I am in the process this week (and in weeks to come, apparently) of battling our pool to get it blue.
Yes, we have let it get way from us. Yes, we neglected it all winter and it turned into a pond of sorts full of pond scum. Yes, it was gross. And yes, it was going to start to smell if we did not address the issue soon. Especially now that the sun is starting to come out and Spring is coming. Anyway, I found this write-up in my search for what I might be doing wrong or how I should proceed etc., etc. to get it blue and I almost died laughing. If you have a pool that you have let get away from you and you are too idiotic, stubborn, cheap, or embarrassed to hire an expert to do the job for you, like we are, you will understand.
Here’s an excerpt:
Day 1
About a month ago I was visiting Trey’s house and his swimming pool was dark, dark green, and had these little things swimming in it. I consulted my next door neighbor Mark who has a pool, and he told me that I probably needed to shock the pool and add algae cleaner to it and it would be fine. So off I go to Home Depot and bought shock and algae cleaner….I dump 3 pounds of shock in the pool and a bottle of algae cleaner in the pool and nothing happens…What ….this is supposed to work…Oh ok, so it’s not instant , you need to wait at least 4 hours before anything happens according to the back of the package ….so I sit by the pool to wait ..Cost $20. Sitting by the pool and drinking a bottle or two of wine $30.00. Well maybe cause it is such a big pool it will take longer than 4 hours, so I’ll come back tomorrow.
Day 2
The next day I go back….duh….it’s still green….
Bring my neighbor over and he says….well you just didn’t add enough shock….So I go buy 6 pounds of shock this time…and a black algae cleaner as they say maybe I have black algae….Ok so I go dump it in the pool….Cost $60 …..remember Shock doesn’t work instantly. So we sit by the pool and have a few glasses of wine….Cost of wine another $20.00
Day 3
I go to a pool store this time, not Home Depot and they tell me well if it is really green and has things in it, you probably just need to shock it for several days in a row….Ok so now I buy more shock and more algae stuff and pour it in another $75 dollars down the drain, but hey wait….there is foam all over the top of the pool……frantic call to the pool place, and a comment of “oh yes, that’s normal…that just means the algae has finally reacted with the shock so it is working now”
“But it is still green…..
“Well have you added Clorine tablets to that thing that floats in the pool? ”
” No do I need to do that too? ”
“Why yes…You have to always have Clorine tablets in that floating thing…”
OK back to the pool place and spend $107 on a tub of clorine tablets
“geez this is getting expensive….I’m now at about $300 on trying to get this pool to turn blue and four or five bottles of wine
[....]
Day 13
Ah Sunshine…now back to the pool….
well it is still green….back to the pool place
“Listen I am not supposed to tell you this, because we are here to sell chemicals but if you will use bleach in it, it should turn blue. Use 1 gallon of bleach for every 1000 gallons of water.”
“How do I know how many gallons of water the pool has?”
‘Well most home pools have about 16,000 gallons”
‘OK thanks’
So then we are off to the grocery store…..Do you have any idea the looks you get when you buy 24 bottles of bleach at the same time? People in the check out line give you the look that says…..”what you have that many dirty clothes”……You see they don’t sell gallons of bleach, they sell 3 quarts of bleach in a bottle. Another $40
Back to the pool dump it all in, and yes wait some more. Well good excuse to have another bottle of wine.
Day 14
Wow it is a lighter shade of green maybe it is working….But in the shallow end I can now see that there is a layer of stuff on the bottom, not leaves but Sand?…..Back to the pool store…
“.Oh you need to vacumn that up”….
“What, are you telling me that the leaf bagger you just sold me is not going to catch that sand or algae or whatever it is….
” Oh No you need a regular vacumn….You can get an automatic one for $299.00-$499.00 or you can get this one you do yourself for $19.99 and another pole for another $19.99…
So I go the cheap route and get the one where you do it yourself,
I mean after all I am now at about $400 in chemicals in this pool and it is still green. And 14 bottles of wine now
Geez this is getting expensive.
[...]
Day 25
ITS STILL BLUE, you can see the bottom and the water is clear…vacuum the bottom which stirs up a little of the silt……add two more bottles of clarifier. $28 another bottle of wine $18
DAY 26
ITS STILL BLUE….
you can see the bottom, only a little silt remains….vacumnnnnnnnnn and YEAH…..A PERFECT POOL
Lessons learned.
[...]
4.Oxiclean really does work in a pool, but it’s way too expensive to use all the time. But if you want to see instant blue, dump in 2 bottles of oxiclean at once, instant gratification…but it doesn’t last so use pool shock.I told you I was desperate…
5.Buy at least a case of wine, it’s cheaper that way. or just start with Scotch it will be cheaper.
[...]
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This is written by kasi on Ebay and here is the direct link to the full story
http://reviews.ebay.com/Green-Swimming-Pool-How-to-Make-it-Turn-Blue_W0QQugidZ10000000001404583
Check it out.
It made me feel a million times better to know I am not alone in this journey.
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ps. just for the record, we do LOVE our pool. we use it almost every day in the Spring, Summer and Fall. it is worth every minute of the frustration.
pps. that is not our pool in the picture above. that is the white house museum pool. ours does look kind of like that. minus the gazebo. and add a slide. a blue slide. with a twist. a slide that if you go down as an adult will shoot you down and out so fast you will remember what it feels like to be 10 years old again.
