In desperate need of help...

[Cammie895]

Hello from a newbie : ) I'll try to keep this short, but I have no clue about any of this stuff so I'll explain it the best I can.

I have one of those blue donut above ground pools - it holds 5500 gallons of water. I've been spending about $50.00 a month on chemicals for it and we still can't swim in it because I can get it clear for a few days, and then it turns green or yellow.

I tend to this pool daily and follow all of the instructions that came with the pool. I use Borax, baking soda, and walmart's 1" stabilized tablets and shock. I did try bleach when I first got it and I bleached the whole liner from bright blue to white...oops.

The instructions that came with the chemical kit say that my readings should be:

total hardness 175-225 ppm (though I'm quite sure I read on poolsolutions.com that vinyl pools don't need calcium added to them)

total chlorine 1-3 ppm
free chorlne 1-3 ppm
pH 7.2-7.8
total alkalinity 125-150 ppm
and stabilizer 30-100 ppm

I check every day to make sure those numbers are balanced, and the pool still turns green or yellow. Then I follow the directions on the algae treatment stuff and it takes me over a week to get rid of the algae. Most days I have the total chlorine and free chlorine balanced at night, and by morning they are both at zero. Also, even though I'm using stabilzed tablets my stablizer reading stays at about 10-20 ppm. I checked at walmart for the stabilizer that the pool website said I need but they don't have it, so I'm sure I need to find the real stuff at the pool store (who snubbed me last year...not fans of donut pools)

Surely if people can manage in-ground pools no problem, this tiny pool I have shouldn't be so difficult. If I would have known a $400.00 pool would have cost over $500.00 a year to maintain I would have bought the kids a slip-n-slide.

I read a lot of threads on here before posting this trying to find all of the info I need on my own, but most of you have "real" pools and while I've gathered some scattered tips I was hoping I could get some more help geared towards my pool. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I really don't want to throw the pool in the trash (I have 3 boys in Florida heat that begged me for this pool) but I have drained and re-filled about 6 times in the last 18 or so months, I run the filter pump 24/7, and the chemical costs are insane...and that's even with the grocery store chemical tips I found on this website.

Thanks in advance : )

~Cammie

[tundraSQ]

well the "good' thing is with a small pool its easy to make corrections...and if you mess up you can dump and refill in a day . Also don't forget YOU have a real pol too...its the same water as everyone else. My neighbor has a larger version of yours and she is always struggling with the same thing. I don't think she can get enough movement of herwater with the pump she has...plus like you she is adding things to the water that she really doesn't know what thet are. i would suggest going back to basics with this pool....BBB and NOTHING else. And invest in a good test kit...and I promise you will be spending less than 10 bucks a month and have sparkling water.

[aylad]

Go to WalMart, buy the $15 hth 5-way test kit, and run a complete set of tests on your water. Come back here and post your results for TC, pH, TA, and CYA. From there, I promise we can get you headed in the right direction!

Oh,..the stabilizer you're looking for at WalMart is labelled 'balancer" or "conditioner" for spas........but look at the ingredient list, and you should see cyanuric acid (or isocyanuric acid) as the active ingredient. That's the stuff..

Janet

[Cammie895]

Thanks. I'm trying to find directions to that kit online but I'm not having much luck. I bought that kit and all of the bottles are full, and I lost the sheet that tells me how many drops of each thing I need to test it. I guess I'll have to break down and buy a new kit.

As far as going back to basics, I only use chlorine, baking soda, and borax for maintenence, and then an algaecide when it turns colors on me. I've tried to use just extra chlorine to kill the algae but it doesn't work. My water bill was $70.00 last month and $225.00 this month. If I have to drain it again it's going to be so I can roll it to the road, lol.

[mwsmith2]

well the "good' thing is with a small pool its easy to make corrections...

Correct. The other thing to remember is a little goes a long way in a smaller body of water. In a 20K/gal pool, one jug of bleach gives you 2 ppm. In her pool, that gives you 8.2 ppm -- a BIG difference. That's what most likely made the white liner. No worries though, a full set of numbers and you'll be well on your way.

Michael

[CarlD]

Cammie:
If you check the "Best Guess" table you will see that the donut company's numbers are nonsense. If your CYA (Stabilizer) is 30-50ppm you MUST maintain your chlorine levels at the minimum at 3ppm, not 2ppm.

For 3 years I had a donut that held less than 4000 gallons and learned on it. Once I committed to following the PoolForum.com and PoolSolutions.com guidelines, my water problems disappeared. You have a real pool--everything works the way it does on a big pool, you just adjust your amounts to fit your volume. Been there, done that.

