Also in Louisiana, COMPLETELY new to pools

[R6 Guy]

I'll get the starters out of the way first. My name's James, my wife and I just purchased a home here in Louisiana where I'm stationed active duty with the Army. I've never in my life had to maintain a pool (I was always on the swim teams, the facilities had people to do the maintenance!) and I'm a complete noob when it comes to this whole thing. My mother in law told me about this site and said you guys are awesome and that she has been lurking here for years gathering up tips.

As far as the pool situation itself, the house we bought came with a pool (which we originally wanted to avoid because of the fear of the labor-intensity) but we loved the home so much we decided we'd go for it.

The pool is (according to my best guess based on the calculations I've found online) 25,000 gallons, in ground. It was in HORRIBLE shape when we first looked at the house, but the sellers got a pool cleaning service working on it and we figured it would be resolved by the time we closed and moved in. It has a Hayward sand type (?) filter and came with some basic tools like a couple of different skimmers, vacuum brush and hose (complete with some splits that I had to doctor up) and a "Kreepy Kraul" (?) automatic vacuum and hose, and a couple of the extending poles to use the tools with. The filter appears to be pretty old, the model number on the side is completely illegible and I only figured out the brand name by seeing other posters using the name in its entirety.

We've been in the house about 3 weeks now, I'll start at the beginning and detail what's been going on with the pool. As I stated above, it was in VERY bad shape when we first saw it. The filter had been shut off and the pool ignored for at least a month. The algae was so thick you couldn't see your fingers if you dipped your hand into the water to mid-palm. The Kreepy Kraul vacuum thing was left sitting in the water, and was completely infested with algae inside the filter canister and the entire hose. When we looked at the house just before closing, they had sent someone out who had shocked, and was running the filter. There were large patches of dead algae clumped and floating on the surface, and a very thick 'carpet' of dead algae on the bottom. We were assured it would be taken care of by the time we closed... but it wasn't. We closed, moved in, and I pulled the timers off the filter for the first few days and ran it 24/7. The Kreepy Kraul was so gunked up with dead algae that at first I didn't even use it, and spent a week or so cleaning it in my spare time after work with just the filter running regularly. I had to very frequently backflush and rinse the filter because it was getting so clogged from the dead algae.

We started testing the water and while the Ph is usually right on the money (almost always right at 7.3, 7.4), the test kits (either of the 2 we have) are showing absolutely zero for chlorine, despite how many tablets have dissolved through the in-line dispenser by the pump or in the floating dispenser. Over the past 3 weeks I've gone through an entire box of shock (6 bags, if I remember right), and 3 whole bottles of algae killer as well. I still see algae growing on the walls, and have to scrub fairly often either with the brush/vacuum on the pole or just with a regular brush and my trunks as I walk or swim my way around and scrub away. I also found a bucket of chlorine tabs the previous owners had left in a shed that got water in it, and they were completely dissolved into a chlorine soup. In an effort to get the chlorine up to at least readable levels, I added about 4 cups' worth of that soup. 24 hours later still no chlorine reading, and algae still growing.

We received no information at all from the sellers, as they were actually across the country at the time and we were dealing with their family via power of attorney for the sale, so I don't even know if it was supposed to be a salt water pool prior to our purchasing and moving in.

The pool is in the backyard of an East/West facing home, so it receives a large amount of sunlight throughout the day. The water is nearly bathwater-warm in the late afternoons and early evenings with the air temps being over the hundred degree mark these past few weeks, so I'm sure that isn't helping the algae situation.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that the water is so cloudy. It seems like no matter how much I run the filter or how much I vacuum up the fallout that collects on the bottom, you can't really see more than a few feet. You still can't really see your feet when standing in the shallow end (approx 3' deep), and my kids have been getting increasingly frustrated with me keeping them out for days on end as I try to balance out the chemical situation to kill off the algae and clear the pool up.

Hope I haven't thrown too much out here with the first post, I realize I'm going to be heavily moderated and I'd rather get all this out immediately and start looking for answers than lurk for a year waiting for the opportunity to post reasonably. I don't blame the security on your part though, don't get me wrong!

Anyways I'm looking forward to learning a lot from you guys, I hope to get this pool squared away so I can start spending more time enjoying it than working on it!

[aylad]

Hi James, and let me start off by saying thank you for your service!!

It sounds like you inherited a real mess, but it doesn't sound hopeless, by any means, but it will take some patience. The good news is that we (I'm in Louisiana, too!) still have at least 2 months worth of swimming left, so you still have time to get it cleared up and swimmable before this season is over.

The key to clearing the algae is to bring the chlorine up to shock level, and hold it there while the algae dies off. Do this with chlorine, not algaecides. Some algaecides, like Polyquat, are much better at preventing algae than clearing up a bloom. Other algaecides, like the cheaper ammonia-based ones, can actually make your problems worse. the pre-packaged "shocks" that they're selling these days are mostly a hodge-podge of chemicals because the chemical companies keep adding more "goop" to the formulas so they can be marketed as "new and improved". So....we recommend either plain, unscented, Wal-Mart generic bleach, or dichlor powder, which can be bought from either Sam's club(PoolBrand brand name) or online through Amazon (Kemtek). The dichlor powders from other places, including WalMart, contain a bunch of other goop that make it more expensive and less effective.

