+ Reply to Thread
Page 2 of 5 FirstFirst 1 2 3 4 ... LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 50

Thread: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

  1. #11
    Pamsel is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Pamsel 0
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Central Illinois
    Posts
    103

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Thank you so much Janet. I'm off to Wal-Mart, or wherever needed, to get a test kit, chlorox and muriatic acid. Will check back as soon as I get home. The help is very much appreciated!

  2. #12
    mbar's Avatar
    mbar is offline Lifetime Member Whizbang Spinner mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    Ashland, PA
    Posts
    1,009

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Hi Pamsel, don't worry, we will get your pool ready to swim in, and not have you go broke in the meantime. Welcome to the forum. First, do you have a well, or a way to add water without it costing too much? If so, I would try draining part of the water down 1/3, fill it back up, drain it down 1/3, and continue again. This way it shoud get some of the stuff you have been putting in it out. Your ph and alkalinity are very high, and high ph with high chlorine will percipitate metal right out of the water onto the pool surface. What kind of pool do you have, vinyl, concrete or fiberglass? Once you drain and refill, you should get a complete set of your chemical numbers like they have mentioned before. If you can't get a test that tests for all (cl, cc, ph, alk, cal, cya) then maybe you can find another pool store that tests for all this without test strips! Don't buy anything they are trying to sell you, just get some sequestering agent - like sequasol, metal free, jack's magic, or something that will bind with the metal to keep it in suspension. Put this in first - put at least as much as the bottle says for your size pool, and a little extra too. Check your ph and make sure it is between 7 & 7.2. If your alk is high, turn up the return jets till they bubble on the water. Add enough chlorine to shock the pool - it depends on how much cya (stablilizer) you have in your pool - here is a chart:


    Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
    => 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
    => 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
    => 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
    => 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
    => 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

    as you can see it is important to know this cya number, as you may think you are shocking your pool, when in reality you need a lot more chlorine to kill the algae. You must keep the shock level constant, letting the chlorine go up and down will only extend the amount of time you are dealing with the algae. If you don't get a test kit that goes above 5 you can do a search here on the forum for the "shot glass method" that along with distilled water the kit will allow you to test higher.
    Don't worry if you get any staining while you are clearing the pool of algae. It is much more important to get rid of the algae, and then if you have stains, we can deal with them.
    Just remember the less stuff you put in your pool, the more money in your pocket, and the easier it is to balance the water. All you really need to keep on hand is baking soda, borax, bleach and muriatic acid. And of course a good test kit. The one that is sold on the "Pool Solutions" site is the best in my opinion - the investment will save you much money in the future.
    Please feel free to ask any questions you have - remember there are no stupid questions!
    Northeast PA
    16'x32' kidney 16K gal IG fiberglass pool; Bleach; Hayward 200lb sand filter; Hayward pump; 24hrs; Pf200; well; summer: none; winter: mesh; ; PF:7.5

  3. #13
    Pamsel is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Pamsel 0
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Central Illinois
    Posts
    103

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Hello Marie,

    Thank you for your reply. I just returned home from my second trip to find a decent test kit - 3 towns and 7 stores later, I think I have one that will do. It does test CYA, Total Chlorine, Alk, PH, Hardness. I am going to go to work on the pool now that I have the test kit. I guess I will first drain it down and refill before I start using the muriatic acid and chlorine. Is that correct? I understand that I should work on the PH level first, with muriatic acid. When that gets into proper range, then the chlorine and the sequestering agent. Do I have this straight? BTW, it is a vinyl lined pool.

    Thanks again, for your help!

  4. #14
    mbar's Avatar
    mbar is offline Lifetime Member Whizbang Spinner mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    Ashland, PA
    Posts
    1,009

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Yes, I would drain and refill first - try to get your cya down to 50 if you can, but 60 to 90 is ok if you want to run high chlorine. We usually recommend 35 - 50 on this board. Next add the muriatic acid there is the bleach calc on this forum, Here is the link:
    http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe
    You can use this to figure out how much bleach you need, how much acid for ph, or borax and others - in the upper left corner it says more calcs, click on that and you will see the different calculations you can use. If you go to settings make sure it is on the imperial so you get the calcs in gallons. Bring your ph down to 7.2. The ph will not register lower right away, so don't add any more than the calc tells you, it will show up later.Five minutes after adding the muriatic acid you can add the sequestering agent - like I said, add a little more than the bottle says. You can add the bleach right after - enough to bring the chlorine up to shock level. Brush the pool and Keep the filter running 24/7. Keep checking the chlorine and bring it back to shock level until you hold the chlorine overnight, then add 2 days just to be sure. You want to make sure all the algae is dead. You should see a noticable improvement in the water color after you hit it with the bleach in a couple of hours. Your water may get cloudy from the sequestering agent and the dead algae. Just keep the chlorine up, and the filter running and your water will clear up. Keep me posted on your progress. Once you take control of your own pool, you will find it much more enjoyable, and you will get to know how your own water is - everyone's is a little different! You will get used to how much chlorine your pool uses, and you will spend hardly anytime on pool care.
    Northeast PA
    16'x32' kidney 16K gal IG fiberglass pool; Bleach; Hayward 200lb sand filter; Hayward pump; 24hrs; Pf200; well; summer: none; winter: mesh; ; PF:7.5

  5. #15
    Pamsel is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Pamsel 0
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Central Illinois
    Posts
    103

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Hi, Marie. Here is what is probably a very dumb question, but here goes: We pay for "clean" water from a community well. But we also have a pond in our backyard in which we have installed a "wet well" which allows us to water the garden and to irrigate with water from the pond. Would it be a terrible idea to use water from the pond to put into the swimming pool? It certainly would save money, but I am thinking it would be a bad idea to use pond water because of the algae, microorganisms, etc that would come with the pond water. I just thought that perhaps the filter and the chlorine could possibly take care of whatever comes with the pond water... Wishful thinking or not? Thanks!

