Green pool with clogged sand filter after 2 weeks out of town

[jtran69]

Sorry about writing on http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...w-filter/page2

Pump is working normal again after more backwash and rinse. Water looked much better then Sunday's night as in less green. Here's the brief history.

Sunday night: Added 1 gallon of bleach, 4 cups of dichloro out of panic since pump was not working properly.
Monday night: added 1/2 gallon of bleach and scrubbed the pool.
Tuesday night: added 1 gallon of bleach, cleaned the sand filter and pump began to work.
Tonight: plan to figure out how to disable the copper block or remove it and follow up with the expert advise.

Here's my measurement this morning, Wednesday.
FC=0.5ppm
CC=0.20ppm
PH<7.0 so I added 22 drops of R006 for the color to match 7.0
TA=30ppm
CA>100ppm

[jtran69]

I can see the bottom of the pool now since the water is not as cloudy and most of the green algaes are gone.
Adding to my log for Wed night, I added a gallon of bleach and 4 cups of borax.

Please advise on the best way to have balance water.

[CarlD]

Why would you add R-0006 to the pH test? If you did the test correctly and your pH was below 7.0, adding Borax was the correct step.
Did you run the CYA/Stabilizer step? I assume by CA you mean Calcium Hardness, not Stabilizer, but if it is stabilizer, then you should ONLY use bleach in your pool, and use enough to raise your FC to 25ppm. If it is the Calcium measure then you need the CYA measure so we can determine the level of shocking you need. In the meantime, you should add at least 154 ounces of 8.25% bleach and get your FC up to at least 12ppm, and keep adding bleach to keep it there, assuming you have little or no CYA.

If the "HTH 6-way stick" is a chlorine tablet, stop using it. Use only bleach. If it's test strips, stop using them, too.

Need that CYA number and a good, current pH measure.

[jtran69]

Wednesday night, I added 128 oz of bleach.

Here's my pool chem number for this morning.
FC=3.0
CC=0.5
PH<7
TA=40
CH=220
CYA>>100

Then I added 3 cups of Borax which I need to buy more afterwork.

Tonight, I plan to add 154 ounces of bleach follow more of your expert advises.

[CarlD]

OK. You are going to need to double that amount and get your FC to 25ppm, and keep it there, now that I know that CYA > 100. Don't worry about TA or CH, but get your pH up over 7, first.

[jtran69]

Is 5 cups of borax every night til pH=>7?

[FormerBromineUser]

If you have time, you can slowly add the borax to skimmer, wait around 2 hours, and then retest PH. Add more borax as needed. You need to get that pH above 7 as soon as you can.

[jtran69]

Thursday night I added 2 gallons of bleach and 1 box of borax; PH was not quite 7.0 but more likely 6.9.
Then I added 4 more cups of borax.

Friday 11am, PH=7.2, FC=10.5.
Then I added 3 cups of borax and went to work.
Water is looking better now but seeing some black/gray dirt on the bottom -- another round of vac should remove them.

Friday night plan, please advise.

[FormerBromineUser]

Get your FC up to 25 ppm tonight. Retest 1 hour later to make sure you hit that target. If not, add more bleach. If you have time over the weekend, maintain FC at 25 by testing and adding bleach at least 3 times per day. Some people only recommend 3x/day but I think a 4th would only help if you have time. And no more Di-Chlor panicking!

[jtran69]

At 8pm, pH=7.6. I added 2 gallons of bleach.
At 9:30pm, FC=18. I added 1 gallon of bleach.
At 11:30pm, FC=25. Yes yes yes!