Newbies need help

[JJParrish]

We need help. I have been to the sister site and read....kinda understand. You folks seem to know EVERYTHING! Well, here goes: We bought a house w/ an IG Gunite appx.17,000 gal, appx 14 years old. We have NEVER had pool experience before! The pool became a green slime pit before our eyes. Mar, Apr & May. (family illness kept us from cleaning earlier) While waiting for man to come repair pump, we raked and skimmed as much as we could each day..several hours. (we're getting older, heading for 60) Man repaired pump, but pump had to be backwashed about every hour to hour & half. Very slow going. Next, we had tech replace sand in pump (Hayward 240 also appx 14 yrs old) & had them add a pressure gage. Things really started to improve then. The pool tech said that the sand they removed was actually play sand and not the real stuff that they put in. Have no idea what damage this could or would have done, if any. But, we have dipped, skimmed, BLEACHED, ran pump, brushed and vacuumed. The pool is now clean except for some stains (brownish) on the bottom and still slightly green water. We got a 6-way kit from WallyWorld and practiced. Today I took water sample to pool store and, sure enough, it was just as I had read. A three page printout shows that we need almost $150 worth of 'stuff'...and, they used the strips...and that is just to get the water ready for their weekly sale/purchase to maintain. Nope, didn't buy anything. I tested w/our 6-way drop kit and actually re-tested Tot Alk & Hardness because of the difference. I think our test #'s are closest to correct and what I will post here. FC .5, CC 0, Bro .5, PH 7.5, Tot Alk 120, Hardness 100, Stab/CYA 0, Copper 0, Color light green. The only things WE have put in the pool is bleach and 20 Mule Team Borax. We know we need to add Stab/CYA, but we have no idea how much and, what do we do first? If no response, we will add more bleach tonight, appx 6 - 3/4 gal jugs. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanking you in advance, Joyce

[aylad]

Congratulations!! So far you're doing a wonderful job of getting your pool back, and you did a great job of not getting "pool stored"!

To finish clearing up the green, you need to get your Chlorine up to around 12-15 ppm...here's the link to the bleach calculator a lot of the forum members use to calculate how much you need to add. (Developed by mwsmith, one of the forum members)

http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe


Try your best to keep it up around 15, and the green should clear soon, if it's not a metals stain. Second, you shouldn't have any bromine in the pool unless you've added it, so ignore that side of the scale. Your pH is fine, Alk is fine. For a gunite pool, I believe your Calcium hardness needs to come up to 200-400 range, which you could accomplish by using cal-hypo to shock with, instead of bleach.

Stabilizer is also labelled as balancer and conditioner. It is available at WalMart in the pool section, as well as Home Depot or Lowe's. The ingredient you're looking for is cyanuric acid or isocyanuric acid. The label will have directions for doseage based on pool gallonage. Shoot for about 20 ppm, but don't broadcast it in the pool like the directions say. Instead, add it through your skimmer, but then don't backwash or re-test for 4-6 days, because it takes a very LONG time for it to dissolve, and you don't want to overshoot it because lowering CYA is a pain. Alternatively, you can put it in a tube sock and put it in the skimmer or tie it in front of a return stream and that will help dissolve it, too.

You're on the right track, welcome to the forum!

Janet

[JJParrish]

Janet, thank you so much for your help. Here goes again:
1. When you say get the chlorine up to around 12-15ppm do you mean to try to keep it there 24hrs a day? We don't feel comfortable running the filter at night.
2. We have been shocking (thinking we are getting to about 15ppm) in the late evening and running the filter a couple of hours (treating as 18,000 gals est using 4.5 gals of 6% bleach??) Did this two nights in a row and remarkable difference. Will do again tonight. But, tomorrow I will get some Cal-hypo to use for shocking. How much of this do we need to buy? Does it come in little bags or buckets? How much?
3.We bought a 3lb bottle of the CYA/Stab from WalMart and, after reading your site, we are really nervous making sure not to add tooooooo much! I think I like your idea of the tube sock in the skimmer, will talk to hubby. How do we "shoot for 20 ppm?"
4. Hubby thinks our pool looks like it has a slight bluish tint now. White plaster w/stains and blue tile trim. All back yards on all sides have lots of tall trees, but ours does not. Some green reflection? I am a little color-blind, but it still looks greenish to me...esp in the deep end. What would bluish mean?
5. How will we know when the pool is safe for swimmers? (sorry, I know, dumb question alert)
We are so happy to find this site and trying to learn the BBB method. Thank you so much for all your help. Joyce
Again, thank you and the folks on this site.

[aylad]

Janet, thank you so much for your help. Here goes again:
1. When you say get the chlorine up to around 12-15ppm do you mean to try to keep it there 24hrs a day? We don't feel comfortable running the filter at night.

You don't necessarily have to run the filter at night, but the more you run it, the faster your pool is going to clear up. At a minimum, I would bring the Cl up to 15 at dusk and run the filter for an hour or so before shutting it off for the night, then turn it back on early in the morning and add Cl to go back up to 15. Keep in mind that once the algae is dead, the filter is what will remove it, so the more it runs, the faster your water clears.


2. We have been shocking (thinking we are getting to about 15ppm) in the late evening and running the filter a couple of hours (treating as 18,000 gals est using 4.5 gals of 6% bleach??) Did this two nights in a row and remarkable difference. Will do again tonight. But, tomorrow I will get some Cal-hypo to use for shocking. How much of this do we need to buy? Does it come in little bags or buckets? How much?

Cal-hypo is the main ingredient in most of the pre-packaged shock treatments (look at the ingredient label), and comes in all forms from small packages to big buckets. There is a small (maybe 4#?) bucket they sell at my WalMart which should be enough--once your Ca gets into the 200-400 range, you'll need to switch back to bleach.

