Levels of Pool

[Watermom]

We suggest that you just use plain unscented household bleach for your source of chlorine instead of the shock. In your pool, each quart of 6% bleach will add 1ppm of chlorine. Test as many times per day as you can and each time, add enough bleach to get back up to about 10-12ppm. Try and sustain the high cl reading to kill the algae. It may take a few days of doing so. Continue this until your pool is clear and you can go from sundown one evening til within 2 hours of sunrise the next morning without losing more than 1ppm of chlorine. At that point, I'd keep the chlorine high for one extra day for added insurance. Then, you can let the chlorine drift down and keep it between 3-6ppm all the time so you won't get algae again. Run the pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the pool.

You need some CYA in the pool as well. It is sometimes called stabilizer or conditioner. Check the label ingredients. If it says cyanuric acid or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff. Add 4 lbs. of it to an old sock and hang it in front of a return jet. Give it a squeeze once in awhile to help it dissolve faster. That amount plus the little bit you have in there now should take you to somewhere around 40ppm which would be a good level. Do not use any trichlor pucks or any dichlor shock powder as those contain CYA and will cause the level to rise even further.

Now, having said all that, I just remembered again that you said you had some "shock." What is the ingredient in it? Don't add it just yet but tell us the ingredients. If it IS dichlor, then we may suggest having you use it since you already bought it and then adjust the recommended amount of CYA to put in the sock. And, then you can switch to using bleach after that. But first tell us what it is before we make that decision.

Until your good test kit arrives, you can force your kit to go higher with a dilution method described below. It is not super accurate and not meant to replace a good kit, but it is better than nothing. Testing Without a Good Kit

Hope this helps.
What kind of pool is this? What type of filter and what size is the pump?

[goldslinger]

good luck!

[oscar]

Watermom,

Thank you for all that information. It was helpfull, im following this info to the t. Here are the ingredents for the shock treatment that I bought. It has Calcium Hypochlorite- 47.6%, it says other ingedents- 52.4 lol.

Thats it

[aylad]

What was your calcium hardness level? If it's too high, and you use cal hypo to chlorinate, you can cause yourself some really milky water problems, which is why we recommend bleach.

Janet

[oscar]

Yes I have been using bleach, but I added a gallon yesterday and there was nothing today. I'm not going to use the shock I guess I can return it and get something else. I have a couple of questions how do I find out what my pool is made of the guy that left didn't tell me and I don't know how to figure it out, watermom is asking me?

Another thing do I just keep adding gallons of bleach every day? I went and bough 5 gallons yesterday do I put all of them in there at the same time? I still have a lot of algae and I’m hurting here help me fix this mess. And to make it worse it has been raining here all day, so I don't know if that is helping or not. Can I run the pump even when it's raining?

I think of giving up and calling in the service people and then picking it up after they are done.

[Watermom]

Don't give up. We will help you get this cleared up!

Did you buy the stabilizer (CYA)? If not, do so. You need it. Add it per my directions above in post #4.

If you added a gallon of bleach that would have only added 4ppm of chlorine. (In your pool, each quart adds 1ppm and there are 4 quarts per gallon.) 4ppm is not nearly high enough to kill algae. Go back and read post #4 above where I explained testing numerous times per day and each time getting the chlorine back up to 12. Unless you do this and unless you sustain the chlorine at about 12ppm, you'll never get rid of the algae.

Even if it is raining, you need to be running the pump 24/7. If you take a day off and don't keep the chlorine high that day, you're gonna go backwards instead of forwards in this fight against the algae.

When I asked what kind of pool, I meant is it an above ground liner pool, an inground liner, an inground gunnite, or a fiberglass pool.

[oscar]

Watermom,

I haven't had time to buy the CYA but I checked the CL level right now and it's past the 10ppm for sure it's super yellow on my test kit, the test kit goes to 10ppm. I added about 3.5 gallons today netween this morning and this afternoon and I just came back and checked it. I will go get the CYA tommorow do I get it from the swimming pool store?

I liked watching the water right now I was able to see the bottom of the pool and it's clear now. Except when I saw the bottom of the pool it was green, great green pool what some news. If I keep doing this is the green going to dissapear or should I scrub it as well?

The pool is an inground pool I guess you can say cement pool.

Oscar

[Watermom]

You may be able to buy the CYA at Lowe's, Home Depot, or Walmart. It may be labeled as stabilizer or conditioner. Check the label. If the ingredients say cyanuric or isocynuric acid, it is the right stuff. If those place don't have it, your pool store will.

If you consistently sustain the high cl reading, it will kill the algae. But, you have to be diligent about it and stay on top of it. If you take a day off, then you lose ground. Brushing your pool will speed the process.