Green (algae ?) water-test results karenkr

[karenkr]

I tried to measure my pool but I dont think I did it right. It is kinda L shaped and is 9-10ft deep at one end and 3-4ft deep at the other. The measurements I came up with were 14ft x 18ft at one end and 19ft x20ft at the other. I feel so dumb because I dont know what I am doing. I am basing the gallon size on what the pool guy told me . Im going to walmarts and getting about 10 gallons of bleach and a couple boxes of borax. Hopefully someone will tell me about how many gallons I should add and how much borax to add. I am a total geek at this , have always relied on the pool guy---but this year it has just about gotten the best of me financially with all the stuff he has put in and what he has sold me. Then I found this site so I am trying to go it alone ( with help from you guys) Test reading now are
chlorine: 0
ph: 6.8
TA: 120
CYA: 100
Sure hope someone out there can help me!!! Appreciate any input given
Thanks in advance

[karenkr]

Just got an email from the pool guy I used???? to deal with. Scared the living daylights out of me.Said he tested my water (I didnt know that he did) yesterday with these results, States I have to drain my pool because I have minerals in the water. Also that my water hardness is 540 and that I had a Phosphate reading of 1000. Also said that my pool is leaching through the concrete/gunite. Said my pool surface was shotand I needed a new gunite job--cost of $5000-6000. Can someone help me. There is no way can afford to re-gunite this year. Any suggestions?????? Back to my algae problems, I did add 4 gallons of ultra bleach earlier in the evening. Just re-tested my water and FINALLY had some chlorine , New test re: Free Chlorine: 5/10 Ph: 7.5 (finally coming up too) TA: 120 CYA: 100. For me this is an improvement. What do I do next??
Thanks

[aylad]

If you've been able to shock the pool without staining so far, then don't worry about the minerals--if they're there, the pool guy must have put them there. Ca hardness is high at 540, but as long as your TA and pH stay fairly low, it shouldn't be a problem for you right now. Ignore the phosphate reading, it's meaningless to you for right now. As far as the new gunite job, how does your pool look?

As far as the algae goes, shock your pool up to 25 ppm and keep it there by testing and adding more a couple of times daily...here's the link to the bleach calculator you can use to help determine how much you need.

http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe

Janet

[karenkr]

First--thanks so much for helping me. I am beginning to get so frustrated and I feel so D----Dumb. I was really upset when the pool guy said what he did- when always before he was telling us what a pretty pool and how good shape it was in. It is true that it is an older pool, dont know exact age, guess about 15 years but all it needed as far as we knew was a good paint job. There is no staining on it that I can tell. And until about 3 wks ago had not had algae or any major problems with the water. Anyway back to my green algae? problem. So far I have added 10 gallons total of ultra bleach and 3 boxes of borax. When I first started with the advice of this site--I had horrible algae and green yuky water, no chlorine level and a ph of below 6. Just re-tested with these results Chlorine: 3/6 Ph: 7.5 TA: 120 amd CYA: 100. I have tried to download the site you recommended and for some reason it just keeps coming up Page Expired , I even tried to type in address and am told the site does not exist. Is there another way to access the site? What do I do next. I was told by the pool guy that we had a 50,000 gallon pool, so how much bleach at a time should I add? Just tell me what to do and I will do it. Should I be adding anything else beside the bleach? The water is still green but I do feel like I am at least on the right track now-----thanks to you guys. Just dont know what to do next so please advise. Thanks so much--
Karen

[ChuckD]

Karen, don't feel dumb!
(I know, easy to say...but that link doesn't work for me either)

Assuming your pool guy's estimation of your pool volume is correct, there's a truth you'll have to face right now: you're going to need a whole bunch of chlorine to get going. Partially due to the size of your pool, but also due to the high CYA. Brace yourself, with that size pool, and with the guidance of Ben's Best Guess CYA chart indicating a need for 25 ppm chlorine level to shock, you'll need 20 gallons of Clorox Ultra laundry bleach (6% sodium hypochlorite). And that's just the initial shock. You'll have to sustain that 25 ppm for a couple days to clear the algae. Quite a task!

First, I think it would be a big help to lower your CYA level which can only be done by draining half the water and refilling to dilute it. This will reduce the amount of chlorine you'll need.

Next, I think this might be a situation where you might consider buying the higher concentration chlorine available at pool stores. It's typically 10 or 12.5%. Double the concentration, halve the dosage. I've recently found I can buy it at a local family-run pool place and it's actually cheaper than Clorox.

I hope Mike comes along with the link to his bleachcalc (Mods: can't this be a sticky somewhere?) because it's a Godsend for finding all your chemical needs.

Anyway, I'm not an expert, just a veteran BBB user. I hope a real expert can comment on my advice because that's what I'd do in your shoes (actually I think I'd jump for joy at having such a pool too!). Hope you don't have to heat it too.

C.

[karenkr]

Tested water this Morn with both strips and drop test Results
Drop Test:
Chlorine: 5/10
Ph: 7.5
TA: 140
Hardness: ???? water did not turn red only yellow did add drops 120 of them and the water finally turned a very light blue. Tested it twice same results
CYA: Did not register. Black dot dissappeared before water was half way up to 90 Tested twice same results

Test Strip Results
Chlorine: 3/6
Ph: 7.2
TA: 120
Hardness: 200
CYA: 100
Do I need to add some Cya? Is my hardness level anything to worry about? Will keep adding bleach at 2 bottles a day or should I add more to shock the heck out of it? Please help and advise
Thanks for your patience and help
Karen

[Simmons99]

Rely on the drops based test. The 5/10 chlorine reading is really 5ppm - OR 5 TIMES LOWER THAN YOU NEED.

Right now just test the chlorine and PH. The CYA and ALK and CA shouldn't change that much.

If you have the OTO test (which is the one that is yellow)- get some distilled water from the store and take one part pool water and one part distilled water. Mix them together and then test and multiply your results by 2. This will allow you to test to 10ppm. If you take two parts distilled water to one part pool water and then you miltiply your results by three (15ppm)....and so on.

Otherwise I would recommend a FAS-DPD test kit for the high chlorine levels. Call your pool store before you drive all the way out there to see if they have one.

[karenkr]

Ok here goes--new test re: Chl: 5/1 this was done using 2 parts distilled water and 1 part pool water. Does this mean that my chlorine level is 15 times lower than it should be????? Ph tested 7.2

I have some dura chlor (bucket says that it is sodium dichloro triaizinetrone 57%)--plenty of that left , Haviland DuraChlor 3in tabs(bucket says that it is Trichloro-s-triazinetrone 99%) and a bottle of OMNI Algae terminator. This is stuff I had bought before I found this site(MUCHO BUCKS) Should I add any of these or should I stick to bleach???? I am going to the pool store tomorrow so if someone can tell me what I need I will pick it up.

We do love our pool its just so frustrating right now. I have never had this problem before--dont understand what happened to cause it --and cant seem to get the problem under control. I know PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE----IM a Leo so dont have much(HA HA) better to laugh than to cry HUH!!! Anyway if some kind soul will tell me what I need to get at the pool store and walmarts I will get started THE RIGHT WAY thanks to this site.

Thanks
Karen