7.2 vs >8.2 Grrrrrrrrrrr

[Infidel]

Since switching to the BBB method I'm using a Taylor test kit. I'm constantly fighting algae, keeping my Cl high ~20ppm (80ppm CYA).

The Cl doesn't appear to be working, even at shock levels >25ppm.

My Taylor kit says the pH is 7.2, my poolmaster kit says my pH is >8.2.

WTF???? is going on. I realize I've got a lot of chlorine to neutralize with the sodiumthio, so I'm adding 2-3 drops of reagent 4 (poolmaster kit) prior to the phenolphthalein. Doesn't matter, still reading >8.2.

I'm starting to believe the cheap poolmaster test because the cl is appearing innefective. Could the premixed Taylor reagent not have enough sodiumthio in it for high Cl levels, giving a bad pH reading?

I'm about to start dropping the pH level, in spite of what the Taylor kit says. It's a new kit btw, only got it two weeks ago, reagents should be fresh.

[mjs31]

Since switching to the BBB method I'm using a Taylor test kit. I'm constantly fighting algae, keeping my Cl high ~20ppm (80ppm CYA).

The Cl doesn't appear to be working, even at shock levels >25ppm.

My Taylor kit says the pH is 7.2, my poolmaster kit says my pH is >8.2.

WTF???? is going on. I realize I've got a lot of chlorine to neutralize with the sodiumthio, so I'm adding 2-3 drops of reagent 4 (poolmaster kit) prior to the phenolphthalein. Doesn't matter, still reading >8.2.

I'm starting to believe the cheap poolmaster test because the cl is appearing innefective. Could the premixed Taylor reagent not have enough sodiumthio in it for high Cl levels, giving a bad pH reading?

I'm about to start dropping the pH level, in spite of what the Taylor kit says. It's a new kit btw, only got it two weeks ago, reagents should be fresh.

I thought a low PH caused Algea. May be incorrect, but if this is true and your Taylor test kit is accurate, you would be hurting yourself. Again...I may very well be wrong on the ph/algea thing. You should wait for the experts to give you an answer.

[Infidel]

I added some acid to the pool and the poolmaster kit was responsive right away, pH now reading in the 7.6 range.

I took the Taylor kit and added some additional sodiumthio from the poolmaster kit before the Taylor reagent (004), and the kit was reponsive at 7.6.

FYI, in my opinion, the Taylor reagent 004 does not contain enough sodium thiosulfate to adequately neutralize the Cl in high Cl pools. Supplement with some sodiumthio of your own for an accurate reading.

[Infidel]

I thought a low PH caused Algea. May be incorrect, but if this is true and your Taylor test kit is accurate, you would be hurting yourself. Again...I may very well be wrong on the ph/algea thing. You should wait for the experts to give you an answer.

Lack of Cl will allow algae to grow, high pH will lock up the Cl making it innefective, which is why I have 25ppm Cl with no affect. The Taylor kit doesn't appear to be accurate but I'm not sure what damage low pH would cause with regard to algae.

[mjs31]

Lack of Cl will allow algae to grow, high pH will lock up the Cl making it innefective, which is why I have 25ppm Cl with no affect. The Taylor kit doesn't appear to be accurate but I'm not sure what damage low pH would cause with regard to algae.

I can see your point on locking up CH levels, But low levels of PH will dissapate your chlorine requiring you to use more. Essentially this could lead to algea issues as well. Not sure which is accurate and which is not. I have the Taylor kit and it has helped me out greatly over the past few days. I do stress to wait for an accurate response from the experts in this forum. They can do wonders.

[duraleigh]

Anybody can write anything they want and post it on the net. Nevertheless, This excerpt was taken from an article about chlorine that seemed quite believable and well thought out. It should answer your questions about the relationship of Cl and pH
The amount of hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion that is produced when chlorine is added to the water is directly related to the pH of the water. At a pH of 6.0, 96% of the chlorine will become the desired "killing" form of chlorine, hypochlorous acid. At a pH of 7.0, 75% of the chlorine will become hypochlorous acid and at 8.0 the hypochlorous acid concentration is only 25%. At a pH of 7.5 (the average spa) the amount of hypochlorous acid produced is about 50%.

[waterbear]

I added some acid to the pool and the poolmaster kit was responsive right away, pH now reading in the 7.6 range.

I took the Taylor kit and added some additional sodiumthio from the poolmaster kit before the Taylor reagent (004), and the kit was reponsive at 7.6.

