Changed plans

[PFPAM]

We were going to do some changes to pool this spring, moving skimmer and replacing liner thinking the old one leaked....found that not to be true so just got around to opening pool 3 days ago. It was horrendous shade of green, added 2 gallon sanitizer, 12 bags of shock, 3 gallon regular bleach and 2 lb. stabilizer over past 3 days...it is now a grayish color. Took water sample to pool store today and they told me chemicals were all in range, no metals found. I have been running our Turbo Turtle and pulling bag after bag of leaves out of pool, I know there are a ton left in there, as we didn't cover pool in the fall. I guess my question(s) is this, with leaves in pool, will water clear enough that I can see what I am dealing with, I have even thought of going in water with manual leaf bag and dragging the bottom, have difficult time doing this from the side as I am a major weakling. Will keep adding shock and bleach daily, put in floater with 3 pellets tonight. Have drop kit and test strips, neither agreed with pool store readings, drop kit said to add stabilizer, they said don't. Any help would be appreciated, would hate to have drain pool. I have also been using filter cleaner and back washing 3-4 per day.

[rmeden]

why not use a leaf rake on the end of a long pole? You can get a feel for where the net is by where the pole is pointing.

Empty the net each pass until it comes back clean!

BTW.. there are two types of leave rakes, 0 degree and 90 degree from the pole. You'll have to see what works for you.. personally I usually use the 0 degree, but the 90 works better in the shallow areas.

Robert

[CarlD]

He forgot to tell you that a "leaf rake" isn't a leaf rake!

DO NOT USE A GARDEN TOOL IN YOUR POOL!!!!!!!!!

A "leaf rake" is a special kind of skimmer with a butterfly-net bag and a squeegee edge. You can pull out TONS of stuff with it.

BTW, what is "Sanitizer"? What chemical did you use that they labled shock? (there is no such thing--"Shock" is a verb, not a noun--pool store try to confuse you....)
Are you aware that ALL you needed to add was bleach, lots of it, and that you could buy an AWFUL LOT of bleach for what they soaked you for all that junk?

I don't mean to be hard on you but I want to spit when some decent person like you gets "Pool Stored" into wasting far more money (and confusion ) than they need to.

You need chlorine. That's your sanitizer, your shock and your bleach, and you get it ALL from bleach. You DO need stabilizer--probably. That organic mass in your pool probably consumed the stabilizer--CYA from here on in. About the ONLY way to get CYA out of your pool is by replacing water--or the swamp method.

CYA will help your chlorine last longer, but it makes it less effective while it does it--so there's a balancing act to try to get CYA to between 30 and 50ppm.

You will need to keep your chlorine very, very high to clear your water. When we get a CYA level we can tell you how high. You will need to check it 3x a day and add bleach as needed to get it back to that level. You'll need some elbow grease to get that junk out of the pool, and you'll need to vacuum the muck to waste every day, and brush everyday too when the junk is gone.

You will need lots and lots of bleach and even more P.O.P.P--that's Pool Owner Patience & Persistence!

[PFPAM]

Thanx for help, but don't spit too hard.....walked in to pool store with bag of pool water and walked out empty handed....boyfriend works for pool company, get all chemicals really cheap....they tried to sell me shock and algicide, no sale, thank you very much, have a nice day. When I say shock, catch all for those cute little 1# bags of chlorine, Ca hypochlorite, sanitizer is a Na hypochlorite, liquid, much like regular bleach, only stronger. I am probably being somewhat impatient, have only been running pool 3 days. Have had to turn pump off at night so skimmer doesn't fill with leaves, putting too much work on pump. I had to laugh when you said about the leaf rake....have the oversized leaf net, knew what Robert was talking about. Leaves are so dirty, think most important thing is to just keep working at getting them out, then get chemical in balance, and keep adding bleach. Love this forum, really good advice and great people, thanx for quick responses.

[CarlD]

Ah.....I'll bet THAT's why it turned gray--all that cal-hypo at once...It CAN do that...So "sanitizer" is what? 12.5% Sodium Hypochlorite? One gallon then is about equal to 2 gallons of regular bleach (But that's on 5.25% you say and double is 10.5%...) Yup. Odds are the 12.5% has degraded--it does that a lightning speed at higher concentrations and if it costs more than 2 gallons of regular, don't waste your money. In my part of the country, reg. bleach is about $1.70-$1.80/gallon. But "Sanitizer" (they call it "Liquid Shock" here but it's the same stuff) is $3.99/gallon. So, unless you MUST have fewer jugs, it wll cost you between $.20 and $.30/gallon more to use the "sanitizer".

I don't see the point. Even 6% bleach is cheaper on an ounce by ounce basis.

Just use two gallons of bleach where you would have used one of the fancy stuff.

[PFPAM]

thanx again for reply....with bf getting chemicals at his price, not sure which is cheaper, but if higher percent is breaking down faster, will switch to regular bleach. would just love to see bottom to see what I am dealing with, leaves or a dead animal, willing to go into pool to clean better if just leaves, don't want to share the pool with Rocky, the dead flying squirrel.

[CallMeIshmael]

Welcome PFPAM,
FWIW, I found this forum when we faced a totally green pool opening this year. I came across a whole lot of problems due to the various additives of commercial pool chemicals, as have plenty of owners here. Just my .02 I wouldn't use several of the products I used even if they were free! The idea behind using bleach, and the other household chems encouraged here, isn't just to save cash. It's that they work in the pool with much fewer "side-effects". You can easily monitor what's going on & act/ add accordingly. In my case, I'd already added too much stabilizer/ clarifier/ shock packets by the time I found this site, but within 3 days, the calculated bleach additions got both the algae & the cloudiness out & its been crystal-clear since. Trust the seasoned folks here & you really will see as quick as possible as turnaround of your pool.
PS- I hope you don't run into Rocky, Bullwinkle or any other ex-pests in the deep end-LOL! Good luck!