Backwashing and shocking

[jmcrae]

I vacuumed this morning at 6:30 and put in 7 quarts of bleach. By 4:00 pm, the pool was full and I could see a layer of brown on the bottom. It's almost 7:00 pm, I've had to let more water out of the pool (so much for the bleach!), and it's still raining cats and dogs. I'm setting the alarm for 3:00 am ... thanks so much for all your encouragement everyone!

[jmcrae]

Hey, I'm back!
My pool hasn't beat me yet. Hurricane Alex almost did! We had constant rain in Katy... 26 miles west of Houston ... for two days. Needless to say, lilly-livered coward that I am, I did not venture into the pool for any length of time. I took advantage of breaks in the rain to vacuum when I could and every time I vacuumed I backwashed to waste (Alex was doing just great in replacing the water!) and I dumped a gallon of bleach morning and night.

Every time I looked at the pool after dumping the bleach, I had a visible layer of algae... but it decreased with each application. Yesterday evening I vacuumed just before sunset, poured another gallon of bleach and lo and behold, this morning I had negligible algae!!! I vacummed, dumped another gallon of bleach and raced to WalMart to get some distilled water. I did the 3-1 (OTO) ratio for the Chlorine: FC/15; TC/15; I did the regular DPD test for the rest: AK/140; pH/8.2; CYA/55.

The water is beautifully clear.

Did I do good?

[Watermom]

Yep. You done good! Tonight, test the cl at sundown and then early tomorrow morning and see if you lose more than 1ppm. If you do, shock it back up. Continue keeping high cl until you can hold it overnight. Also, retest your pH whenever your cl isn't high so you can get an accurate reading.

[jmcrae]

Will do.
Thanks to all for your wonderful assistance!