FYI, in my opinion, the Taylor reagent 004 does not contain enough sodium thiosulfate to adequately neutralize the Cl in high Cl pools. Supplement with some sodiumthio of your own for an accurate reading. Actually, the taylor pH reagent (phenol red, not phenolphthlalein!) is corrected up to about 15 ppm. If the chlorine levels are too high for the phenol red reagent with any kit you will get high pH readings, not low! (reasons are technical so I will not post them here. I have posted them in many other threads but in a nutshell the phenol red is converted to chlorophenol red which tests the pH range of 4.6 to 6.8.) Adding the sodium thiosulfate chlorine neutralizer works up to a point but it does raise the pH of the test sample which explains why the taylor reagnet read a higher pH when you added it. I would believe the taylor reagent! The poolmaster reagent obviously is not corrected for high chlorine levels, hence the reading of 8.2. Your actual pH is way below that. because of the interference all that purple color you are getting means is that the pH is above 6.8!
My advice is to either test you pH with a properly calibrated pH meter or allow your chlorine levels to drop to about 6-8 ppm, which is as high as you need to run it for a CYA of 80 ppm! High chlorine can also interfere with the TA test and might interfere with the CH test so you might want to check all of these when the pH is lower. I would also suggest redoing the CYA test and see if you get the same results. I suspect that your CYA is either higher than you think or you have not kept your chlorine levels up high enough and have let them yo-yo up and down which will not kill the algae. How are you testing for chlorine? Are you using the DPD test in the Taylor K-2005 or the FAS-DPD titration test in the K-2006? If I am not mistaken the Poolmaster test kits have OTO which only tests total chlorine.

[waterbear]

Anybody can write anything they want and post it on the net. Nevertheless, This excerpt was taken from an article about chlorine that seemed quite believable and well thought out. It should answer your questions about the relationship of Cl and pH
Pretty much true. The ratio of any weak acid to it's corresponding ion (in this case hypochorous acid/hypochorite ions) is pretty much pH dependant!

[Poolsean]

"Lack of Cl will allow algae to grow, high pH will lock up the Cl making it innefective, which is why I have 25ppm Cl with no affect. The Taylor kit doesn't appear to be accurate but I'm not sure what damage low pH would cause with regard to algae."

With the high chlorine and no affect on the algae, you're probably dealing with high phosphates as well, which is just allowing the algae to feast in your pool. Check and treat for phosphates.

[waterbear]

Good point Sean, This might be one of the cases where phosphate removers are actually called for. Test your phosphate leves and also test your nitrate levels. If phosphates are high and nitrates are low then phosphate remover might work for you!

[Infidel]

Thanks for all the info. Here's some background:

Alk 120 (consistent with reading 2 wks ago)
Ca 350 (consistent with reading 2 wks ago)
CYA ~100+ from reading tonight, has been reading 72-80 last 2 wks
pH 7.6 OTO / <7 Taylor (as of 2am Texas time)

Cl is being read from the Taylor at 1:5, color is usually between the 3 and 5.
I'll grab a pH meter from work tomorrow and start checking the "real" pH and see what method is accurate. I use the K-2005 kit from Taylor.

Are you sure 6-8 ppm is suitable for lime green pool with CYA ~80? WIth regards to consistent concentration, I'm unable to distinguish between the 3 and 5 (15-25 ppm) on the color comparator, so if it's yoyoing, it's doing it between 15-25, which should be sufficient to keep things killed, even at the low point in the cycle, correct?

The pool is looking less green since adding acid 4-5 hrs ago. The low pH should be increasing the %hypochlorus according to Duraleigh's excerpt, which appears to be occurring. So, algae in spite of high Cl, may indicate pH is elevated and the active Cl isn't present in great enough quantities it sounds like.

Are phosphate / nitrate commonly performed by pool stores?

[brent.roberts]

I've seen it posted here a number of times that the best range for PH when fighting algae is 7.2 to 7.2

The above explanation about ion levels shows why. So I think I'b be shooting
to get the PH to 7.2

To really get the kill going well, tonight, as soon as the sun is off the pool, dose it up to your shock level. Run the pump to circulate and re-test in an hour or so. If you see a big drop, dose it again, and keep doing that till you can't stay awake. This will cut the yo-yo out.

If the majority of the CL is consumed in the first couple hours after adding, the the algae can go right on growing again throughout a lot of the night. So check it every hour or so tonight.

Keep track of what it does and let us know.

[duraleigh]

I am watching this thread devolve (yes, that's the word I meant) into issues that I think are peripheral to the problem. Chlorine kills algae

If you still have algae in your pool, you have not brought your chlorine levels high enougn, long enough to get rid of it.

