Pool a disaster after vacation

[cbuchin]

While on vacation, our pool pump had a problem (leaking due to diverter seal) so the 'pet/pool sitter' shut everything down. Pure green upon our return. Tried algaecide - three different ones to date. Had water tested at dealer - showed fac .44, total .84, cc .4, ta 20, ph 7.1, ch 123, ca 75. According to there instructions I added 20 lbs of alk increaser and 20 lbs of calcium increaser. Shocked with 3 lbs of 'turbo shock'. I neglected to wait the full time between chemical additions....we are selling our haouse and had a showing coming up so I was hoping to clear things up quickly. Now the pool is a sickly whitish/light blue cloudy mess. Test strips show alk/ph/tc levels ok now altho free chlorine is still low/zero. We use aqua chem 3" chlor plus tabs (costco). Also, a lot of well water was added with the leak and I know the iron levels were high in the well. Any suggestions?

[aylad]

You need to get a good set of test results taken with a drop-based kit. Test strips are notoriously unreliable, and are not nearly accurate enough to clean up a mess. In a normal pool a CYA of 75, you need to shock the pool up to 20 ppm and hold it there by testing and adding more chlorine as necessary to maintain that 20 ppm until the algae is dead and your filter can get it all out. However, in a pool with a high metal content, taking your chlorine up that high will probably precipitate out the iron, causing staining in the pool. Normally we would recommend that you use a dose of HEDP to keep the metals in solution in the water, and a Culator pack in the skimmer to absorb and remove the metals, but that's a lengthy process. So....let me ask Pooldoc to check in on this thread and see if he can offer a useable suggestion.

In the meantime, please take a few seconds and enter your pool info in this chart--it will help us help you better, without wasting a lot of back-and-forth posting trying to get needed info about your pool.

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Welcome to the forum!

[cbuchin]

thanks - I've tried to enter the pool info twice now and get the message below:

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The first test results in my post were from the pool store. In addition to strips, I have the two-way drop test kits, but it doesn't read up to 20ppm. I have two types of strips (one for separate hot-tub) and both sem to give same results for alk. & ph.

The algae seems to be dead since it's not green anymore, just the milky white. Could that be from adding calcium and alkalinty too close together?

[aylad]

Adding 20 lbs of either chem is enough to make a cloudy mess out of your pool, but adding 20lbs of each almost certainly did it. However, even if you don't have algae right now, you will soon if you don't raise your chlorine levels. With a CYA of 75, you should never let your chlorine levels get below 5 ppm, or you are inviting algae to get started.

Is your filter pressure rising at all? And since this is a vinyl-lined pool, just for future reference, you don't need the calcium, no matter what the pool store says. It is needed in concrete/plaster pools to keep the water from leaching the calcium out of the finish, but in a vinyl pool, it's not necessary....

[mbar]

Since you think you have metals, I would add some metal sequestering agent (HEDP) follow the directions on the bottle. Then you will have to get your chlorine levels up to shock to break down what is making the pool cloudy (probably dead algae) You should also use a skimmer sock - you can get this at a pool store or online, but you can also make one out of an old stocking. This will help to collect really fine particles. Keep your filter running 24/7, backwash frequently. Vacuum to waste if there is any sediment on the bottom. A way that you can clean up the pool faster, is to get a flocking agent. Follow the directions on the bottle, you will have to turn the filter off at least overnight so make sure you have high chlorine levels, also add some polyquat 60 algaecide. The flocking agent will combine the small particles to make them heavy and they will fall to the bottom of the pool, then you vacuum to waste. Please let me know if you have any other questions

[cbuchin]

no, the filter pressure isn't rising. I went back to the pool store yesterday for new readings: alk was still low at 46, so I added 11 pounds of baking soda last night. I also shocked it again. I had read about the calcium being irrelevant with vinyl pools and mentioned that to the pool store owner. He said there is calcium in the liner that the water will try to leach out if the water isn't kept high enough. Don't know if he's misinformed or what. He's a pretty honest guy and doesn't try to pressure you to buy his stuff. Does the testing for free if you buy from him or will charge you a small fee just to test. The reading this time showed cya0f 100! Could it really go up that much in 6 days? Pool guy thinks cloudy mess is dead algae....

[PoolDoc]

Ya gotta pick: if your pool guy is a "pretty honest guy" AND knowledgeable . . . trust him, and do what he says.

Otherwise, do what we say.

You can't do both.

The fact is, if he were both honest AND knowledgeable, he would have never told you to add both calcium and baking soda (alkalinity) to the same pool at the same time -- he wouldn't have even told you to add calcium at all!

Your pool guy is either:

• honest and ignorant (very common - the pool chemical companies train them to sell chemicals, not fix pool water!)
• dishonest and knowledgeable (not uncommon)
• dishonest and ignorant (fairly common)

If you want us to help you, go get a test kit, and find out what's in your water. And STOP dumping baking soda and calcium in your pool. You've ALREADY got a mess that's going to be hard to clean up!

Ben

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+ Get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) / phenol test kit, or if available at YOUR Walmart (check availability), get the HTH 6-way DROPS test kit, which is compatible with the Taylor K2006. Test the pool as soon and you can, and post the results. If you get the 6-way kit, ALSO test the water you FILL the pool with, especially if it's a well, and post THOSE results as well. (The HTH is the best available kit you're likely to find locally, but it's not the K-2006. It can only provide rough measurements chlorine levels above 5 ppm, and it measures "TOTAL" hardness, rather than "CALCIUM" hardness, which is not ideal.)

+ Having a good test kit makes pool care easier for EVERYONE, but is an ESSENTIAL tool for pools with problems. A good test kit means a kit that can test chlorine from 0 - 25 ppm, pH, alkalinity, calcium hardness, and stabilizer with reasonable accuracy. Test strips (AKA 'guess-strips' ) do NOT meet this standard. Some pool store testing is accurate; most is not. The ONLY way you'll know whether your pool store is accurate or bogus, is by testing accurately your own self. On the other hand, pool store 'computer' dosing recommendations are NEVER trustworthy -- ignore them. They are designed to sell more chemicals than you need, and WILL cause many pool problems.

+ We recommend the Taylor K-2006 test kit, which meets the requirements above, for many reasons. The HTH 6-way drops kit is a great starter kit, and is compatible with the K2006 (it's made by Taylor). There are a few alternatives; for example Lamotte makes an FAS-DPD kit that's OK -- but it costs 3x as much. But, we're not aware of any test that is better, and since we are all familiar with the K-2006 (and can help you with it) we recommend it exclusively ( Test kit info page )

One caution for the 2012 season: Amazon does not stock the kits directly. So when buying at Amazon, Amato is our current preferred seller. However, they often don't list enough stock to last the whole day, so try order mid-morning. You should expect a delivered cost under $60 for the K2006A and under $95 for the K2006C. If you can't find that, wait a day.

+ Here are links to the kits we recommend (you can check local availability on the HTH kit, using the Walmart link):

HTH 6-Way Test Kit @ Walmart
Taylor K2006A (3/4 oz bottles) @ Amazon
Taylor K2006C (2 oz bottles) @ Amazon