Help with getting levels right please!

[one4irish]

I have been struggling with getting all these levels where they need to be. This is my recent readings:
Ph 7.8
Cl/Br .5/1
TA 190
CYA 0
TH 320

I added 16oz of stablizer on Sunday evening, should I add more or wait. I know I need to get my chlorine up, which I have to do everyday/night, is this something that is on going? I also shocked the pool last Thursday (6/10) and yesterday (6/16) due to the water getting cloudy. After the first shock the water cleared, the it is still alittle cloudy. I have been using gran chlorine and the tablets both.

Our pool is just an Intex 15X42 metal pole pool (about 4000 gal).

We have changed our filter twice already (just opened the pool on 6/6). Is that normal? As you can tell I am a pool newbie!

One last thing, we will be leaving tomorrow for Father's day weekend and returning on Monday, what is the best thing to do for my pool? Cover it? Up the chlorine? Don't really have anyone to come take care of it. No timer on pump either. Plus Intex says not to run the pump with the cover on.

Any help would be great!!

Thanks

[CarlD]

You'll need to start reading. In most of the forums there are stickied threads--you'll want to read them.

Your TA is very high, but you don't need to worry about it, so don't.
Your CH is OK, but don't add more.

Your concern is, of course, your pH, TC and CYA.

CYA takes a while to show up so don't add more. You CAN use Trichlor tabs or dichlor power since you pH is high and your CYA is low.

But you can stick with bleach. You currently want your chlorine (actually Free Chorine) to be at least at 10ppm to kill the algae. It will take a couple of days.

[Watermom]

Lots of questions! We'll try and give you a hand.

16 oz. of stabilizer was a good initial dose for this size pool. It should take your cya to around 30ppm. How did you add it? Do NOT add more at this time. It takes awhile to show up when you test for it. Until it begins to start showing up on a test, it is hard to keep chlorine in the pool, as you have found out! For the first week or two, it is necessary to test and add chlorine morning and evening and sometimes even in the middle of the day. After your cya shows up, you'll be able to go to evening testing and adding chlorine only once a day.

The cloudy water could be from one of a couple of things. What kind of granular chlorine have you been using -- cal-hypo or dichlor? Both can cause cloudy water at times. If you are using cal-hypo, I would suggest that you stop. Your calcium hardness reading is already high and a vinyl pool doesn't need calcium. We recommend just using plain bleach for your source of chlorine. It will not cloud you water. Your cloudy water could also be from an algae bloom trying to start from not having a consistent chlorine reading in there. Or it could be from high TA and high CH.

Leaving tomorrow for Father's Day complicates things a little but being with family on a holiday is more important than a pool. I would suggest just adding about a gallon of 6% plain bleach before you leave. You can also leave a couple of the tabs in the pool while you are gone. Covering it will slow the chlorine loss but you may still come back to a cloudy or green pool. But, if that is the case, we will help you get it cleared up next week.

What kind of filter do you have? You also need a good testkit. We recommend the Taylor K-2006 which can be found at this link for a pretty good price.

http://www.amatoind.com/taylor-k2006-test-p-555.html

If you can, maybe go ahead and order one so it will hopefully arrive next week.

Hope this helps some. Repost if you have any other questions and somebody here will try and help.

[one4irish]

Watermom,

I am/was using gran chlorine with cal/hypo (was because now I will stop)! I was wondering why some of my numbers were changing. I will buy some more bleach and add that tomorrow before we leave, and throw in some more tablets in our floater. We would like to cover it just to help keep stuff out of it and help with keeping the chlorine in. We will hope for the best!

Our pump is the Krystal Clear model 637R, which uses a tall cylinder type filter (hole in the middle with pleats around it is the best way to describe it). We have tried to clean the 2 we pulled out but it is really hard to get inbetween the pleats cleaned out. We are considering adding a salt pump to it not sure if that would help anything or not.

Thanks for all your help!

