Help some Cheeseheads please!

[GOFN1]

Moved into a new home that has a pool we opened week ago Friday. Water was pretty clear we were impressed. We did nothing to it but gather the leaves out the bottom. Still looked good the following Monday (Memorial Day) thought we had some time to get it all going. Tuesday RAIN! Wednesday GREEN : (

Today it is of course even greener we have been trying to figure out what to do. Been on your forum so here are our readings...someone please help us!!?!

Chlorine Level - didn't even register on my tester. Water was clear so way below the min. No Chlorine is our best guess obviously

pH - 7.8
Alk - 160 ppm
Hardness - 450 ppm
CYA - 30 ppm

Pool size is an above ground 18ft round. Approx gallons estimate is 6800...

We have bought bleach, backing soda, borax from reading on this forum however can't figure out what to do now with the combination of the readings and our supplies.

Any feedback would be very helpful!

[mas985]

First thing is to kill algae. Put two gallons of bleach in the pool and keep the FC to 15 ppm by adding chlorine over the next few days until all of the algae is dead and cleaned up. You will know it is dead when the pool turns cloudy. Vacuum to waste or filter, then clean filter.

At this point you do not need any baking soda or borax since your Alk is high and PH is high. You need acid. I use muriatic acid. You can start with a pint and then re-measure your PH and Alk after you have cleaned up the algae problem and your chlorine has dropped to below 6 ppm.

[GOFN1]

Ok. So do we need bleach and chlorine as I thought the bleach WAS the chlorine..??

You say adding chlorine over the next few days but how do you know how much chlorine/bleach to add each day??

We couldn't find muiatic acid so we bought "pH minus balancer". Is this ok? Do we add this once the algae is dead/water cloudy or with the chlorine?

I guess maybe we need a more step by step procedure???

Trying to figure out how often to test and add stuff...

Thank you for replying and I look forward to another response if you can help us further!

[Poconos]

GOFN1,
Welcome to the forum. For now I'd just concentrate on getting the chlorine up. The pH and TA are indeed high but nothing that needs to be addressed now. A question though....since you just inherited this thing are you sure the previous owner used chlorine as the sanitizer and not Bacquacil a.k.a. Bacquagoo? Because if they did then you have a totally different situation.
Al

[GOFN1]

Poconos -

Thanks for the welcome. I am finding everyone so far very helpful.

The previous owner used what we think is called a "pool frog" chlorine dispenser?? Does that help? We have yet to use any of what they left behind.

I thought we read this in another thread but just going to throw out the question - When adding the bleach to the skimmer do I have to set my filter to anything but filter?

Thanks,
The Cheeseheads

[tundraSQ]

Ok. So do we need bleach and chlorine as I thought the bleach WAS the chlorine..??

You say adding chlorine over the next few days but how do you know how much chlorine/bleach to add each day??

We couldn't find muiatic acid so we bought "pH minus balancer". Is this ok? Do we add this once the algae is dead/water cloudy or with the chlorine?

I guess maybe we need a more step by step procedure???

Trying to figure out how often to test and add stuff...

Thank you for replying and I look forward to another response if you can help us further!

Chlorine=Bleach....Add the 2 gallons around sunset... and take a reading about an hour later...as for how much you add each day...best guess for that size pool would be a gallon every 3 days once you get the algae under control...plus you might want to bring for CYA up to about 60 in order to conserve bleach usage. And like the previous post...be sure you are not inheriting a bacquacil pool.

[Poconos]

Nope...just pour it in. Until you get the algae under control measure the chlorine a few times a day and keep it at 15 like Mas985 said. It will get eaten up pretty fast. There is a calculator available to help you figure how much bleach to add. Look for any post from MWSMITH2 and look in his signature for the link. For lack of any other guide just throw in a small jug (3 quarts), circulate for a couple hours and measure. I don't know what that pH- stuff is...never used it and never paid attention to posts about it. Someone else will kick in about it.
Al

[GOFN1]

Ok. Clear on the bleach=chlorine thing. Many Thanks!!

I googled Baquacil and I see nothing around this house that leads me to believe she used that.

I have infront of me

Pool Frog Bac Pac - She left a ton of these. Active ingredient is 99% Trichloro-s-Triazinetrione with available chlorine listed as 89%.

hth Liquid Chlorinator - She left 2 jugs of this. Active ingredient is 10% Sodium Hypochlorite..

Does this help?

Thanks to everyone who replying...it is very appriciated.

The Cheeseheads

[Poconos]

Yeah...a chlorine pool. Good. Don't know about the frog things but the 10% probably isn't anymore but use it up anyhow. Won't hurt anything. Higher concentrations of bleach degrade fairly fast and no idea how long the stuff has been around.
Al

[aylad]

Yeah, that helps..it means that you probably have a chlorine pool instead of a Bacquacrap pool, which is good news! You've already been given the best advice--get your Cl level up to 15 (using the bleach), and keep it there by daily testing and additions to get it back up to 15. If you can do this 2-3 times a day, it will clear faster.

Before you use the pH minus balancer, (which you don't need to worry about 'til after the green is gone, anyway), could you please post the ingredients? I'm concerned with the "balancer" part that it may contain CYA, which you're not gonna need if you're using trichlor.

Janet