Who has a pool...need advice

[psik0tik]

Someone told me using bleach instead of pool shock is better is this true. Or do I need to stick with pool shock. It's getting this cloudy green stuff in it recently and I'm having a hard time getting rid of it. The guy told me to add 1gallon of bleach per 1000 gallons of water...that's 25 gallons of bleach...seems kind of alot

[polaris]

no idea on the products or bleach but, in our fish pond we had a real algae problem.
it turned out to be because there was concrete around the pool which leached undesirable substances into the water increasing the algae problem, we moved any concrete and replaced with natural stones and it sorted it out.
 i think it was the ph that was too high cos of the concrete.
might be worth considering

[DrumAnBass]

Funny I am battling algae in my pool right now as well...

My pool isn't holding chlorine long at all. I have been told that my water is old and I probably need to drain and refill. Just have been avoiding it because of the expense... A buddy converted to the salt method of chlorination but that conversion isn't cheap....

[AtomSmasher]

bleach seems like a bad idea, but I've never tried it (or heard of anyone trying it), so I don't know for sure.  Is the pool having problems holding its clorine?  Have you tried adding conditioner?  (I'm not sure what pool shock is, it could just be conditioner)  Are you having a hard time keeping the pH correct, or is it just the clorine? 

[psik0tik]

By the tester it's perfect. The water doesn't need replacing yet I just had it replaced like 4 mths ago. It holds chlorine fine and the Ph is as good as it gets. I think I'm going to look into the concrete part...we just had a waterfall installed like 2 mths ago and maybe the material they used is messing with the water. Thanks for the suggestions.

Also the salt treatment thing is very very expensive and it doesn't work as well as the 200.00 biogaurd system. It basically breaks down all the oils and sediment into a jelly that sits at the bottom of the pool....then you just vacuum it up.

[polaris]

i wish i could give more detail but it was probably 25 yrs ago and my dad dealt with it , but barring a medium we cant ask him.
he bought some product which was supposed to sort the problem, but it didnt ,so the company requested a sample of the pondwater to test, i dont remember if ultimately it was the ph, but i seem to remember lime being mentioned as the issue with the concrete, try going down the route of fish pond products to see if you can diagnose it that way.

[tk_42_1]

Who is the someone you are talking about?  Have you tried taking a sample to Pinch a Penny?  They test your water for free and you don't have to buy anything from them (even though they might pressure you.) 

I had bad algae problems about a month ago.  4 bags of shock and some special algae killer they had later and my pools been alot better.  I was in my local PaP every other day until I got it straightened out.

There is definitely something happening this year with pools and algae.  All my neighbors have either had problems are have had to use more chemicals then normal.

[bleargh]

Someone told me using bleach instead of pool shock is better is this true. Or do I need to stick with pool shock. It's getting this cloudy green stuff in it recently and I'm having a hard time getting rid of it. The guy told me to add 1gallon of bleach per 1000 gallons of water...that's 25 gallons of bleach...seems kind of alot

Personally, I'd stick with pool shock.  Chlorine bleach may have a similar make up, but somehow the idea of adding 25 gallons of bleach to my pool seems a bit odd.  It'll also be highly dependant on what the mixture for the bleach is; some brands have more chlorine in them than others.

FWIW, at the end of last season I had a horrible problem with algae in our 21' round pool (our second son was born in the middle of summer and I just never got out there often enough to keep it clean).  When we had our water tested I found out that the pH was completely off, and it wouldn't matter how many chlorine pucks I threw in the pool they'd just burn off in a day or two and do nothing.  Had the pH corrected, waited a few days, and then added a stabilizer to help keep the chlorine from burning off so quickly.  Did wonders for the pool; instead of being a cloudy green where you couldn't see the bottom the water was crystal clear.  Cleaning all the dead algae out was a pain in the arse, but the water has been super-clear ever since.  Lesson learned?  Keep the pH in check, otherwise the chlorine doesn't work well.

Two other useful things I've learned...

- Don't put chlorine/shock in at the same time as algaecide.  The algaecide doesn't work anywhere near as good if you've got high chlorine in the water.  Do one, let it sit a few days, then do the other.