[one4irish]

Watermom,

Forgot to answer how I added the stablizer. I did as you had said in a previous question I put out there...with the sock tied by the input flow. It did seem to go into the water pretty fast, less than a day. Is that normal?

[Watermom]

Yes, that is fine. When you return home next week, run a full set of numbers and we'll see what you get. Hope you have a good weekend.

BTW -- Whenever you make a post and realize you need to add something or see a typo or whatever, instead of making a new post, you can just edit the other one by clicking on the blue EDIT button on the lower right-hand side. There is a certain time frame where the software will let you do this, but I can't remember what it is.

[one4irish]

We are back and do not have a green pool! We have skimmed and vac pool, tested water, changed filter and now the pump is running. I did order the test kit Watermom suggested but it is not here yet, so I used my hth tester and here are my results:

PH 7.5
CL/BR 5/10
TA 190
TH 300

I know my TA is alittle high. Right now the water looks alittle cloudy but might just need the pump to run to clear that up. I do have some PH minus, which is what they say to use to bring it down, but will that bring my ph down too low?

I can not test my CYA yet, because I am out of testing stuff for that with my present kit. Once I get the Taylor kit I will test it.

[polyvue]

We are back and do not have a green pool! We have skimmed and vac pool, tested water, changed filter and now the pump is running. I did order the test kit Watermom suggested but it is not here yet, so I used my hth tester and here are my results:

PH 7.5
CL/BR 5/10
TA 190
TH 300

I know my TA is alittle high. Right now the water looks alittle cloudy but might just need the pump to run to clear that up. I do have some PH minus, which is what they say to use to bring it down, but will that bring my ph down too low?
You can utilize the Pool Calculator (http://www.poolcalculator.com/) to determine how much pH minus (dry acid) to add but if you want to reduce pH do it a little at a time so you don't overshoot the mark. If the purpose is to reduce TA (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191), muriatic acid (MA) might be a better choice -- the only choice you should consider if you have a Salt Water Chlorine Generator (SWG). Where the step-by-step reducing TA stickie suggests the PS233 test kit, you can substitute the Total Alkalinity test found in the Taylor K-2006.

If the CYA level is indeed about 30 PPM, your report of a [Free] Chlorine level of 5 PPM is right on the money. Of course, if the method you're using reports a maximum level of 5 PPM Total Chlorine, it's possible that it's a lot higher -- and that the cloudiness you report might show up in CCs. You'll be able to confirm all of this when you get your Taylor kit

[Watermom]

Glad it isn't green! Since it is cloudy, I'd probably shock the pool and run the pump 24/7. Also stick to bleach. No cal-hypo in your pool. TH is already 300 and don't want it higher.

Check this thread for how to lower alk.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191

Hope your kit comes soon.

BTW -- you have a chlorine pool, no bromine.

[CarlD]

If your goal is to lower T/A, you can use either dry acid or Muriatic acid. Again, the goal is to use LESS than you think and not over-shoot your target pH.

[one4irish]

OK Taylor test kit here and I retested all my stuff here is what I got:

PH 7.6
FC 1.4 ppm
CC .2ppm
CH 180
TA 160
CYA -still 0

I have added bleach to get my chlorine up. My TA is about where we started at the beginning of June. My question is 160 too high? And should I now add more stablizer since it has been June 13th when I first added it.

[aylad]

You can live with a TA of 160 for now, vinyl pools with the BBB method are a little more forgiving than pools with plaster, metal issues, etc. It could stand to come down some, but it won't hurt for now to leave it where it is. Your pH is fine, too.

When you test for your stabilizer, are you shaking the vial with the pool water/reagent mix and then letting it sit for a few minutes before testing, or are you testing right after you shake it up? If you're not letting it sit, try the test again but after you shake the mixture, let it sit on the counter for about 3 minutes before pouring it into the tube with the dot, and see if that makes a difference. Also, if you have a different kit it wouldn't hurt to try it with that one, just to make sure your reagent isn't bad. After 12 days, you should have a CYA level in the water--but I hesitate to have you add more until we're SURE it's not a testing error.

Janet