The solution is to bring your Cl level up to about 30-35ppm in the evening and then test your Cl the next AM. Whatever drop has occurred is the result of killing organisms. Bring your Cl right back up to that 30-35 level immediately. Hold your Cl at that level until your pool is clear and then let it drift back down into a maintenance range of around 5-10ppm.

If this fails, (and I've yet to see it fail on this forum) then I think you could safely assume you have another issue. You cannot tiptoe up to your algae problem....you must kick it straight in the butt with chlorine and kick it long enough to get the desired effect....a clear pool.

PS - If it's not clear, I am in complete agreement with Brent, I just like to use big letters more than he does.:)

[Infidel]

I agree with both of you.

This morning, Mr. Taylor says my Cl is 20ppm and my pH is 7.0 or a tad less. No retreat on the algae front, bombs away.

edit: just added 5ppm Cl to the pool. My pool is shaded most of the day, forecast calls for rain for the next 3 days here anyways, so no worries on waiting for the sun to be off of it.

Anyone feel it's necessary bring the pH up a bit? Or is a tad low during an algae assault preferred?

[Infidel]

8hrs later, still no change in algae, Cl maintaining at 25-30+ppm, pH ~7 per the Taylor kit. There appears to be no consumption of Cl at this point, and no reduction in algae.

Is it possible the breakpoint has not been reached at these levels, or that the Cl is being rendered innefective for some other reason?

Didn't go to work today, too tired from being up at 4 am testing my pool:eek: no pH meter. Did try to take a water sample to a pool store, far underestimated the quantity they'd need. They also said they'd need my surface area and volume. No chemical parameter I've ever seen is dependent on those things, only the amounts of chemicals a store wants to sell you. Why can't they just give me numbers. How much grief can I expect when I tell them I'm just confirming my home test kit numbers.

[duraleigh]

I would add a massive dose (1,000,000ppm) of POP....Pool owner patience. :) Clearing an algae issue may happen overnight but, more likely, will take a few days (from the time you reached breakpoint.....8 hours ago)

The important thing to remember is .....stay the course. Don't let your Cl drift down until your water is clear. You're running your pump 24/7 and backwashing as necessary, aren't you?

[waterbear]

I've seen it posted here a number of times that the best range for PH when fighting algae is 7.2 to 7.2
actually, If you are fighting algae a pH of about 7.8 is beneficial because you will favor the formation of monochloramine, which is a very good algae killer. It is short lived, however so you will have a big chlorine demand.
The above explanation about ion levels shows why. So I think I'b be shooting
to get the PH to 7.2

To really get the kill going well, tonight, as soon as the sun is off the pool, dose it up to your shock level. Run the pump to circulate and re-test in an hour or so. If you see a big drop, dose it again, and keep doing that till you can't stay awake. This will cut the yo-yo out.

If the majority of the CL is consumed in the first couple hours after adding, the the algae can go right on growing again throughout a lot of the night. So check it every hour or so tonight.

Keep track of what it does and let us know. Hope this is helpful! Also, I would double check your CYA levels. the test is the most subjective and it is possible that they are higher than you think they are. Your own testing hints to that! In that case you have probably not brought your pool up to a true shock level and kept it there long enough to kill the algae!

[Infidel]

I suspect the CYA levels are higher then I thought, as the last test indicated. Since my Cl readings are so variable, I'm sticking to a schedule of adding 12.5ppm Cl every 12 hours (8am, 8pm). This should hopefully maintain at shock level long enough.

The pump is running 24/7, not backwashing though due to the pressure in the filter tank not being elevated. Pool Co. out to give me a quote on replaster yesterday indicated that my sand filter may need cleaning if I've got lots of algae that is difficult to remove. Any truth to that?

[duraleigh]

Backwashing cleans your filter and sand....that's all you need. You may backwash anytime you like but I always look for a pressure rise first.

That 12.5ppm worries me a bit. How do you know that? It sounds more like you are putting in 12.5% Cl which may or not relate to ppm. How big is this pool (gallons)? If it's 10k, I understand. If it's not, you need to recalculate.

[brent.roberts]

I want to encourage you to check and top up the chlorine more frequently than every 12 hours.

Here's what can happen.

At 7:00 PM you top you your chlorine to say 20ppm. If there is a lot of algae
in the pool it can be down to 8 or 10 PPM in 2 hours. After 4 hours the level is so low that it starts growing and reproducing again. By the time you get up the next morning at 7:00 AM to top it off, you are back to the same pea soup you had when you went to bed.

