New to pools, need some help

[Guest]

Hello all. I hope you guys can help me. I'm trying to open a pool in time for my kids birthday party on June 8th. When we moved in the pool was uncovered and had about 5" below the fill line of water in it. It was a dark green color and had leaves everywhere. My roommate and I have been trying to get it cleaned and clear for several weeks now. We got most of the leaves out, but I'm not sure on that since I cant see the bottom. The water has turned to a greenish/blue color and on some days grey. The tester I have says it is off the charts in chlorine (we've added about 30 lbs of stabilizer chlorine over about a month) and the ph is too low now (lots of rain) at about 7.0-6.8. I hear I can use baking soda to raise the ph, is this correct? Its an above ground 27,000 gallon pool. Should I get bags of shock for it? Am I on the right path? Do I just need to keep brushing and vacuuming everyday to get this water to clear up? Where would the filter be located? Its a Hayward pump system. If I post pics can anyone help? Thanks.

[Guest]

Pics would certainly be helpful.

The filter will be near the pump and should be a big canister.

I wrote out a bunch more things but then deleted it. Perhaps the best thing is to bring a sample into a local pool store and have them test it. Post the results back here. The pool store will probably try to sell you lots of stuff to fix your situation but you might look for advice here first.

You've been adding stabilized chlorine so you need to know CYA level. Common name is conditioner.

Brushing is a must with algae. Running the filter is important but you need to monitor the pressure on the tank. Once you find the filter you can see what the pressure is and determine what type of filter it is.

So, get the water fully tested. Post the results and add a pic or two.

[Guest]

ok, I went to the pool store. It tested:
Alkalinity:Low 40ppm
pH:Low, below 6.2
hardness: OK 500 ppm
Cyanuric Acid: Ok 70 ppm
Chlorine: Way to high >3.0 ppm

I added Alkalinity Plus like the local pool place suggested. We also cleaned the filter and put in new sand. I think I may have gotten most of the leaves. Will get pics tomarrow, for now work.

[muss08]

Pool owners need there own reliable test kit. I use the Taylor K 2006- very accurate and reliable. Will save you a ton of money. First use reuglar unscented 6% clorox to shock you pool. Your CYA is getting high but no too high yet. You need to shock your pool but I wouldnt recommend cal hypo because it will increase your hardness (which is high) and a dichlor or trichlor will increase the CYA. Clorox will work best. IF this test is accurate and your pool is 27000 gallons you will need to add 10 96oz. jugs of clorox (again regular unscented 6%) and 210 oz. of baking soda (regular pure arm and hammer will work fine). This will get your pH up to 7.4, TA to 70-75ppm and your FC to 20ppm which is shock level based on your CYA. You slowly add the clorox over a return so it properly mixes. The baking soda can be added directly to the pool. You will need much more clorox, however, because you need to keep your pool at shock level until the level holds overnight (this ensures all organics are dead).

[Guest]

Ok the pool is 27 ft X 31/2 feet deep. One place told us it was 27,000 gallons another said its 14-15000 gallons. I had the water tested again and went ahead and shocked it again with the stuff I had. They said everything was good (ph was 7.4, I had put in two 2 lb boxes of baking soda the night before). This place didn't give me a print out of my results though. I put in 2 lbs of Aqua Chem stabilizing chlorine granules dissolved in a bucket of warm water. I cant get this thing to post pics, but it still has a lot of leaves in it but we are getting them out as quick as we can. Its an aqua blueish/green color and it turned a little greener than this after a god brushing. We have been vacuuming everyday and let the lil robot vac in there for hours.