Vent - Three weeks and 400 dollars later and

[SetzKitten]

my swimming pool still looks horrible. It's driving me crazy. In the last three weeks I've done nothing but work on clearing the water. Every day is worse than the day before. Trips to the pool store with water samples, chemical after chemical, brushing, vaccuuming, etc. - IT WON'T CLEAR UP! The season is creeping by and we can't even use it. I'm so frustrated and aggravated, I'm about rent a backhoe and fill it in.

 

[ntburns22]

We have had a tough pool year too. I think maybe all the rain we had. I really don't know. On the 4th during our party the pump blew up.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Call a professional pool cleaner and have them come over and take a look at the pool. It might cost a little more, but if they can get the pool clear then it will be worth the money!!

I take a water sample over to Pinch a Penny and they run it through their tests and give me a print out of what I need to buy.

I'm not trying to sound condescending, but have you tried removing the cartridge and hosing it off? Maybe that will help.

I hope you get it to clear soon, nothing is more frustrating than an uncooperative pool in the summer.

 

[vellamint]

I had a similar problem about three years ago and figured it cost upwards of $500 to get it right.

What I determined (and I am NO expert although I should be at this point) is that the pool supply place I was going to had no idea what they were talking about....just kept telling me buy this, buy that...and silly me....I did.....I was making them rich!!

I went to a different place and spoke to the owner who told me to buy this product that you filter around your pool for a few hours.....then turn off the pump for 1 - 2 days. This stuff "attaches" to everything that should not be in there and dumps it on the bottom of the pool. Then you vacuum out to "waste" so that it does not stir the stuff up again. It took a few times of stopping and having to put more water in the pool because there was so much stuff and it took so long that it was going below the level of the skimmer.

When I was done it was crystal clear!!!

And you know what......since then......the only chemicals I put in my pool is chlorine (tablet form in the floaty thing) and shock once a week. I have NEVER had a problem since then.

Now as to whether I am "hurting" my pump by not softening the water or whatever else the pool store says....time will tell. But since that has happened that is ALL I do......and we have had rain, leaves, everything in there and it alway clears easily with shock.

 

[ohiominnie]

my swimming pool still looks horrible. It's driving me crazy. In the last three weeks I've done nothing but work on clearing the water. Every day is worse than the day before. Trips to the pool store with water samples, chemical after chemical, brushing, vaccuuming, etc. - IT WON'T CLEAR UP! The season is creeping by and we can't even use it. I'm so frustrated and aggravated, I'm about rent a backhoe and fill it in.

Ugh. I hear ya. We opened our pool late this year b/c we were on vacation and it was green green green.

We dumped in TONS of chlorine shock. We like the stuff you can get at Wal*mart---HTH sock it (it will say for vinyl pools on it) They come in boxes with 5 bags to a box. We went through about 4 boxes before we saw any sort of difference. Dh also added a clarifier. That helps "clump" the smaller particles so that they are big enough for the filter to pick up. He gets that from www.intheswim.com
here's what he gets:
http://www.intheswim.com/Pool-Chemicals/Clarifiers-and-Metal-and-Stain-Preventers/Super-Clarifier/

looks like they also have one specificially for spring start ups:
http://www.intheswim.com/Pool-Chemicals/Clarifiers-and-Metal-and-Stain-Preventers/Super-Floc-Clarifier/

here's the chlorine shock that I mentioned above (but we get it at wal*mart b/c it's the same and usually we need so much of it!)
http://www.intheswim.com/Pool-Chemicals/Pool-Shock-Super-Chlorinators/Pool-Shock/

Also....are you backwashing your filter? When ours looks like that we backwash about 3 times a day. And then add more water to keep the pool full enough. And we do NOT use Kreepy until we can see the bottom. So the pool is green, then FINALLY we can see the bottom, then we put in Kreepy....of course, Kreepy stirs things up and it gets worse before it gets better.

We have never, not one single time in the 8 summers that we've lived here with the pool, taken in a sample of water to a pool store. Our water is usually crystal clear in one week. This year it was a week and a half b/c we opened it so late.

OH>>>>>for NEXT year....I don't know where you live (we live in Ohio) but when it starts getting sunny by you, dump bleach into the pool. My dh's partner taught him this several years ago. So, around the beginning of April we dump one jug of bleach through the cover and then rinse the cover very well. (we just use store brand bleach without fragrances or anything like that---MUCH cheaper than "pool" bleach and the same thing!) Anyway, b/c the sun makes algae grow, if you can kill off some algae before you even open the pool you'll be a couple of steps ahead of the game.

Any questions, please feel free to PM me (I'll lose track of this thread, I'm sure)

HTH!

 

[ohiominnie]

We dumped in TONS of chlorine shock. We like the stuff you can get at Wal*mart---HTH sock it (it will say for vinyl pools on it) They come in boxes with 5 bags to a box. We went through about 4 boxes before we saw any sort of difference. Dh also added a clarifier. That helps "clump" the smaller particles so that they are big enough for the filter to pick up. He gets that from www.intheswim.com

Btw, we have a 16x32 foot inground pool and we'd dump in 2 bags of the shock at a time. If I did it in the morning, I'd check a chlorine level in the afternoon and if it was "0" I'd dump in two more. So it was twice a day there for awhile.

Oh....dh also used an Algecide (probably from in the swim also)

In the swim is great. Shipping is fast (and oftentimes free) A couple of times we got the wrong stuff so we called. They shipped out the right stuff but told us to keep the wrong stuff too. Great customer service. I can't recommend them highly enough.

 

[MorganLeFey]

one year our pool styed green no matter what we did.

turned out, we had a heater and copper plumbing, and something corroded...the pook was green from the copper in the plumbing.

had to have the pool company clean up the mess.

 

[SetzKitten]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I really appreciate the help.

went to a different place and spoke to the owner who told me to buy this product that you filter around your pool for a few hours.....then turn off the pump for 1 - 2 days. This stuff "attaches" to everything that should not be in there and dumps it on the bottom of the pool. Then you vacuum out to "waste" so that it does not stir the stuff up again. It took a few times of stopping and having to put more water in the pool because there was so much stuff and it took so long that it was going below the level of the skimmer.

This is where we are now. We dumped in the YellowOut and PowerPlus this morning and hopefully this will kill the algae and dump the junk to the bottom of the pool. I don't know why they didn't give us this stuff 3 weeks ago.

 

[kilee]

We were you a few weeks ago. I was having testing done I was $350 in chemicals and no further along. Thing was definetly the pool store employee's I was dealing with. They didn't really know what to do, and I was following their advice. Not really their fault, as they are just college kids working their for the summer. Anyhow, I finally let them know I needed to speak w/ the owner. Who very quickly identified we had pool mold. Now the chemical to clear it up did in fact cost us another $150 for the full treatment.
Good luck-- I know how frustrating it can be.

 

[bcvprincesses]

Are you using chlorine or baquacil? The reason I ask is because everyone I know including us used baquacil for a few years and had to switch to chlorine. There was nothing we could get to clear our pool. It was such a mess. Now we use bleach and have a automatic chloranator and have had no problems in the last few years. Good luck. I know how frustrating and expensive it is to try to get the pool looking good.

 

[OzFan]

We had a similar problem several years ago, it took 8 gallons of liquid shock, and 6 pouches of the dry shock to clear it up. We turned off the filter for 2 days and then when we vaccumed we did it straight through waste. It was crystal clear after that. All of the dead algae settled on the bottom of the pool. Sometimes the chemicals that you are told to buy only makes it worse. Good old chlorine will take care of most of the algae.