You cannot serve two masters. You must either follow the guidelines we lay out, or the ones the pool stores and the manufactuer laid out. You cannot mix and match. We have hard evidence that ours work.

Go to the top of this forum and to the testing form and read the sticky'ed threads. Go to the Alkalinity forum too.

Then go to PoolSolutions.com and read ALL the tips Ben has there.

Finally, get a full set of numbers on YOUR pool and we can tell you what to do to end your problems and keep them from coming back. If you have to have a pool store test it, so be it.

Come back with:
FC
CC
TC
pH
Tot Alk
CYA
Calcium Hardness

(you don't need calcium, but if the level is too high other problems result).

[tundraSQ]

Thanks. I'm trying to find directions to that kit online but I'm not having much luck. I bought that kit and all of the bottles are full, and I lost the sheet that tells me how many drops of each thing I need to test it. I guess I'll have to break down and buy a new kit.

As far as going back to basics, I only use chlorine, baking soda, and borax for maintenence, and then an algaecide when it turns colors on me. I've tried to use just extra chlorine to kill the algae but it doesn't work. My water bill was $70.00 last month and $225.00 this month. If I have to drain it again it's going to be so I can roll it to the road, lol.

you say that you are using the basics...but yet in your first post you say this:

tend to this pool daily and follow all of the instructions that came with the pool. I use Borax, baking soda, and walmart's 1" stabilized tablets and shock. I did try bleach when I first got it and I bleached the whole liner from bright blue to white...oops.


I would not use the tablets as your major souce of chlorine...and I would not use the "shock" from walmart either....just use clorox for both...and like car said...follow the "poolsolutions" way or the pool companyies way..but don't mix and match...I have a 25000 gallon pool and I spend about 24 bucks a month now...95% clorox 5% triclor when I see my PH climb. Go back to using the clorox...but know how much you are adding, and what your levels are and you will never harm your liner.

good luck..I know you can have a blue pool again (albeit with a white liner)

[Cammie895]

sorry, I thought he was referring to the clarifier and all the other specialty products they sell. I guess I figured that prettymuch all chlorine is the same. I'm all for doing it the poolsolutions way (people tend to be more honest when they aren't trying to get ya to use their chemicals).
I guess I just got a bit scared of the bleach for my kind of pool because I only ever add about 5-6 cups at a time and my liner still turned white and feels a bit rough now when we walk on it - I was worried it might be corroding it (I'm sure that could have been caused by something else but I have no clue what). Thank you all so much for your help. Tomorrow I will get another test kit and pick up some bleach.

[day1]

In testing with the walmart 5 way kit, use 5 drops of oto and pH in the sample
and then cap and turn over. For cya test, fill big to 7ml mark, then cya reagent to the 14ml mark. Slowly transfer cloudy solution to cya view tube until black dot disappears on bottom. Read side of tube to get CYA ppm.
Alk test...fill bottle to 25ml, then add 5 drops alk indicator and swirl>should turn green or bluish. Add alk titrant drop by drop and swirl. Keep adding and swirling until it turns red, then multiply each drop by 10 for total ppm. Same exact test for total hardness, I've never done that test though since I have a liner pool. My pH stays ~7.4-8.0 which is alittle high, but safe. Remember, adding bleach will raise pH. I use muratic acid to lower pH.
For cloudiness, I use clarifier, run pump and vac next day. Works great.

[Cammie895]

Hello again : )

I tested my pool with the Walmart kit. My results were:

FC 5+
CC ?
TC 5+
pH 7.6
Tot Alk 170
CYA 50
Calcium Hardness 0

I say 5+ on the chlorine readings because the kit only goes to 5 ppm but the results with the OTO were a very dark yellow and have been there for over 2 days now. It could be at exactly 5 ppm and staying there, or it could be somewhere over 5 ppm and just hasn't dropped under it yet. We even got a good rain yesterday thanks to Alberto and the FC & TC still read as high as the tester goes. This makes me onder how I shock the pool if the tester only goes to 5.

I can finally see the bottom of my pool again. The problem is I can see that the pool bottom is still covered with yellow algae. I've been stirring it up so the filter can get it, then it settles agin, then I repeat. I used a lot of copper algaecide about 5 or 6 days ago. When the water is clear like it is now I go in with the vacuum to get the nasty stuff off of the bottom and I can see yellow water shooting back in the pool from the filter. I'm wondering if the filter just isn't good enough to get it out. The algaecide said it has a clarifier in it that is supposed to make the tiny particles bigger so they will stick in the filter. I don't think that is working very well.

Can someone please tell me what to do from here? Thanks again.