First test readings of season

[michael3]

Got some more borax in the water, going to test later this evening, Just a couple questions, at lunch time I tested chlorine level and it is holding and my CC was 0 down from 1.5 yesterday, but still no change in the water color. if the water is holding chlorine and CC is 0 shouldnt it begin to improve? I realize it will take some time I just want to see some change. At what point would I consider maybe doing a large water dump and refill

[michael3]

Just came in from brushing the walls and floor, tested also. FC was at 22.5, going off the cya test yesterday of 55-60 shouldnt 22.5 be ok as a shock number? CC at 1.0 PH up to 7.2 and tested calcium and it was 30? water remains the same, you can see probably about 8 inches down. it might be a tad lighter green but looks very cloudy as well. Ive noticed no huge difference on my filter pressure either, staying about the same as it always does, I know the gauge works, it drops to 0 when off and I get different pressures at backwash and rinse

[CarlD]

You are just going to have to maintain FC in the 20's, run your filter 24/7, vacuum to waste everyday, and backwash, then see if your pressure drops.

[BigDave]

Don't worry about the Calcium - for now or probably ever. Now that the pH is above the bottom of the scale (in safe range) just worry about killing all the algae - it'll be dead when the pool turns from green to cloudy gray / blue.

[michael3]

Just came in from brushing walls and floor, FC was at 22.5 CC 1. PH still 7.2 Lastnight I dumped maybe a quarter gallon of the 10% bleach in, I didnt test it because right now I only have the .75 size bottle of reagent, so not sure how much that would bump my FC upto, maybe 1-2? so there was some drop off but not alot. I think I am starting to get alittle of the grey in the green tint

[michael3]

just brushed the walls and floor again, I vacuumed earlier and all I got in the skimmer basket was a few pine needles and a couple dead looking snails lol. water had dipped down to a FC of 19. I added 1/2 gallon of 10% bleach. CC was.5 ph still good at 7.2 It appears the depth I can see down is slowly increasing, but were hanging on to the very light green/ cloudy water. Has anyone ever kept there filter on recirculate while they keep there FC so high? or would that work to kill the algae and it then settle on bottom? or is the filtering of the bleach minimal when pump is on filter?

[michael3]

water is maintaining the light green/cloudy look, been trying to keep my FC in the low to mid 20s, lowest test I got it dropped to 19, but mostly around 20 to 22. CC fluctuates from .5 to 1.0 PH staying steady at 7.2, When I did my CYA test sunday it looked to me to be between 55-60. FC been in 20s since friday. Theres just been very little to no improvement, I know I need patience cause the water was very nasty, but with my CYA test being borderline 55-60 is there a chance the low 20s for FC just isnt quite enough? this afternoon I bumped it up to 30, think it will be ok to keep it there? and also theres just been no change in pressure on my gauge, water flow is very strong

[Watermom]

To answer another question you asked the other day, yes, you can put your filter on recirculate while you chlorine is high. One thing I am wondering about in your pool is your pump size. A 1.5hp pump with a 200 lb. sand filter for a 24ft AG is way too big and a mismatch between pump and filter size. In the case of pool pumps, bigger is not better. A too powerful pump can push debris and algae right through the filter media and right back into the pool without filtering it out. I'm wondering if that is happening in your pool. Go ahead and put it on recirculate and see if you can kill the algae before trying to filter it out. Continue to keep the chlorine high. See if that helps any.

[michael3]

Thanks, watermom will try that, we ended up with that size pump and filter because our setup started out as a rec warehouse pool and the big blue sand fliter cracked, and our pump died, we the pump on ebay for a great price and found the sand filter on craigslist for an even better price. This is our 3rd season running this setup and although this is the first starting with this nasty of water, we have never had an issue. What would be better a smaller pump or filter? maybe 1 hp tops?

[Watermom]

I used to have a 24ft AG. I had a full-rated 1/2hp inground pump and it was plenty big enough. In fact, I am still using that pump on my current pool which is a 27ft AG. I have it paired with a 300lb. sand filter. (I went with an inground pump because they are made better. One of my co-moderators who knows a lot about pumps picked it out for me when I needed a replacement years ago.)