Now you top up at 7:00 AM and you have the whole day's sunlight to kick the h*** out of the chlorine along with the algae basking in the sun and reproducing.

Try to shorten the cycle. Initially topping up every couple hours could be quite important. As the algae concentrations go down, the yo-yo of your chlorine levels will slow down and you can relax the schedule a bit, but you've got to break the back of the chlorine.

Do you have a reliable CYA measurement yet ??

[Infidel]

Part of the problem with checking the Cl is that I have pretty wide margin of error due to dilution, I'm probably looking at +/- 20ppm when I look at the comparator and the color is between the 3 and 5, and I'm at a 5x or 10x dilution. I could have 10-15ppm of Cl consumed immediately and not be able to detect it on the test kit.

I'm using the poolcalc to determine the 12.5ppm, it's more like an 8K gallon pool, I'm using 6% bleach in 1.7 gal jugs ~12.5ppm addition/jug.

I agree that the free Cl could be consumed within a few hours, leaving me below the breakpoint/shock level for too long. I'll add more frequently. I know the consequences of not enough Cl, but I'm not sure there are any bad things that can happen if I over chlorinate. With my high CYA and organic issue I think that a high Cl condition wouldn't persist very long. Wife and kid swam today with elevated Cl with no issues, about 4 hours after the last 12.5ppm addition, there's actually not a lot of Cl odor either. It's either getting consumed breaking down organics or it's not available due to pH or CYA issues. Ph is maintaining around 7.2.

[Infidel]

A 22.5ppm jolt this am leaving for work, nice and blue by the time I got home.

[brent.roberts]

congrats !!

you've almost earned your stripes as a true beleiver in the BBB method.

keep the filtering going and hold the CL pretty high for a couple more days

Brush it everywhere to uncover any living algae that may be hiding under a layer of dead slime.

Next week you need to get a handle on the high level of CYA.
I don't recall if you were using stabilized chlorine ( pucks or tablets ) that continually add CYA, but it is a pretty common trap. The CYA keeps going up and the owner sees the CL levels at 3 to 5 and thinks everything is just dandy.
Then the frog pond hits and until you learn that CYA at 100 or more is counter-productive, nothing clears up the algae ( for very long )

The other good news about all this is that the algae ran up the red flag. If algae can grow, so can the nasty bacteria that may make you and the kids sick. Coliform can flourish in the same soup as algae and if the pool didn't go green you might had a rough time until the connection got made that the pool was the source of the infections.

Keep it up. If you need help on a few trick to get the CYA down, there are lots of good folks here to help

[Infidel]

Thanks Brent. I inherited the pool when I bought the house a year ago, it has an inline chlorinator that takes pucks, the previous owner used pucks adn the pool guy that oriented me used pucks, so, I've used pucks. I haven't used a puck yet since finding this site but the damage is done with CYA at 100+ from years of puck use. I'm considering a 50% water change, maybe at the end of the season though.

Now, did I kill the algae with the supershock addition? Was I just pissing in the wind adding 10ppm every 4-6 hours. I added around 16 gallons of bleach over a 3 day period, only improvement I saw was the last 3 gallon addition which seemed to clear it up. Perhaps patience is a bad thing, and an aggressive superchlorination one time is the answer?

Anyways, my sand filter isn't too effective at filtering algae, alive or dead. Recommendations for removing the cloudiness now? I'm thinking of letting it settle to the bottom then vac to waste, seems to have worked the best in the past. Recent rainfall has given me the extra volume I need to send it to waste.

[denanbob]

What does vac to waste mean? I've seen this several times and I'm trying to figure out what it means. Can anyone help a newbie? Thanks!

[CarlD]

What does vac to waste mean? I've seen this several times and I'm trying to figure out what it means. Can anyone help a newbie? Thanks!

Normally, when you vacuum a pool, you plug the hose into the skimmer or the low drain and the pump sucks all the junk out of the pool while you vacuum. You can either direct that dirty water through the filter and let the filter try to clean it (and if some of the dirt is too small it may not) or you can redirect the water to a drain--to waste. Some filters, like sand filters, have a valve on top that allows you to:
1) filter the water
2) simply circulate the water and bypass the filter
3) backwash the filter (force water through backwards knocking the junk loose and directing it to a drain)
4) go directly to the drain and not filter it.
5) block off the filter and pump.

There's a 6th position but I don't remember what it is.

