Opening AG 24ft -Everything is wrong

[daisy11]

Regarding #5....I have an 24' AG with iron in my well water. In the future, you will need to add more Metal Out before you add well water to your pool. The key is to keep enough Metal Out in your pool to keep the metals tied up so they won't fall out of solution. Another tip is to add the water directly into your skimmer so that the new water goes through the filter before it goes into your pool. That way, most or (hopefully) all of the metal that falls out of solution will do so into the filter medium instead of onto the pool surfaces. That's a quick answer, and there is more to it....pH and cl levels also play a part....but metal issues can be managed without staining if you learn how. Read everything you can in the metals section of the forum. I'm not an expert, just another pool owner with a similar problem.

Mbar is definitely the metals guru here. She should be able to help you with your current metal problems, and avoiding future problems, BUT she will need you to post your test results. Do as CarlD suggested, get a complete set of numbers and post them, and the great folks here will help you solve the issues you have. It is absolutely solvable and you can do it yourself faster and cheaper than the pool service!

[brianbo]

I went to pool store and got different these results as the owner was on service call.
I vacced to waste and a lot green and junk came out. I then brushed the walls which I should have done first. My pole broke and I jumped in to get the middle. It looks like the bottom is cleaner but you still cannot see it as it is green and brown.
Pool place #'s are
FC .3
TC 1.1
CC .8
PH 7.9
hardness 60
Alkalinuty with stabilzer correction 50
Cyanuric Acid 35 (is this CA or CYA)
They did not run the Copper, iron and Total Dissolved Solids
She said the copper was broken and there was no sense to iron as Cholrine was present (??) or something I cannot remember.

The filter clogged in 2 hours . I am going to need to add water if I vac again.
I still think I need to vac again.
Any suggestions would be appreciated?

Daisy11, when do you add the metal out before you add well water? ! cycle, 1 hour, 5-12 hours, etc.

[CarlD]

I would add lots and lots of chlorine--bleach or liquid chlorine. YOu need to get your FC level to 15. I would add 5 gallons of regular bleach or 4 gallons of Ultra.

If you use 12% Liquid Chlorine, use 2 gallons. Then, 8 to 12 hours later, add it again--but TEST it first.

[aylad]

Cyanuric acid is CYA....Calcium is CA or CH. And I agree with Carl--add your Metal Out, and then shock your pool, maintaining that shock level until it clears up. Keep your pump running, backwashing as you need to, and brush it at least once daily. With some patience, you can get it clear.

Janet

[brianbo]

I Vac again yesterday but was in pool and forgot to put value back to filter from waste so I lost some water. The same stupid thing I did last year.
Pool is still greenish, cloudy and has brown sediment on bottom but cannot vac as water is low.
The test strip I used said chlorine was low so I added 2 different times at added 2 gals of 12%. I went to the pool store and they tested and my chlorine now is how. I might need new test strips as these strips #'s are not close to the pool store #'s.
Pool store #'s.
FC - 4.3
TC - 4.3
CC - 0
ph - 7.7
hardness - 80 ( CA?? and I have AG with vinyl liner so I do not care. Right?)
Alkaline w/Stablizer - 68 (I had 6 lbs baking soda and I will add 3 more lbs)
CYA - 40
Copper .62
Iron - .4

I am going to add 4 inches of well water tonite and I still have the brown stuff on the bottom of the pool that needs to be vac. The pool is cloudy.
I put in metal out today. I know I will have more brown stuff in the morning. The pool does look a lot better and the DE is clogging a lot less.
Thanks for any suggestions. Should I post on metals forum?

[daisy11]

I would allow the water to circulate at least a couple of hours after adding the Metal Out before adding water. Did you add more water last night? Do you have more brown stuff on the bottom this morning? Hopefully you ran the hose into your skimmer to let the DE trap any metal that fell out of solution. I would suggest that you vac the sediment into your filter at this point, not vac to waste.

You should get at least a basic drop-based test kit. The strips are very inaccurate.

It sounds like you are on the right track. I know the DE filter clogs up quickly, but that is normal when you are trying to fight an algae bloom. Keep the cl level up until the cl level doesn't drop much overnight. The closer you keep the cl to 15, the faster your pool will clear up. If you let the cl level yo-yo up and down, it will take longer to eradicate the algae.

I wouldn't bother trying to adjust the other numbers until you get rid of the algae. The high cl levels affect some of the other tests, so just wait until you can allow the cl to drop to normal levels.

[mbar]

daisy11 is right, you need to have metal out in the water, and you need to get your chlorine up there, and keep it there until it holds overnight. It can take a while to clean up a swamp (I should know, mine was nasty this year). You can also kill the algae, then work on the metals if that is what you want, but it is just as easy to do both at the same time - the metals sequestering agent can also cause cloudy water, so don't worry if the water stays cloudy for a while, but the green should be gone. You do have to brush and vacuum everyday. You also have to backwash as needed. Try to test the water at least 3x a day bringing the chlorine back up to 15 each time - the more persistent, the faster the blue water . If you brush the sides, and the stains do not come off once the chlorine has been high for a few days, then the stains are metals. When dealing with metals, you should not have a ph over 7.2, I see yours is high at 7.7. The high ph along with high chlorine will cause the metals to fall out of solution and stain the pool. The new stains can be taken care of with the metal out. Make sure it is good metal out and not cheap stuff. You sometimes need more than what the directions say on the bottle. Drop the ph down to 7.2 and add the metal out, let it run for a couple of days and see if all the stains lift (they should). You never really get rid of the metals, they just go into suspension so they don't cause the problems. When you use well water, you usually need to keep sequestering agent (metal out) in your water at all times. You add a little every week, or whenever you add water. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have. Keep us posted.

[Mom2Czars]

Two years running we had to get a pool started from scratch, owing to a liner problem. In adding water this year, we went from normal looking water (with tons of leaves on the bottom) to a green-tinted pool just after adding well water.

Well, last year we had a similar sort of issue and while I was tending to blame it on metal in the water, I kept hitting it with bleach for a few days, and I changed the DE twice in the same time frame and the whole thing cleared right up. Were I you, I'd just keep that pool at shock level for a good long time, and keep on changing out the DE every few days or so. Once you get the pool clean, you won't have to change the DE very often at all, but during the start up phase, it can get junky pretty easily. When mine gets junky, it definitely affects the return flow negatively.

Good luck!