So...to clear your pool, you're going to need to bring your chlorine to "shock" level. I'm assuming you have no stabilizer in the pool, because what you did have would have broken down with all that algae. So assuming a CYA of 0, you need to bring the chlorine to 12-15 ppm and hold it there, by testing for chlorine and adding whatever amount of chlorine necessary to get back up over the 12 ppm mark, as many times as possible throughout the day. The more consistent you are about maintaining that shock level, the faster the pool will clear. It will take several days, but just remember that it took awhile for that pool to get in the shape it's in, so the cure won't be overnight. It will take lots of chlorine, and lots of patience--but it will work. You will need to brush the pool at least once daily, right after a chlorine addition.

In 25K gallons of water, each gallon of 6% bleach you add will raise your FC by 2.4 ppm--the large WalMart jugs of bleach are 1.42 gallons, and one of those will raise your FC by 3.4 ppm, so you can use those amounts as reference to know how much more needs to be added each time after the initial shock. To go from 0-15 ppm in your pool, it will require 6.2 gallons--6.5 gallons would be fine, and easier to measure

You will need a test kit that will allow you to measure chlorine levels that high, which is why we recommend the K-2006 test kit linked in my sig (until your registration is completed, you'll have to log out to be able to follow the links, but that should only be temporary). If you have one of the OTO kits (uses red and yellow drops for pH and chlorine), you can force it to read higher by diluting your sample 1:1 with distilled water, testing from that sample, and multiplying your result x 2 (or dilute 1:2 and multiply result by 3). It loses a little accurace with each dilution, but it's a good ballpark number.

We also need a little more info about your pool, filter, etc....please take a few seconds and fill this chart out for us so we can get the info we need to better advise you without wasting a lot of back-and-forth posts asking for info... ]Pool Chart Entry Form


Welcome to the forum!

[Watermom]

Jan, you must've been recruiting this season. Seems like we have a lot of new people on the forum this year from Louisiana!

Adding my welcome to you, James, as well!

[R6 Guy]

Janet thanks a ton for the very informative response!

I had my wife go look at the filter the other day and she said it looked to her like the Hayward name we were seeing, but when I went and looked at it as I was filling out the Pool Chart Entry it read fairly clearly "Tagelus" to me, don't know if that makes a difference or not. The model number, serial number, and most of the other info on the tag are completely illegible. The best I could do was to guesstimate that the gallons per minute is rated at 20. As soon as I get done I'll log out and use your tag link to go find that test kit, and this afternoon I'll head up to the wal-mart down the road and start stocking up on bleach. I'm assuming I will need to avoid the non-chlorine bleach my wife uses on our laundry, lol! I'm sure she'd be upset if I were to dump all our bleach into the pool anyways.

So once I get the test kit in and begin getting the chlorine up to shock level, how long will it need to maintain that level in order to kill off all the algae? Is it just a 24 hour thing, or will I have to find some way to test for living algae in the pool? Other than seeing the algae growing on the sides, how can I tell if the cloudiness in the pool is coming from dead floating or live floating algae?

And my kids thank you for the delay of waiting on a test kit, lol! They're spending a few weeks with me this summer and have been pretty much living in that pool, they would be devastated if the last week before they return to their mother's house they had to stay out of the pool due to chlorine levels!

XD

[R6 Guy]

By the way, instead of advising people to log out to follow the link in your sig, it was easier for me just to hit up amazon and search for the test kit. When I logged out I could no longer view the post, and I couldn't remember the exact nomenclature, so I logged back in and just opened amazon in a new tab and searched that way. For any other new folks that are looking for them, the price is going for $87 on the 2006C kits (more chemical, more expensive but cheaper by volume of all the chemicals) and the 2006A kits aren't even listed right now.

[PoolDoc]

I'm working on some major changes in registration, that will affect. I checked your registration, thinking it would help you, but it won't since it depends on all the 'bits' of your registration matching.

[R6 Guy]

What else do I need to do in order to finalize the registration? I've got the forum registration, I filled out the Pool Chart Entry Form, is there another step that I missed somewhere?

The logging out to use the link think was just a suggestion to have people search for the test kit by name, it was just easier for me to do than log out, find this thread in the forum, then use the link in the sig lines. Not complaining, just trying to make it easier for folks.

[Watermom]

By the way, the reason we like people to follow our Amazon link to order a kit is that the forum gets a small commission on the sale which helps to keep this forum online and alive. If you order without first starting at our link, we don't.

You're gonna love having that kit!

[shawnw]

R6- I am a Louisiana newbie, too. I know one of the rules of this forum is NO SELLING but... I hope I don't get kicked off for saying that I am sold on this site! I have told all my pool owner friends about it. You have definitely come to the right place! I had a horrible problem with black algae this summer. Even had to send the kids to camp for a week so I could get the pool straight and keep them from driving me crazy not being able to swim! But thanks to Pool Forum (and a lot of work) my pool is beautiful! These people know their stuff! Welcome to the forum, and thanks for your service to our country!

[PoolDoc]

Glad it's been helpful, Shawn.