Need help with chemicals

[Mariza]

ok so hubby tested our water and said
"no measurable chlorine and PH is off the scale too high"
water is cloudy and nasty algae problem going on.
I had pool repair guys out on Wednesday to plug a leak, added 6 bags
of Super Sockit, 10 gallons liquid bleach, and ran filter for 8 hours.

I have 500SF surface area in a 24,000 gallon (estimated) concrete
inground pool. What do I need to add to clear up my water and get
it back in balance?
Mariza

[CarlD]

First, you need a good test kit.
Second, you need information of the best way to clear your problems.

We have lots and lots of threads on this: proper pool chemistry, algae control, testing--many are stickied in various forums. That's the best place to start.

[Mariza]

From the testing:
Chlorine--no measurable chlorine.
pH--VERY High, above 8. Took 10 drops to get back down.
(Need muriatic acid?)
Alkalinity--140 (slightly high, but acid will bring back down also.)



I have read the threads and other posts and find the whole thing
a bit confusing. I think I need to add muriatic acid to bring down the
pH right?

[dawndenise]

Hi Mariza,

Yes, muriatic acid will lower your pH. Approx. 19.2 oz of MA will lower your pH reading by .2 in a 24,000 gallon pool.

pH adjustment alone, however, won't solve your cloudy water and algae. You need chlorine - :) - and probably a good amount of it. How much chlorine depends on what you have now (you said you have none) and your stabilizer level (aka: conditioner, CYA, cyanuric acid). I too found all the information on balancing pool water a bit confusing to start, but it gets a whole lot easier!!

As Carl said, you need a good test kit. I can't emphasize that enough! Without the means to tell what's going on with your water, you'll just be throwing chemicals in the pool, hoping something will magically make it all better. That's a prescription for a disaster while spending a whole lot of money :eek: . To clear your water, you'll want to test your water quite a bit. The 5-way or 6-way drops test kit from Wal-Mart could get you started and it's less than $15. In a bind (not as a routine), take a water sample to a local pool store and have them test it for you. If you can post your "exact" pH, chlorine (FC and CC), and stabilizer readings, you can get a lot of really good specific advice that fits YOUR pool. An alkalinity reading (TA) and calcium hardness (CH) reading would be nice too.

Your pool CAN get clean and clear again - we just need some solid numbers to give you the right advice. :)

[Poolsean]

If you can get a water sample tested and post the results back here, we can assist more. Test for:
Free Chlorine
Total Chlorine
pH
Total Alkalinity
Calcium Hardness
Cyanuric Acid

After treating your pool for algae, make sure you backwash your filter (or clean your cartridge, whichever the case is). Don't worry about adjusting alkalininty until after algae is cleared up, but definately bring your pH down so that the chlorine can be more effective.
Another thing, depending on what your cya and pH levels, you can use a tri-chlor shock treatment if cya is low and pH is high. Tri-chlor will somewhat balance that due to the low pH and cya nature of the tab. If Cya is high and pH is high, you can use bleach and muriatic acid (but not at the same time - do not mix these in a container!!!)
If calcium hardness is high, do not use any calcium hypochlorite based shock treatments.

So you can see why knowing what the current chemical levels are. From there, we can recommend the correct solution for you.

[eckardsl]

Check out the below url. This lists the pool chemicals you can buy at a grocery store. You need to get the ph right before anything else in my opinion, otherwise your chlorine will disappear in a hurry. 20 muleteam borax can lower your ph.
I would keep my pump running continuously while I brush, backwash. Preceed this with a good dose of "poly60". You can get this at walmart. It is the only thing to combat mustard algae which you might have. This below link is only one tip of the ten. Check it out and good luck!


http://www.poolsolutions.com/tips/tip02.html

[Mariza]

Ugh.

So I had pool guys out two weeks ago to fix leak in the pool...$515. They repaired two pipes on the filter and patched one other pipe they said was sucking air. We went away for a vacation and came back to water levels that dropped about 7 inches. Looks like I can't do anything with the chemicals until I get the leak fixed. They did die test and pressure test on both of the skimmer lines and found no leak there.

No way to run filter = no way to clean up pool. Double Ugh!
Mariza