Help some Cheeseheads please!

[Watermom]

Trichlor is just a type of chlorine that has cya in it. Since your cya is only 30, you can use the trichlor after you get the pool clear. But, you'll need to monitor your cya reading and when it gets to 50, stick with only bleach. Trichlor isn't used for shocking which is what you are being advised to do for now. So just use bleach now.

10% sodium hypochlorite is just strong bleach. Household bleach is 6%. However, if it has been sitting for awhile, it isn't going to be full strength. You can go ahead and use it however. Just make sure it doesn't list any other stuff besides sodium hypo. It may not raise your chlorine level significantly if it is really old and weak, but it won't hurt to use it up.

[Watermom]

GOFN1 -- How do you rate having 3 of the mods all responding to your post within 3 minutes of each other?

[GOFN1]

Can I just say how great the internet is??! It is GREAT! My husband took a 2 hour pool lesson at Pool supply store and didn't get HALF this much info and it has'nt been quite 2 hours since our orig posting! Thanks again!

Ok The pH Minus says it contains:
Sodium Bisulfate 82%
Inert Ingredients (Sodium Sulfate & Water) 8%

[GOFN1]

10% sodium hypochlorite is just strong bleach. Household bleach is 6%. However, if it has been sitting for awhile, it isn't going to be full strength. You can go ahead and use it however. Just make sure it doesn't list any other stuff besides sodium hypo. It may not raise your chlorine level significantly if it is really old and weak, but it won't hurt to use it up.

Watermom - All it says on the "strong bleach" bottle besides the 10% sodium hypo is "other ingredients - 90%" so I guess I don't know if it contains anything else???

[GOFN1]

GOFN1 -- How do you rate having 3 of the mods all responding to your post within 3 minutes of each other?

I don't know but it is awesome! Somebody must be watching out for me because I think my husband was about ready to drive his truck thru the pool so it would just be done and gone! Now he at least feel better about the entire situation!!

[aylad]

what Watermom meant was that you don't want to use it if it is scented, or has extra additives for whitening, etc.


Janet

[GOFN1]

After the bleach...green is pretty much gone...yeah!

Here are day two levels:
Cl = 5.0
Br = 10.0
pH = 7.8
Alk = 210
Hardness = 410
CYA = Same as yesterday

Now our question is, yesterday everyone was saying to get our chlorine level up to 15 ppm but when I look at tester we have it doesn't go up that high. Am I not reading it correctly or do I need a different tester?? The highest on my tester is the reading above

[Watermom]

First of all, you don't have bromine in your pool. Glad to hear the pool is clearing. Keep adding bleach. You still need to raise it to 15 for a few more days to be sure you kill all the algae. Most testers don't get past 5. The one Ben sells at www.poolsolutions.com does and that is why it is so great to have it. In the meantime, you can make your tester read higher than 5 if you dilute your sample. Take one part pool water and one part distilled water, mix, test as usual and then multiply the result by 2. If you need to go higher, take one part pool water and two parts distilled water, then multiply by 3, etc.

Be sure you don't use any cal-hypo for your chlorine. Your calcium hardness is already pretty high and that might make your water cloudy.

[GOFN1]

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

I thought I responded with this but I don't think I did...pH minus contains

Sodium Bisulfate 92%
Inert Ingredients 8%

On the back it says all it contains is Sodium Bisulfate, Sodium Sulfate and Water.

[GOFN1]

Returned home from running errands and the pool is less cloudy than this morning! I can see the bottom again. My husband was going to start to vacuum...is that the next right step?

Once we get the Cl level using bleach to 15ppm is that where we should always keep it? From then I tackle the other levels?

So today...Should we add just one more gallon or two again? Someone replied back that we will add approx a gallon every 3 days but that was said I believe for when this is all under control.

Also can we only add the bleach at dusk or can it be added anytime?

Regarding that testing kit - is the kit only good for one season? Here in WI our pool season is pretty short. Researching the kit it looks around $75 but sounds like it could take a month to get here. Just not sure if it seems worth it to buy this season???

And of course the most important question...when will the pool be ok to swim in?

Oh and one more thing...Watermom - what did you mean when you said I don't have bromine? I just was typing what was located in the testing kit so I just put it on there. Is it on the test kit for another purpose? Do other pools and I just don't? Just trying to learn more...