3.We bought a 3lb bottle of the CYA/Stab from WalMart and, after reading your site, we are really nervous making sure not to add tooooooo much! I think I like your idea of the tube sock in the skimmer, will talk to hubby. How do we "shoot for 20 ppm?"

The label should tell you how much to add to get to 20, 40, 60, etc. ppm--
add what the chart says will get you to the 20-30 range. You can always add more later if you need to.

4. Hubby thinks our pool looks like it has a slight bluish tint now. White plaster w/stains and blue tile trim. All back yards on all sides have lots of tall trees, but ours does not. Some green reflection? I am a little color-blind, but it still looks greenish to me...esp in the deep end. What would bluish mean?

Bluish means your water is clearing up and you're on your way to a blue, clear pool!

5. How will we know when the pool is safe for swimmers? (sorry, I know, dumb question alert)

Generally, once your Cl has come down from the shock level (with a CYA of 0, that would be less than 5), and you have no CC, and your pH is in line, (which yours is), your pool is fine for swimming.

We are so happy to find this site and trying to learn the BBB method.

We're glad you found the site--keeping a crystal clear pool is very easy and inexpensive once you get a handle on the water chemistry!

[JJParrish]

Janet,
YOUR information has made my day! Thank you! Blue means on the way! YEA! Will keep you posted with numbers. Again, THANK YOU and all those who contribute to this forum. I believe I'll try to find that swimsuit now. Thanks, Joyce

[Watermom]

You folks seem to know EVERYTHING!

Well, - no we don't, but we will sure try and help anybody who needs it. Actually, come to think of it, with the "collective brain" that this forum has, 'we' probably do know everything!!

Just kidding - but, we do know how to get pools clear! Welcome to the forum!

[JJParrish]

Thanks for the comment, Watermom, and we really do appreciate all the info here. Janet came to our rescue today and we are so glad. I'm going to bed now and hope that our pool is a little 'bluer' tomorrow!! (HEEHEE) Will post new no's and ask for more help!! again, thanks to all of you, later, ......Joyce

[JJParrish]

Okay folks, here goes again:
1. Our Walmart did not have the cal-hypo, so we used bleach again last night to shock.

2. Added appx 2.5 lbs of CYA yesterday around noon. The instructions on the bottle were vague, so we shot for low. (Since the pool store said we needed 5 lbs of theirs, we figured half would be closer.)

3. When testing the cl this morn, how do we figure how much to add to get back to 15ppm when the kit only goes to 5ppm? We definitely got more than 5 ppm cl this am!

4. Is Ben's kit ready to ship? I am assuming it will register to 15ppm?

5. If we cannot find the cal-hypo, can we continue w/bleach and use some hardness increaser from Walmart? Saw a bottle yesterday, but did not buy.

6. We have lots of staining on the pool floor, esp at the deep end. The pool store said they had something to remove it, after the water clears. But, the stains may alter the perception of the color? It is DEFINITELY getting bluer and clearer. What is the 'color' supposed to look like? Clear or blue?

Thanks again for all your help. Joyce

[CarlD]

Okay folks, here goes again:
1. Our Walmart did not have the cal-hypo, so we used bleach again last night to shock.

You can ALWAYS use bleach for chlorine. It has no side effects unlike all the other chlorination methods.

2. Added appx 2.5 lbs of CYA yesterday around noon. The instructions on the bottle were vague, so we shot for low. (Since the pool store said we needed 5 lbs of theirs, we figured half would be closer.)

That's my method. Now wait a week to test it.

3. When testing the cl this morn, how do we figure how much to add to get back to 15ppm when the kit only goes to 5ppm? We definitely got more than 5 ppm cl this am!

For the CL test, you can dilute with steam distilled water (at all the discount drug chains). If you dilute pool water 1:1 with distilled, you double the range now to 10ppm. 1:2 and you triple it. Search for the CarlD Shot Glass Method!

4. Is Ben's kit ready to ship? I am assuming it will register to 15ppm?

Ben has to answer shipping questions. It will register at least to 50ppm of FC (Free Chlorine), and 50ppm of CC (Combined Chloramines). Your kit measures TC (Total Chlorine) and TC = FC + CC. I THINK it actually goes to 100ppm, but I know it goes to 50 at least.

5. If we cannot find the cal-hypo, can we continue w/bleach and use some hardness increaser from Walmart? Saw a bottle yesterday, but did not buy.

Yup. Just as good if not better.

6. We have lots of staining on the pool floor, esp at the deep end. The pool store said they had something to remove it, after the water clears. But, the stains may alter the perception of the color? It is DEFINITELY getting bluer and clearer. What is the 'color' supposed to look like? Clear or blue?

Sorry, I'm not the expert on stains. All I know is you can try rubbing ascorbic acid on them.

Thanks again for all your help. Joyce

Good luck!

[JJParrish]

Thanks CarlD,
Will do shot glass as soon as we get the water & will pick up the water hardness stuff. Yep, got the shot glasses.

1. Are pools supposed to look greenish from a distance above? Ours looks greenish from the house & deck, about 8' above pool-level. But, at pool-level pretty clear, mostly clear w/bluish tint w/slight greenish tint in deep end.

2. Is there a test for algae?

3. What is the final color supposed to be? Bluish or clear? (We have learned that green is BAD)

... (just saw Mel Gibson & bad guy go out 7th floor window into pool that looked green.....this made me question the color thing)

Again, thanks so much for all your (yall's) help. It's really hot in South Carolina and we sure do wanna' jump in! Thanks, Joyce