Re: FAQ: Common Spring Startup Errors

[vanhout]

Thanks for the reply.

I've now put more than 60 gallons of Clorox into my 36,000 gallon pool in the last 10 days. The pool has gone from mildly green to very cloudy. It's only gotten slightly less cloudy in the last day or two. I haven't had the FC less than 10 in the whole 10 day period, and I've had it as high as 30. It eats 8 - 10 ppm a night. The sand filter's been running 24/7.

I just added some chlorine earlier tonite, so my FC is up around 22.

I tested the TA and got 150, but it turned clear, not red, so I don't know if it's accurate or not, maybe the FC being high impacts it.

My ph is running about 7.0, again, I don't know if the high chlorine impacts that.

I'll retest everything tomorrow when the FC comes down. It'll be 10 by tomorrow afternoon.

I'm questioning myself as to whether I should keep putting so much chlorine in. What do you think?

[Watermom]

How about an update on water testing results and how your water looks. Any improvement?

Watermom

[vanhout]

Thanks.

Still cloudy.

My water results now are:

FC 11
CC .5
PH 7.2
TA 140
CH 350 ? sample never turned blue, went clear at about 350
CYA 50
VOL 36,000 gal

I added another 2.5 lbs of Borax a couple of hours ago, but it didn't really move the needle on PH. I'll check it again in the morning and if it's still down I'll add another couple of pounds, trying to get to the 7.5 recommended in the sticky for the zero CYA startup condition.

It's almost dark, I'm not going to add any chlorine and see what it drops to by morning.

Any thoughts?

[MarkC]

When you said this "but it didn't really move the needle on PH " Are you using a pH meter to test your pH. If you are MOST inexpensive pH meters are notoriously inaccurate so I would rely on a drops based test method.

[Watermom]

I hope it is getting better today. Since you are still getting a CC reading, I would continue to maintain shock levels with your chlorine. If you had a lot of algae, the cloudiness may just be the sand filter taking awhile to filter out the dead algae. Some people with sand filters have had some luck with adding a little DE to their sand filter to help clear it. Poconos does that. I'll alert him to this thread and see if he thinks that might be something that could help you. Hang in there. It will clear up. Post with any changes today.

Watermom

[vanhout]

Thanks for the replies.

On the "move the needle" comment - no, I'm not using a meter, just meant it as the expression. I added about 1.5 pounds of Borax this morning and I'm now at 7.5 pH. I was trying to get it up to 7.5 or greater, per Ben's sticky on this subject, but I'm not sure why, because I thought Chlorine was more effective at lower pH.

Last night I lost about 2.5 ppm of FC overnite. Water is still cloudy. I put in another 1.44 gal 6% bottle this morning, and I guess I'll just keep maintaining my Cl above 10 ppm. I don't know what else to do.

I'm up to 66 gallons of 6% Cl used since I opened the pool 13 days ago. I've bought so much Chlorine at Costco in the last 2 weeks that I'm worried Homeland Security might start an investigation.

Any other thoughts?

[Poconos]

You can try adding DE like Watermom suggested. Here's the link to the thread where I mentioned this and how to do it.
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...ht=%28ajs-1%29

Al