Chemical Help

[mreesept]

Mine is a vinyl pool and the liner is about 6 years old. I would hope not to drain now, although we will need a liner in the next few years because ours is wrinkled in the bottom of the shallow end and not looking so great in the deep end from shock lying at the bottom.

A quick check this morning had a FC of 10.5 but CC was up to 6 again. Does that sound right? Am I going in the right direction?? Would it be cost effective to do the liner now?? Cost of refill is $250 plus for me.

[PoolDoc]

New liner installed can go over $1,000 . . . and this is NOT the best time of year to go after one. The pool business has picked up, compared to last year, so the guys that didn't go belly up 2 years ago, are really busy. If you go after a new liner now, you'll be at the bottom of the list, and might not swim till July. Plus, when you pull a liner, there are often OTHER repairs that have to be done.

If you're OK with all that, go for it. Otherwise, keep chlorinating. But, do raise the pH with borax.

[aylad]

If you can wait until January/February to buy the new liner, the places (at least down here) often offer really good discounts on"last year's models" because the new liner patterns are published around March. I don't know if it's possible to install one in January in your climate, but you might could at least get the contract signed and get on the list for when the weather warms up--and save yourself some money that way. My new (discounted model) liner cost around $3K a couple of years ago, installed.

[mreesept]

FC went down and CC went up to 5 FCC and 8cc. I am putting in 3 gal of beach at night and morning. I will check levels later today and will post.

[PoolDoc]

Sounds pretty normal, for an ammonia filled pool. But, you'd be better off putting in 6 gallons at night, and skipping the AM dose. That way, all the chlorine you lose, will be lost converting ammonia, rather than losing some to sunlight.

[mreesept]

Update:

FC 15 CC 6 pH7.2 TA 200
Added more Borax and will keep adding chlorine.
Pool is more cloudy but no smell really noted.

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I dont know if I am doing something wrong but my chlorine numbers are all over the mark... my FC dropped to 5 and CC now 11? I am using the 10mL method... I have taken the water from the same place and tried to be very consistant with measuring chlorine. Is this part of the process??? I add Chlorine FC goes up CC drops, then a few hours afterwords the FC is down and CC up???

[PoolDoc]

Cleaning up ammonia is not a nice, and well defined process. It's a messy, keep-adding-chlorine-till-the-ammonia is gone process.

We don't know how much ammonia is in your pool - some, most, or all of the CYA could have been converted. We don't whether it's just ammonia (which reacts quickly) or other things that can form, and which react slowly. There's no time line on this -- just that you'll probably be done by next week sometime.

The primary ingredient needed, besides chlorine, is P.O.P. -- Pool Owner Patience. What happens, where there's not enough POP, is the pool owners get desperate and in a hurry, and go to the pool store for a quick fix. The pool stores will almost ALWAYS sell you a quick fix, even though they don't have one. Well, in a way they do: the products they sell are a quick fix for the store owner's thin wallet, but not for your pool.

Sorry, but once the bacteria has filled your pool with ammonia 'pool' (or metabolic by-products, if you prefer) you're in for a lengthy and not entirely predictable recovery.