Some filters, like cartridges, don't have a valve like this and you must either open a port on the bottom or just plan on cleaning it.

You can also vacuum to waste by syphon if you can get the hose end outside the pool lower than the pool bottom. The natural syphon acts like a vacuum and by definition vacuums to waste.

[brent.roberts]

Infidel

There really does seem to be a "break point" as some folks here call it.
With your super high CYA your break point will be way up there. Sometimes the advice given here is a bit conservative because some folks with vinyl lined pools might take the method and end up bleaching their liner. Not your problem with a concrete/plaster pool.

Vac to waste will be a good idea. Shut down for a couple hours, let it settle, set up the vac, switch to waste then start the pump and it will be most effective.

When you finish that backwash the filter, get a small bag of Diatomacious Earth (DE). Set the valve on filter and note carefully the pressure reading. Then add DE to the skimmer a cup or two at a time until you see the pressure go up 1 PSI. Keep t

he pump running like that for a couple days. The DE will help quite a bit to get the finest dead algae out. Don't inhale. Not the grass... the DE. The pool grade DE is not good in your lungs.

You should by now have seen the famous "best guess" chart for the chlorination level vs CYA levels. Take good note. You will need to keep the chlorine at pretty high levels until you get the water exchange done. Try diluting the CYA test with distilled water to see just how much above 100 you are. Keep your PH in the 7.2 - 7.3 range and the CL you do have will be more effective.

Good Work.

[Infidel]

Thanks, I lurked for a while before registering, and I usually search pretty thorougly before posting, it was the pH issue with the 2 test kits that initially had me lost.

Let the pool settle over night, not a lot settled out. I'm going to add some DE, which I've been meaning to do for a while, I've always been dissapointed in my sand filter. I need to double check my pH as well.

As for maintaining the Cl level, I'm at a loss. I can't differentiate the color very well and I've got a 5x dilution, 15-25ppm is the best resolution I can get at my levels. Is there a better test kit out there with a more definitive end point for high Cl? Is the DPD-FAS more accurate than the Taylor kit I'm using?

BTW, what can I do with the 30lbs of stabilized pellets I bought shortly before finding this site?

edit: I should add, it may seem tedious to continuously have to explain what DE is, or what vac to waste is, but there's a lot of new people not familiar with things that appreciate the information. There's nothing more annoying than a bunch of old guys on a forum that rip people's heads off for asking questions that everyone else considers common knowledge. Thanks.

[brent.roberts]

Heads don't roll on this forum. (except maybe for those of "poolstore" salespersons )

The FAS/DPD test goes like so
put an amount of pool water into a test tube
add a tiny scoop of a powered dye, it will turn the water red/pink
add a reactant a drop at a time and swirl to mix between drops
suddenly on one drop, the pink goes clear ... done
depending on the kit you use the # of drops to calculate the free chlorine, usually by dividing by 2 eg. 7 drops = 3.5 Parts Per Million ( PPM ) of free chlorine.

That's only half the story though. You need also to find you "combined chlorine" levels. Combined chlorine was at one time, free chlorine in the pool. It has partially reacted with organics in the pool ( worms, leaves, grass, insects, kids pee etc) and has partially oxodized them. This is the source of the stinky chlorine smell you will find around a lot of pools, especially commercial or public pools. It forms this intermediate step because the free chlorine levels were not quite high enough to finish the reaction. So we test for it. If we find much of it we know the job has not quite been done. The solution is, strangely enough, jack up the chlorine levels. This is called shocking. Shock is not a product, but lots of pool stores like to sell stuff that is labelled shock. Shocking is simply bringing up the free chlorine levels to finish the oxodization and eliminate combined chlorines.

So the second half of the test is to discover you Combined Chlorine (CC) level. The FAS/DPD kit has a 3 dropper bottle to do this test. Again it is a clear solution or red solution result and easy to read. If you CC is 0.5 PPM or greater, you increase your chlorine levels for a day or so ... until the CC is back below 0.5 PPM

The kit that Ben sells here has both the easy "shades of yellow/pink/red" test , (aka OTO test) that you say you have problems reading. By the way it is widely believed that women can read that color test better than men. Ben's kit is a great package. His delivery is a bit slow at times. You can also get a pool store to order an FAS/DPD kit for you.

Hope all this helps.

[brent.roberts]

About the 30 lbs of tabs. Keep them on hand. If you know the calibrations on you feeder, it will do a better job of tending the chlorine levels in you pool if you're out of town for a few days ... than most neighbours/well intended freinds. It is know a stabilized chlorine and has very long shelf life. Wrap it well and store it in a cool corner in the basement.

