First Time Pool Owner Battling with Cloudy Water, High CC, High Ammonia!

[yekalri]

First time homeowner and first time pool owner here needing suggestions on the best route to treat our pool: drain and fill, or keep hammering the pool with bleach.

Pool: 22,000 Gal IG, 18'x36', Gunite, Sta-Rite System 3 Cartridge filter, In-floor cleaning system, Taylor DPD Test Kit, API Ammonia Test Kit.

Background (please skip if you don't have time, ): We moved into the house early October of last year. The pool looked ok, but it was already cold and we did not get to use it and did not do anything with it as we had tons of other things to worry about as first time homeowners. We hired a pool company to close/winterize the pool for us. Because we have a in-floor cleaning system and have all the pool equipment in our basement, the first pool service guy actually came and messed around and then told us he could not figure out how to do it... The second pool service guy was able to winterize the pool and charged us $500, but did not do anything with the water now we think about it. So to sum up, the pool was left unattended for about a month last year and was not properly treated before getting closed.

This year, we were debating on whether or not to open the pool because the weather was so mild in early summer. Finally, we decided to open it last week and decided to do it by ourselves. We had no problem opening it. Upon opening it, the water was green and cloudy, but not too bad. After treatment for a week, the water is now bluish with a slight green (hubby says no green though). We can see through the bottom of the pool, but the water looks cloudy/dull.

Now are all the measurements and treatment we did in the past week.

07/04: Opened the pool, brush/vacuum pool, clean filter etc.

07/05: pH>8.2, FC 0, TC 0, CH 250, TA 250, CYA 100 Added 2 Gal of Muriatic Acid
4hr later, pH 7.6, FC 0, TC 0, CH 250, TA 200, CYA 50 Added 3 Gal of Bleach (8.25%, from Costco)

07/06: pH 7.6, FC 0, TC 5, CH 250, TA 200, CYA 50 Added 3 Gal of Bleach and 5 lb of Pool Time 4-in-1 Shock Treatment (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pool-Time...6#.Ud9wBIf-MoE) The Addition of this Shock Treatment might be a big mistake as I later read more on this forum...

07/07: pH 7.6, FC 0, TC 5, CH 200, TA 200, CYA 0 Added 1 Gal of Muriatic Acid (to lower TA), did partial drain and fill

07/08: pH 7.2, FC 0, TC >5, CH 200, TA 160, CYA 0 Added 15 Gal of Bleach at night, did partial drain and fill

07/09: pH 7.2, FC 1, TC>5, CH 200, TA 100, CYA 0 Added 15 Gal of Bleach again at night

07/10: pH 6.9, FC 2, TC>5, CH 200, TA 100, CYA 0 Got the ammonia test kit and ammonia tested to be >>8 ppm, I estimate roughly 30 ppm of ammonia after testing with diluted pool water sample. For some reason, the pH dropped after the bleach addition. Added 4 lb soda ash to raise the pH.

07/11: pH 7.4, FC 1, TC>5, CH 200, TA 140, CYA 0

After reading a lot on pool forum and troublefreepool regarding high ammonia levels in the pool, we are at a point to decide whether we need to drain and refill totally or is it still worth hammering with bleach. We will need a LOT MORE bleach!!! Also, do we really need to have CYA in it at this stage? I'm a little hesitant to add any CYA in it now I have a high ammonia issue.

Sorry for the very long post, would really like hear the experts' opinion on this!

BTW: our current DPD test kit doesn't measure chlorine above 5 and we are getting a FAS-DPD Taylor kit.

[yekalri]

Some info I forgot to mention in the previous post:

Previous owner was using trichloro tablets for chlorination as we are left with half a bucket of the tablets and there is a chlorinator installed after the filter,

Phosphate is also running high, 800 ppb.

[BigDave]

Log out and look for the "Bucket testing for chlorine demand" stickied thread in the "Using Chlorine and Chlorinating Chemicals" forum. It explains a method for estimating the total chlorine demand.

[yekalri]

BigDave, are you suggesting to continue treating the pool with Bleach? From the ammonia reading, I would need at least 60 more gallons and that does not necessarily guarantee success.

[PoolDoc]

07/05: pH>8.2, FC 0, TC 0, CH 250, TA 250, CYA 100
07/05: +4hr pH 7.6, FC 0, TC 0, CH 250, TA 200, CYA 50
07/06: pH 7.6, FC 0, TC 5, CH 250, TA 200, CYA 50
07/07: pH 7.6, FC 0, TC 5, CH 200, TA 200, CYA 0
07/08: pH 7.2, FC 0, TC >5, CH 200, TA 160, CYA 0

I don't know any way that CYA can go from 100 ppm to 0 ppm in 48 hours or less, without some MAJOR chemical manipulation. What happened? How are you testing for CYA?

Many water tests are not reliable. The reliable way to see how much chlorine demand your pool has, is to do a bucket test.

[BigDave]

BigDave, are you suggesting to continue treating the pool with Bleach? From the ammonia reading, I would need at least 60 more gallons and that does not necessarily guarantee success.

I'm suggesting that you perform a bucket test for chlorine demand and then decide if it's worth it to you to chemically remove the ammonia with chlorine or replace the water entirely. Replacing the water has some significant risks depending on pool type and locale and can be quite expensive.