Opening AG 24ft -Everything is wrong

[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!

[brianbo]

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate everyone's help.
The pool is clear with only a little bit of residue to pick up. A lot of brushing and vaccing to filter. My child went in on Tuesday. The DE filter worked great as last year with the sand filter the iron residue just blew back into the pool. I am glad to hear that the DE filter also clogs quickly with a lot of junk in the pool. Also, I backwashed to filter numerous times but not much lately as the pool is clear.
I bought new test strips but will buy the drop test as recommended.

I added 2 gals of 12% 2 days ago and yesterday went to the pool store.
FC - .1
TC - 1.1
CC - 1.0
ph - 7.0
CA - 60
AL (w/stablizer correction) - 70
CYA - 35
They said add 3 gals of 12% and 2 trichlor pucks which I did and do not add stabilizer as the CYA was good. I also added 5 lbs of baking soda.

From this website, I know that I should not have bought calcium/hardness but I did anyways. Was that a total waste of $$$ with me having an AG and vinyl liner? I resisted 4 times of testing at the pool place but I will try anything.
If Chlorine does not hold when I test this afternoon, should I add Stabilizer or just keep adding 12%?
Is CYA and Stabilizer the same thing?

[CarlD]

Do NOT, repeat NOT use the Tri-chlor tabs! That was terrible advice. Your pH is 7.0--on the very edge of too low and Tri-chlor will push it down, making it worse. Your CYA is 35 which PERFECT and the Tri-Chlor will push that up, making it worse as well!

The 3 gallons of 12%? How big is your pool? I have 20000 gallons and two of those would raise my FC by 12ppm! Still, it's not TERRIBLE advice, unlike the Tri-Chlor, excessive baking soda, and useless calcium.

Your T/A is a little low, but I think 5 # of baking soda is too much. Start with 1 # and then measure. If you are between 80 and 100, you are DONE and don't add more.

Calcium is a TOTAL waste of money! You don't need calcium in your vinyl pool! If you MUST add calcium, buy Cal-Hypo and use that--at least you'll be getting useful chlorine for your money and the calcium will be essentially free. If you need calcium or don't care about calcium, Cal-Hypo is a better source of chlorine than Tri-Chlor or Di-Chlor as it doesn't affect CYA at all, and has less effect on pH.

[brianbo]

OK. I will take out the trichlor pucks as I thought I read that it contained stabilizer. I will never bother with Calcium again.
Mine is 13,500 gal.
From Pool store:
My results Recommended
T/A - 70 100-150 (**printout said add 5lbs so I did**)
PH - 7.1 7.2 -7.8
CYA - 35 30 - 150
FC - .1 1 -3
TC - 1.1 1 -3
CC - 1.0 1 -3

The pool store said CYA was good but to add trichlor puck. I do not understand by recommended from above the CYA = 30 which is at low end but it is perfect. Is the recommended high end to sell more chemicals?

How much baking soda will raise TA by 10ppm?
How much Borax will raise PH by 10ppm?
If CYA is within range, do not use Trichlor?