[Infidel]

Well, I spent several years as an analytical chemist, I've done many many titrations for alkalinity and hardness, so I understand titrations pretty well. I'd love to have a definite endpoint, rather than a subjective color comparison, being color blind doesn't help. Guess I'll start tracking down the FAS/DPD kit so I know my real Cl levels. I just spent ~$50 on the Taylor kit which I thought would be the answer to my problems.

And after all this, it still bugs me that I can get 2 very different pH readings from 2 different kits.

[waterbear]

Well, I spent several years as an analytical chemist, I've done many many titrations for alkalinity and hardness, so I understand titrations pretty well. I'd love to have a definite endpoint, rather than a subjective color comparison, being color blind doesn't help. Guess I'll start tracking down the FAS/DPD kit so I know my real Cl levels. I just spent ~$50 on the Taylor kit which I thought would be the answer to my problems.

And after all this, it still bugs me that I can get 2 very different pH readings from 2 different kits. You must have the Taylor K-2005 which uses the DPD test with a comparator tube.. The K-2006 has the FAS-DPD titration test for chlorine. Otherwise it is identical to the K-2005 so most of the reagents are the same. Ben's PS234 is a better 'bang for the buck' in terms of number of tests vs. price!

As an alternative you COULD inve$t in a colorimeter to read the results for you. LaMotte and Hach have some good ones if you have a spare thousand lying around!:rolleyes: Being a chemist I am sure that you understand the importance of calibration of test equipment, otherwise I would not make that suggestion.

[ChuckD]

Well, I spent several years as an analytical chemist, I've done many many titrations for alkalinity and hardness, so I understand titrations pretty well. I'd love to have a definite endpoint, rather than a subjective color comparison, being color blind doesn't help. Guess I'll start tracking down the FAS/DPD kit so I know my real Cl levels. I just spent ~$50 on the Taylor kit which I thought would be the answer to my problems.

And after all this, it still bugs me that I can get 2 very different pH readings from 2 different kits.

Well I've just got to get my US$0.02 in here, reading this thread hurts.

Dude, you've GOT to get your CYA down! This is the source of all your problems. Why waste time on questionable pH and Cl readings all because of you having to SuperDuper Chlorinate because of your CYA (which we're still not sure how high it is)? 100+ CYA is absurd!

Don't mean to offend, respect for your tenacity, but wouldn't it really be easier to drain and dilute and have at it?

C.

[waterbear]

Gotta agree with ChuckD on this one!....get the cya down to repectable levels! Shoot for 30-50 ppm!

[Infidel]

Well I've just got to get my US$0.02 in here, reading this thread hurts.

Dude, you've GOT to get your CYA down! This is the source of all your problems. Why waste time on questionable pH and Cl readings all because of you having to SuperDuper Chlorinate because of your CYA (which we're still not sure how high it is)? 100+ CYA is absurd!

Don't mean to offend, respect for your tenacity, but wouldn't it really be easier to drain and dilute and have at it?

C.

I fully agree, most of my headaches are due to having to have excessive Cl levels due to CYA levels. I shoud bite the bullet and drain it down. It's a relatively small pool so it shouldn't be that bad, I'll need to get a pump since my bottom drain isn't plumbed to the pump. I'm looking at replastering at the end of the season, so I may just deal with it until Oct. though.

[Infidel]

For what it's worth, the Taylor kit pH matches the pH taken via meter. My pool is also the bluest it's ever been for two days now. Spiked the sand filter with some DE, the cloudiness had already cleared a lot, should be great in a day or two.

[waterbear]

For what it's worth, the Taylor kit pH matches the pH taken via meter.
Kinda tried to tell you that before!:)

[Infidel]

This is what 44 ppm Cl looks like. :D

http://usera.imagecave.com/Infidel/Pool.jpg

[brent.roberts]

that's a pretty lookin' pool

at 44 you better post a "no swimming" sign or the tree huggers will be at you for killing frogs

[ChuckD]

I say dump all your dirty whites in there and swish 'em around. It'll save wear and tear on the washer!

Just an idea....

C.

[Infidel]

I say dump all your dirty whites in there and swish 'em around. It'll save wear and tear on the washer!

Just an idea....

C.

I did actually soak/rinse a backpack in there that a cat p'd on, cleaned it right up.:D

I'm out of town now for a few days, my wife said "I hope I don't mess it up while you're gone" ha ha, no worries there, it's good for a while. :D