacation till Thursday.

[Old Bat]

That is our fill water. Yes I needed 49 drops of the alk titrate to turn it red and 59 drops of the hardness to turn it blue.


And also now I added some bleach, just to have some in there and the water turned green. Copper again?

They might have that washing soda. I bought 2 boxes 20 mule team and 4 lbs of regular baking soda, along with the stabilizer and bleach. Do I really have to do the bucket thing again?