- Buy one of those automatic pool cleaners, the kind that hook up to your skimmer.  Saves hours of time.  When we opened the pool in the spring I had tons of dead algae all over the bottom of the pool, and after spending an hour scrubbing the bottom of the pool I'd only managed to clean a few square feet worth (and had stirred up enough stuff to cloud the pool for the rest of the weekend).  Bought one of the automatic cleaners the next week and let it loose in the pool.  Overnight, it cleaned up everything off the bottom and about one-third the way up the sides of the pool.  Cost me ~$300 CDN, but it saved me more than enough time to pay that back.  Instead of vacuuming the pool out two or three times a week, we now just drop this in overnight once or twice.  Saves me ~30mins each time and does a far better job then I could ever do myself.

[abrannan]

Definitely take a sample of water to your local pool supplies store, they can test it for all sorts of things that can be interfering with the chlorine in the water.  Plus, 25 gallons of bleach is going to set you back a lot more than a proper amount of shock & algaecide.

[hulkster]

not to change the subjet but...

i have a pool, and we have to close it soon.  is this hard to do?  i bought a cover, and plugs for all the holes (heh...plugs for the holes) but the part im worried about is blowing out the line with a vacuum.  i have a shop vac, but ive heard that closing the pool requires taking apart the filter or something.  is that true?  ill probably end up hiring someone to come out and close it for me the first time so i can learn, but wont if you guys can give me a good head start.

[Ed_McCarron]

Bleach is aqueous sodium hypochlorite.  Its pretty weak.  Thats why the 25 gallons.

Shock is simply an different chlorine containing solution.

A few of the water treatment plants I've done work in will use bleach in a pinch to decontaminate their wells.

Clorox actually mentions using it to chlorinate kiddy pools on their website.

[mccoy178]

I happen to build pools for a living.  My suggestion on the algae is to lower your PH to 7.2 or around there and pour your shock in at night.  I would recommend 8-12 gallons.  Sunlight burns the liquid chlorine out of the water.  By putting it in at dusk, it will be effective through the night and turn the green into the cloudy skeletons that you vacuum out.  If you put the chlorine in during sunlight, it typically burns off in a couple hours.  After you've given the pool a good shock, raise the PH back up, as low ph is not good.

not to change the subjet but...

i have a pool, and we have to close it soon.  is this hard to do?  i bought a cover, and plugs for all the holes (heh...plugs for the holes) but the part im worried about is blowing out the line with a vacuum.  i have a shop vac, but ive heard that closing the pool requires taking apart the filter or something.  is that true?  ill probably end up hiring someone to come out and close it for me the first time so i can learn, but wont if you guys can give me a good head start.

Is it an above ground or inground?  I can walk you through it.

[xar256]

I happen to build pools for a living.  My suggestion on the algae is to lower your PH to 7.2 or around there and pour your shock in at night.  I would recommend 8-12 gallons.  Sunlight burns the liquid chlorine out of the water.  By putting it in at dusk, it will be effective through the night and turn the green into the cloudy skeletons that you vacuum out.  If you put the chlorine in during sunlight, it typically burns off in a couple hours.  After you've given the pool a good shock, raise the PH back up, as low ph is not good.

Agreed.  It is always best to shock after sunset and leave the pool uncovered.  Also be sure to check your stable chlorine as well (pucks/sticks/etc).  The shock is an unstable chlorine solution that burns off in direct sunlight.  The stable chlorine is what keeps the chlorine in your pool during normal use.  If the stable chlorine is low, that may be a cause for your algae problems as well.

Typical treatment process for Algae problems: Shock, wait for chlorine levels to normalize, vacuum dead stuff, then heavy algicide.  Depending on how bad it is you may need to repeat.  Be sure to use the correct amounts for your size of pool.

And don't use bleach to shock.  Bleach is more stable than shock, and if you bring the levels high enough to kill an algae bloom, it's gonna damage your liners/covers, and any other plastics in the water.  You "can" use it place of normal stable chlorine, but from what I've seen, you'll appreciate the convenience of stick/pucks overall.  They are MUCH easier to regulate chlorine levels.

