Drained, Refilled and BBB - what a difference!

[champe01]

Last Saturday, after a couple of weeks of visiting poolsolutions.com and reading these forums, I decided to drain and refill my 32' x 15' in-ground plaster pool and start using the BBB method. The pool is at least 20 years old, and I had been having some success managing it using pool store methods and common sense for several years.

But this year it got to be too much to manage - many algae blooms, shock, shock, shock, more blooms, ad-infinitum. The Deluxe DPD Test Kit I bought at the pool store was able to tell me nothing about what the problem was. I had a pack of test strips that I bought there at the beginning of this summer, and it showed the CYA between 150 and 300 and the Alkalinity between 180 and 240. I also knew from a previous pool store test that my Calcium Hardness was way above 400.

So I knew what I had to do. First, I ordered a Taylor K2006 FAS-DPD test kit and one of Ben's PS234 kits. It took about 7 hours to drain the pool on Saturday using a 2" 3000 GPH submersible pump I rented for $50 for the day. I had just schocked it and swept and vacuumed like crazy to get the algae out so by the time it was empty the walls looked clean (although it will need a re-plaster job soon). By the way, I live in an area that does not have a high water table, isn't near any creeks, and hasn't rained in a few months, so I was pretty sure my pool wouldn't pop out of the ground. I had fun teasing my teenage kids about it, though...

It took 36 hours to refill it (it's about 21k gallons) using a garden hose and the water inlet plumbed into the side of the pool. Of course the water looked nice as soon as it started to fill up. When it was full, I backwashed the DE filter, and added enough bleach to get the chlorine level up to 3 ppm and have been keeping it there. We started swimming in it right away. Haven't had a CC reading above 0 yet!

I also started adding 8 lbs of Cyanuric Acid (I'll write another post about my frustrating experience with this). My pH was around 7.2, so I added Borax to bring it up to 7.4. I'm using Bleachcalc, of course and cross-checking it against the great little booklet in the Taylor Test Kit.

My alkalinity was right in range from the start, 100 ppm. But I had about 80 ppm Calcium Hardness. So after I got the CYA up to 20-30, I added 25 lbs. of Hardness Plus from the pool store to get that level up. I'll test it this afternoon and probably find out what the "Plus" means.

Well, of course, a week later the water looks great and my water is almost balanced and definitely sanitized, but the only thing I had to buy from the pool store this time was the Cyanuric Acid and the Hardness Plus. I've gone through six 1.42 gallon jugs of 6% bleach (mostly because my CYA isn't up to par yet) and 3 lbs. of Borax, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I know what I'm doing maintaining a swimming pool (at least the everyday stuff).

My family's happy, I'm happy, and the pool store people don't know about it yet, but I'm sure they'll be happy when I tell them about all the money I'm going to save. I can see the smiles on their faces right now!

The bottom line is that I couldn't have done this 3 weeks ago. Until I discovered this forum and poolsolutions.com, I didn't have a clue how to resolve my algae problems, and I'm sure that going to the pool store would have made things worse.

I'm so grateful to Ben and the people on this forum who have contributed so much time and effort to helping total strangers understand pool maintenance and get their pool problems under control. My hat is off to everybody who has told their stories and helped each other through "pool crises". Jeez, I can almost hear the national anthem playing in the background. I'd better put a plug in it for now. I'm off to do my daily test. Thanks a lot, guys and gals!

[duraleigh]

Congratulations! There are not too many folks who are willing to filter thru all the info here and have the kind of success (and understanding) that you have. All without a single question.....nice work.

[gonefishin]

What a great story! thanks for sharing

dan

[poolrx]

This is one of the best stories I have heard! This site is very informative and you took the time to read and learn. That is the key to sucess Keep testing every day or two and you will actually enjoy taking care of your pool

[waste]

DING!!

Sounds like we've gotten another convert!
Congratulations Champe and a warm welcome to the forum!! Hope you have nothing but fun and crystal clear water in your pool! As you apparently know how to navigate the site, I'll just say: feel free to ask of us if ever you need any help with your pool. Happy swimming! - Waste