Help! Pool Chemistry Problem!

[ryjessjo]

I purchased a home about a month ago with a 18x32 inground vinyl pool. It has a sand filter and a 1.5hp pump. The house has been vacant for two years and the pool sitting there for all that time. It has been covered with a mesh safety cover. When we uncovered it was totally carpeted with green. You couldnt even see the first step. We decided that we should hire help. I hired a pool guy and he said he could have my pool clean in one week. Swim ready. Well two weeks later and about 600.00 later it is still not swimable. It is no longer green, but you can see down about two step levels and the rest is like I poured some skim milk in. About one week after we hired him, he called and said that the pool was almost clear and by the next day...we would be set. We are not living at the house yet...so we couldnt confirm. But the next day, we loaded up the kids and went over to the house and found it as described above and it hasnt changed abit in a week. He said that it was almost perfect and then a storm came and screwed it up. So last weekend, I took water in to my local pool store for analysis and they told me I needed 5lb shock, 1 bottle of algacide, some (baking soda). and some lo and slow???.. I put all that in and the pool guy returned and helped and now Monday... still no results. Anyone with any advice? Today, I bought a test kit. It said my PH was good... but showed no CL. So I added 4 more packages of shock and put 2 tabs in my inline chlorinator. Keeping the system on filtration 24/7. I backwashed also several times before I added the chem today. Any help would be appreciated! Should I have drained it?

[chem geek]

Read Defeating Algae. Also, get yourself a good test kit, either the Taylor K-2006 or the TF100 from tftestkits.net.

[rbdeli]

A couple of years ago, I was in your same boat: I Purchased a home with a swimming pool and didn't have the first idea how to keep care of it. I hired a pool guy the first year, who put chlorine tablets in our skimmer which contributed to a broken heat exchanger and other problems with my water chemistry. The next year, I decided to educate myself.

I concur with Richard: Buy the Taylor K-2006 test kit or the TFT one.

Educate yourself. The K-2006 Test kit actually has a very good manual.

Start there and visit the pool school at www.troublefreepool.com

I'm still edcuating myself and getting lessons from our resident chemgeek, Richard. I've done some stupid things, so I doubt you'll screw anything up worse than me.

Best of luck.

Rob

I purchased a home about a month ago with a 18x32 inground vinyl pool. It has a sand filter and a 1.5hp pump. The house has been vacant for two years and the pool sitting there for all that time. It has been covered with a mesh safety cover. When we uncovered it was totally carpeted with green. You couldnt even see the first step. We decided that we should hire help. I hired a pool guy and he said he could have my pool clean in one week. Swim ready. Well two weeks later and about 600.00 later it is still not swimable. It is no longer green, but you can see down about two step levels and the rest is like I poured some skim milk in. About one week after we hired him, he called and said that the pool was almost clear and by the next day...we would be set. We are not living at the house yet...so we couldnt confirm. But the next day, we loaded up the kids and went over to the house and found it as described above and it hasnt changed abit in a week. He said that it was almost perfect and then a storm came and screwed it up. So last weekend, I took water in to my local pool store for analysis and they told me I needed 5lb shock, 1 bottle of algacide, some (baking soda). and some lo and slow???.. I put all that in and the pool guy returned and helped and now Monday... still no results. Anyone with any advice? Today, I bought a test kit. It said my PH was good... but showed no CL. So I added 4 more packages of shock and put 2 tabs in my inline chlorinator. Keeping the system on filtration 24/7. I backwashed also several times before I added the chem today. Any help would be appreciated! Should I have drained it?

[ryjessjo]

Update. Well, I have read defeating algae...and I feel like I am on a mission! I must conquer algae. I am taking the day tomorrow to fight. Tonight I went over to check on the pool, and was happy that there was some change at least. I could see the bottom of the shallow end. It looked pretty good, except for a little dead brown algae on the bottom. In the deep, I can make out a large area of darker scary swamp. So I hooked up the vacuum and vacummed the shallow which went beautifully. I switched to vac to waste, and put the pole in the swamp end. I was excited to see my backwash hose begin to dump thick green soup. With a smell like possibly there is a dead animal down there. )or maybe the previous owner didnt really move at all, and someone disposed of him down there). I mean it was awful!!!! But then all the sudden, I the vac hose got stuck. I turned off the pump and when I got the vac up, the attaching end of the vac had broken/cracked off. The head was old and poss dry roughted. So I turned my filter back on and called it a day. I went to pool store and bought enough shock that should in normal circums last me 2 years and Ch tabs. Also bought a new super duty vac head. Tomorrows plan is to return and vac to waste as much stinky junk as poss. Could my pool every turn clear with all that muck in there? Was my pool guy really pulling my leg when he said we would be normal in 2 more days? He actually told me Sat... that my kids could get in if they wanted. After smelling the "dead" smell, I want to put him in the end of that pool. The only other question I have is that all the abbrev in the link sent above? Is there a key somewhere?

[chem geek]

Be careful about the type of chlorine product you bought for shocking the pool. Under no circumstances should be using Dichlor. If the shock is granular, then it could be Cal-Hypo which is OK unless your Calcium Hardness (CH) is high (your CH is probably low which is fine because you have a vinyl pool, but you should check to make sure). It sounds like you may have also bought some Trichlor pucks. Be careful with that as well since these will increase your Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level which can get too high. Keep in mind the following chemical rules that are independent of concentration and of pool size.

For every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it also increases Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm.

For every 10 ppm FC added by Dichlor, it also increases CYA by 9 ppm.

For every 10 ppm FC added by Cal-Hypo, it also increases Calcium Hardness (CH) by 7 ppm.

The TFT refers to tftestkits.net where you can buy the TF100 test kit which has 36% more volume of reagents than the Taylor K-2006 so is less expensive per test. If you wanted to go with the Taylor K-2006 instead, you can get it at a good online price here, though as I wrote, the TF100 is less expensive per test.

Richard