<edit> My Engrish needs work 

[hulkster]

I happen to build pools for a living.  My suggestion on the algae is to lower your PH to 7.2 or around there and pour your shock in at night.  I would recommend 8-12 gallons.  Sunlight burns the liquid chlorine out of the water.  By putting it in at dusk, it will be effective through the night and turn the green into the cloudy skeletons that you vacuum out.  If you put the chlorine in during sunlight, it typically burns off in a couple hours.  After you've given the pool a good shock, raise the PH back up, as low ph is not good.

not to change the subjet but...

i have a pool, and we have to close it soon.  is this hard to do?  i bought a cover, and plugs for all the holes (heh...plugs for the holes) but the part im worried about is blowing out the line with a vacuum.  i have a shop vac, but ive heard that closing the pool requires taking apart the filter or something.  is that true?  ill probably end up hiring someone to come out and close it for me the first time so i can learn, but wont if you guys can give me a good head start.

Is it an above ground or inground?  I can walk you through it.

inground. 

[DrumAnBass]

Good tips guys. When you add shock at night, do you leave the filter running?

One other question -  my pool was originally built with a sand filter rather than DE. How often should I change out the sand? I generally backwash it every other month. Haven't changed the sand since I have lived in the house - almost 4 yrs.

I agree with bleargh about the pool sweep/vacuum. Best $300 I have ever spent as well.

[FrizzleFried]

My old man used to bring home Hydocloric acid from his work (Chrome plating) and put that in our concrete pool...

[ChadTower]

Chrome plating... pfft... we all know he was in zombie disposal.

[xar256]

Good tips guys. When you add shock at night, do you leave the filter running?

Yep.  Anything you're trying to kill off in your pool(algae, dead skin, various wastes), will be present in the filter as well. Ya wanna kill/burn as much of it as possible.

One other question -  my pool was originally built with a sand filter rather than DE. How often should I change out the sand? I generally backwash it every other month. Haven't changed the sand since I have lived in the house - almost 4 yrs.

If memory serves, it generally should be changed every 5 years.

[bleargh]

One other question -  my pool was originally built with a sand filter rather than DE. How often should I change out the sand? I generally backwash it every other month. Haven't changed the sand since I have lived in the house - almost 4 yrs.

If memory serves, it generally should be changed every 5 years.

Crap... and I've been changing mine every year...  Not like it costs a fortune, though... $25 for a bag of filter sand each year is nothing compared to the cost of the other chemicals that have to go into the pool regularly.

Any reason to not change the filter sand each year?

[xar256]

Any reason to not change the filter sand each year?

Yeah...You could spend that time working on a cab...Duh!   




Seriously...It won't harm anything, but you won't see any particular benefit from it either.  Kinda like changing your furnace filter every 2 weeks.

[bleargh]

Any reason to not change the filter sand each year?

Seriously...It won't harm anything, but you won't see any particular benefit from it either.  Kinda like changing your furnace filter every 2 weeks.

Glad to hear.  Cuz it sure is easier to move it into storage when it doesn't have 100lbs of sand in it...

[psik0tik]

Ok it's all sorted now. I just had to add an extra chemical due to the waterfall. They built the waterfall with faux rock so I have to add extra algeacide to it. Thanks for everyones help

[clanggedin]

My aunt has a summer home here in Utah. Wehn I was younger they hired me to get their pool ready for them when they arrived in the summer. Usually the pool was green and horrible when I'd get to it.

I always used Clorox to as a shock treatment and in a few days with the filter running it would look good again. I recall usuing quite a bit of bleach. THey don;t have a huge pool, but I would imagine that I used 10-15 gallons on their pool.

The PH after the treatment would be almost to where it needed to be. The sun would burn off the needed amount in a day or so.

[DaOld Man]

I dont have a pool, but I asked a friend of mine at work who does have one.
He suggested to fill the pool in with dirt. "This will cure all your problems."
He said he has been trying to talk his wife into letting him do it for years. Promises here one heck of a flower garden.
 

I would love to have a pool, but would hate the work someone would have to do to keep it up.