Help me please!

[Corrinna]

I have a 17,200 gal AG pool and am soooooo confused about balancing my water. My water will not clear up. My last bout began a week ago when I had a beautiful algae bloom!!! Opague green water is not very inviting!! Went to the pool store. Did what they told me to do with the exception of the algaecide......their steps included adding 7 lbs of shock, flocculant-let sit overnight, vacuum to waste and another 3 bags of shock. Did this Saturday evening/Sunday. Water changed to cloudy but transparent with a tinge of green. Took another water sample to same pool store was told to add another 7 bags of shock/algaecide and 3 bags of shock. Purchased 12 bags of their shock this time (BioGuard Burn Out 35=29% lithium hypochlorite) and a bottle of algaecide (copper stuff?) for $115, freaked out...came home and found this site and read until 12:30AM!!!! Wobbled a bit, chose to try the BBB method. Poured 6 bottles of GV Walmart plain bleach in my pool Tuesday night.....test strip showed no TC the next morning. Went ahead and used the BurnOut35 (10 lbs) Wednesday evening. Purchase a 4-way test kit yesterday. Tested last night and this morning. My reading this morning was
PH 7.6;CL 3.0 (maybe higher-test only reads this high and water is very yellow!) Alk is 180. While figuring how much muriatic acid I'd need to use to bring down the Alk I went ahead and used an AquaChem dipstick just to see what it would say and it says PH 8.4; TC 3; FC 0-1; CYA 100. On the 4 way/2-way test kits when you test for chlorine is it TC/CC or FC? I thought it was available cholorine which would translate to FC. Why would the drop test (OTO is brand new) show high chlorine and the dip test show no FC?
Every time I think I'm making headway I get confused again and I DON'T want to go back to the pool store!!!!!! My pool is still pretty cloudy although not green. Any advice would be welcome at this point!!!! Thanks!

[aylad]

Okay, the first step is to step back, take a deep breath, and make a resolution to stop dumping stuff into the pool hoping it'll help.

Forget the test strips, and go with your drop-based kit. I would also return any unused bags of lithium hypochlorite, since it's one of the most expensive forms of chlorine and won't do anything that plain old bleach won't do. Also return the copper-based algaecide, it won't help, and it will cause problems. While you're there, take a water sample in and ask them to test for CYA, because you need a fairly close idea of your CYA level in order to clear up the pool. Do NOT buy anything else from them at this time, unless they have a good, drop-based kit on sale. If so, buy that. Otherwise, skip it.

To measure higher chlorine levels than 3, you can take one part of your pool water and mix thoroughly with one part distilled water. take your test sample from that, read your result, and multiply by 2 to get your true reading. If it's still more yellow than the 3, then use one part pool water with two parts distilled, mix, test, read, multiply results by 3. You lose a little accuracy with each dilution, but it'll be good enough for now to get your pool cleared up.

Once you've determined the correct CYA level, then you need to use plain, unscented bleach to raise your Cl up to shock level.

Ben's 'best guess' FC/Stabilizer table for algae free operation of OUTDOOR pools
-- as of July 2003 --

Stabilizer . . . . . . Min. FC . . . . Max FC . . . 'Shock' FC
=> 0 ppm . . . . . . . 1 ppm . . . . . 3 ppm . . . . 10 ppm
=> 10 - 20 ppm . . . . 2 ppm . . . . . 5 ppm . . . . 12 ppm
=> 30 - 50 ppm . . . . 3 ppm . . . . . 6 ppm . . . . 15 ppm
=> 60 - 90 ppm . . . . 5 ppm . . . . . 10 ppm . . .. 20 ppm
=> 100 - 200 ppm . . . 8 ppm . . . . . 15 ppm . . .. 25 ppm

So if your CYA really is 100, then you'd shock to 25. There is a bleach calculator here http://home.earthlink.net/~mwsmith70...achCalc262.exe
that will help you determine how much bleach to put in it, based on your pool size. Once you get your Cl to shock level, you need to keep it there by testing and adding more to get back up to shock level at least 2-3 times a day--the more you test and re-add, the faster it will clear. During this time, keep your pump running 24/7, and brush the pool daily. Do not let the cl level yo-yo up and down, it will take forever to clear it that way.

In the meantime, I would take the money you get back from the pool store and order Ben's kit sold on this site--it will test accurately for everything you'll need, and is well worth the money.

Janet

[Corrinna]

Janet,
Thanks for your input. I only have 2 bags of shock from the pool store left and I used the Algaecide last week as well. I'm finished with them!!! (as far as dumping anything more in my pool based on their findings) I cannot afford to purchase one of the test kits you mention right now. But I did purchase the 4-way kit just last week so that is brand new and I read somewhere on here that that was a good choice (better than the test strips). I will try the dilution thing to get a better feel for the real chlorine level in my pool and go load up on bottles of bleach and also go get another reading on my CYA level. Thank you. I will check back later this evening

[Corrinna]

Ok here I am again. Went to two pool stores yesterday with samples of my water. Incredible......both differed from one another and also from my own tests. I am SOOO confused. I understand most of what I read here but if you don't know which test results to go by you don't really have a starting point. The first pool place analizes water with computer based system although I did see her manually enter the CYA value so she must of tested that manually. The second place analizes all of their readings manually with drops. Here are the readings:
CYA 100.............40
TC 1.7................3.0
FC 0.5................0.4
PH 7.4................7.5
TA 180...............160
Adj TA 150..........not done
(first column first store, second column second store)



Thanks again for any comments.
Corrinna

[Corrinna]

Okay here I am again. For the past 2 days I've been monitoring and shocking my pool to get it clear. As posted in my previous post one pool store said I had a CYA of 100 while the other store said my CYA was 40 (both water samples were taken at the same time and were tested within 20 minutes of each other). I decided to use the higher reading in order to determine how much bleach to add to shock. I shocked beginning on Wednesday night, Chl level was still at 25ppm the following morning and did not show a drop until mid to late afternoon, added enough to raise level to 25ppm again last night, reading this morning and at 2pm today remained at 25ppm. Reading now is approx 16ppm. Will add more to raise to 25ppm again and hopefully water will continue to clear....it does look clearer-I think! Will have my water tested at the pool store tomorrow to get a new CYA reading. It seems my chlorine level isn't dropping very quickly since it doesn't drop over night....it's taking approx 18 to 20 hrs to show a drop. Is that significant? Do I keep shocking until water becomes crystal clear?

[CarlD]

20 hours to drop is good.

Now, are you running your filter 24/7, vacuuming to waste everyday, and brushing the pool everyday? You should be.

If the CYA of 100 is right, then the shock level of 25 is right. If the CYA level is 40, you may well bleach your liner. This is why it's best to test yourself and rely on your tests. Ben's kit, the Taylor 2006 or the Leslies FAS-DPD Chlorine Service Test kit are the best ways to be sure. They are all basically equivalent, but I won't go into why I think Ben's kit is the best--all 3 are better than everything else out there. But some WalMarts have a 5-way drop test kit that uses OTO to measure TC up to 5, measures pH, T/A, CYA and hardess, all for less than 15 smackeroos--a bargain.