New here - big pool, big problems!

[Gretchen]

Thanks! I've brushed it and let it settle since my first post. The water quality has cleared by about 50% compared to late last night. There is no longer any greenish tint in the deep end even after brushing. I can't quite see the drain yet, but I can clearly see down the walls and into the corners of the deep end! I'll pull another test this evening and try the 0007 tip to see if I can get a better reading on the Ph/TA levels. I was afraid the chlorine was influencing these and it probably is. In the meantime since we're safely at shock level and have a cloudy day today I'll just stick with brushing - it doesn't look like I have anything to vacuum at all.

I'll take your advice to wait on the Ph/TA issue until the chlorine falls. Right now since it seems to be clearing so quickly I may not have a clarity issue. I think it's too early to tell. In the meantime I'll backwash. I haven't been doing that daily because I've been confused on the filter efficiency issue - since sand filters work better when they're slightly dirty I don't want to backwash but I've been wanting to get any filtered algae out of that sand. Our pressure hasn't gone up (normal is 18) so I've held off. The last backwash was right before we did the partial drain on Sunday. I'll now backwash daily until we're clear and try the DE. I still have one bottle of blue clarifier left but I don't think it will help (hasn't to this point!) and I don't want to put anything other than bleach, borax, baking soda and MA in the pool now that we've gone through 'detox'!

You guys are great! This is the first time we've had a problem but I'm not sorry because I found this forum and feel for the first time like we're totally in control of the pool. Thank you so much!!

[Spensar]

I'll let the great mods here handle the techy questions, but will just pipe in as a pool owner who has had to clear up the post-holiday green swamp effect a couple of times over the years.

It may take a while for the water will clear right up, longer than you may think it should. My my experience is the water is often cloudy for a while after all the green is gone and the chlorine readings look pretty darn good. I found that just keeping up the chlorine levels and waiting it out has worked, though sometimes that seems to take a couple more days than I think it should. I wouldn't get impatient and start tossing in clarifier or floc, etc. as it's just a matter of time. You are also killing a lot of organic matter, so the dead algae will accumulate in the bottom of the pool as a fine dust. Best to vacum that directly to "waste" or "drain". That will use water but is the way to get it out of the pool. I have a sand filter and a lot of the fine dead algae passes through it if I vacum it through the filter.

Hatching dragonflys is a new one though!

[aylad]

Wow, Gretchen, looks like you've got this one under control!! GREAT job on doing your homework!! I just wanted to clarify something, though--in the chlorine readings above, you have FC and CC being the same. I'm assuming that you mean FC and TC? (free chlorine is available to fight, combined chlorine is already engaged in the fight, and total chlorine is the combination of the two). The goal is to have FC and TC the same, with CC being zero. I suspect that was just a typo, but wanted to be sure....

Welcome to the forum!!

Janet

[Gretchen]

Hi Janet - you're right, typo! Both FC and TC were at 20 this morning. I'll test again tonight but we've had a cloudy cool(er) day so I don't expect for it to have come down too far yet. I've let it settle since brushing it this morning and decided against the vac. The water is continuing to clear and I can't see anything down there that I should vac today. Not much stirred up with the brushing. I did backwash and rinse though and it looked pretty ugly even though the pressure hadn't risen. Fortunately it looked black for the first time in the viewer and not green so we must be killing the algae in the filter too.

I went out to search for DE and couldn't find any in town. Two managers at Wal-Mart didn't even know what it was. I didn't expect much - we live in a one horse town I sometimes refer to as "Lower Crapovia" and there are very few pool owners here. Wal-Mart also doesn't carry MA so I'm still going to have to return to the aloof pool dude at some point.

Thanks again for everything. I love this place!!

[aylad]

Our Walmart started carrying a small bag of DE in the pool section for the first time this year, but I haven't seen it in stock since the beginning of the summer. Lowe's and Home Depot carry it around here.

For MA, don't know if you have a Tractor Supply Company store near you, but they're the cheapest place around here. Many hardware stores also carry it in the paint department--Lowe's and Home Depot included, although they value theirs highly

Janet

[Gretchen]

Wednesday morning - totally clear pool!! I can clearly see everything on the floor of the deep end including the screw heads in the drain. No cloudy water, no milky water, no green patches. The water is uniformly clear from shallow to deep end!

I didn't have a chance to test the water last night but did so first thing this morning. I only checked for Ph and chlorine right now because I don't want to tempt myself to mess with the TA. And I already know the CYA is in the 50-60 range.

FC: 10
TC: 10
Ph: 7.6

Since the chlorine fell so much within 24 hours I'm planning on checking again at noon and again tonight so I can monitor how much it falls overnight. I was surprised at first that the chlorine level was so much lower than yesterday morning but I'm not panicking yet - the pool is SO much clearer just through the overnight period that I'm hoping the usage will level off through today. I've looked at the CYA/chlorine chart that Watermom has on a sticky and gather that I should keep my chlorine in the 6-10 range for maintenance? I'll keep an eye on the Ph as well since I've learned from other posts that I shouldn't let that fall below 7.2.

We're going to have a stinkin' hot day here today and for the first time this season I'm planning on spending it in the pool!!!

[Spensar]

Congrats on a great job! Enjoy the day.

[aylad]

Enjoy!!!!!

Janet