  6. #16
    mbar's Avatar
    mbar is offline Lifetime Member Whizbang Spinner mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars mbar 3 stars
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    Ashland, PA
    Posts
    1,009

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    I know some people on this forum have used water from a pond. I am not sure what you would have to do differently that to get get the water clean , because I never did it, I am afraid to encourage, or discourage it. In my opinion, cleaning up the water from a pond would be no different from cleaning up a pool that was left standing and turned green, except for the amonia that would be in the water from the fish - but I could be wrong. Maybe you could pm Waste - he is really good with the chemistry of water, and the organisms that can grow.
    Northeast PA
    16'x32' kidney 16K gal IG fiberglass pool; Bleach; Hayward 200lb sand filter; Hayward pump; 24hrs; Pf200; well; summer: none; winter: mesh; ; PF:7.5

  7. #17
    Pamsel is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Pamsel 0
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Central Illinois
    Posts
    103

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Thanks again, Marie. First we'll get it cleaned up and then we'll see about adding pond water, when needed. I'll try to get ahold of Waste when I'm at that point.

  8. #18
    Pamsel is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Pamsel 0
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Central Illinois
    Posts
    103

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Well, I have drained the pool about 1/3 and refilled it overnight. I recirculated the water for 45 minutes to be sure it was well-mixed with fresh water. Took readings - have no chlorine reading, no CYA reading, Alk is 310 and PH is above 8.2 (top reading on my kit). . . probably about 8.4.

    Am goint to start the process now> I have attached a small tube with a 45 degree elbow to one of my jets and turned the other one upward and am getting nice aeration now. Will add 12 oz of muriatic acid to start, then the sequestering agent. I'm not sure I understand the chlorine calc chart. It seems that if my CYA reading is =>0, which it is, since I have no reading, then I need to shock to the lowest level, in other words get my chlorine level to 10ppm. Is this correct? I guess I don't understand what CYA is. It seems that since nothing has been touching the algae so far, that I would probably need to put in a lot more chlorine than I have in the past, but this seems to indicate that I need the lowest level? Am I misunderstanding something here?

  9. #19
    Sherra is offline Lifetime Member Weir Watcher Sherra 0
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    South Carolina, United States.
    Age
    50
    Posts
    184

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    If you truly have a CYA reading of 0 (and with opening to a brown quagmire and having not added any additional CYA this season, it's very possible to have a 0 CYA reading), then yes, you'd use the first line of Ben's Best Guess Chart. The key to the whole "getting rid of the green" process is consistently keeping the chlorine at "shock" level until it clears up and you have a CC reading of 0 and your chlorine level holds overnight. At that point you can then let the chlorine level drift down to the "minimum/maximum" range. Consistently means testing at a minimum of in the morning and at sunset and adding chlorine to bring the levels back up to shock range. If you can do it at noon or mid afternoon also, that would be even better.
    Sherra
    Kershaw County South Carolina
    18x34 IG 2' radius rectangle vinyl liner (approx 27,500 gal) 1 1/2" pipes installed March 2006
    (previous AG pool owner)

  10. #20
    Pamsel is offline Registered+ Thread Analyst Pamsel 0
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Central Illinois
    Posts
    103

    Default Re: My Green Pool Saga - Help!

    Can someone please explain why I use the least amount of chlorine when I have no CYA reading? I'm not understanding this. I mean, I have added 15 gallons and it did not clear the water. According to the Bleach calculator, I need to hadd 2.4 gallons to get to 10ppm. This just doesn't make sense to me. Also, how soon after adding the chlorox will I get an accurate reading?
    Last edited by Pamsel; 05-31-2006 at 01:55 PM.

+ Reply to Thread

Similar Threads

  1. The saga of cracked pool.
    By Amir in forum In-Ground Pool Construction and Repair
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 06-05-2007, 05:42 PM
  2. Dolphin climbing saga....
    By scott747 in forum Pool Cleaning: Manual or Automatic
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-25-2007, 09:42 AM
  3. My suction side leak Saga
    By lmnharris in forum Pool Equipment & Operations
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 08-24-2006, 04:57 PM
  4. New Pool start-up saga...
    By Maxout in forum Testing and Adjusting Pool Water Chemistry
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 07-08-2006, 01:08 PM
  5. Ben's Test Kit saga
    By Bleach=Chlorine? in forum Testing and Adjusting Pool Water Chemistry
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 06-05-2006, 02:08 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts