Baking soda - too much?

Hi folks - wish i had found this forum before being socked at the local pool store - ugh! Anyway, lesson learned.

I just got our first little pool for my toddlers - a Summer Escape vinyl 8' round 30" deep with a small pump. Holds 650 gallons. I will be picking up my Walmart HTH test kit tomorrow, but am using Pool Time test strips in the meanwhile. Ch.orine is fine but both alkalini and PH were measuring very low, so I added about 6 oz baking soda dissolved in water first. Half hour later and PH is showing Very High (8.4).

What should be my next step, or should I just wait it out? I'm not letting the babies swim until it's safe for them.

Many thanks for this fantastic forum!

Hi, Stacy.

I'd say wait until you get the kit tomorrow, run a full set of numbers and then post them here for us to look at. If your pH truly is high, then you'll need some muriatic acid to lower it. What are you using as your source of chlorine?

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

Will do - also, I'm using the 1" chlorine tablets. Are those okay? I need to do some searches on here for small pool maintenance! Great to be here...

Those tabs are trichlor and are probably ok to use but we need to know the CYA level to be sure. You also need to be sure they don't have any unwanted things in them like copper. (Contrary to popular belief, it is copper that turns blonde hair green, not chlorine.) Check the label ingredients and let us know what it says. If you do use them, make sure your little ones don't play with the tablet floaters.

You might want to go over to our sister website www.poolsolutions.com and do some reading. There are a couple of pool guides on kiddie pool chemistry and kiddie pool care that might be helpful.

Hi Stacy;

In general, you want to avoid the "dose now; test later" approach to pool care -- it's related to the "saw now, measure later" school of carpentry, and gives similar results.

Trichlor tabs are going to be tricky to use on a really small pool like that. I'd recommend using a combination of plain 6% household bleach AND dichlor chlorine granules. You can get the bleach at Walmart, and while you're there, pick up a set of plastic measuring cups, for use with the pool. They will also have dichlor at Walmart, but I can't recommend it, because they've been blending it with so many things.

If you ALREADY have trichlor, tell us how much you have, what the EXACT brand name is, and how you are putting it in the pool.

Hi folks - finally got home with the 6-way HTH test and was able to get some numbers. Please note that it's been raining heavily all day:

-I have 8 lbs. of Seaboard Industries Mini-tabs Trichlor-s-triaz... 99% - I have used 1 so far by putting the 1" tab into the filter dispenser of the pool pump.

-Total Chlorine measured at 1 ppm
-Ph is at 7.2 units
-Alkalinity - it turned pale red at 130 ppm and then a true red at 140 ppm - which should I go by?
-Didn't check for hardness because I've read (here I think!) that it doesn't matter for a little vinyl pool
-CYA - this one was weird - it never turned cloudy and therefore the black dot at the bottom of the test vial remained visible at all times, so unable to get a reading.

I picked up bleach, Borax and the HTH algaecide today at Walmart but am doing nothing further until I hear back from some experts, after my little baking soda experiment. ;)

Take the algaecide back! Most algaecides cause foamy water problems and you don't want that. Plus, as long as you keep chlorine in the pool, you shouldn't have an algae problem. I never use algaecide in my pool.

You can't detect a CYA reading below 30 and since yours is a new pool and has only used one puck, you just don't have enough CYA to measure yet. I'm thinking that those pucks are probably ok since they are 99% Trichlor but let's let Ben make the final call on that one. If you do use them, you certainly won't be able to use 8 lbs. of them. They add CYA and you'll need to monitor your CYA level and quit using them when you get to about 50ppm. Then you can just switch to adding a little bleach. But, wait and see what Ben thinks about them. He is right that dichlor would probably be a good choice for your pool instead of the pucks since they also add CYA as well as chlorine, but since you have opened the pucks and won't be able to return them, it would be great if you could use them. What you don't use can be stored until next year as long as they are kept dry.

Your pH is ok at 7.2 but if it goes any lower, you'll want to add a little Borax. With such a small volume, you'll want small doses. I guess I'd try maybe an eighth of a cup and see what that does for you. By the way, those pucks are very acidic and will drive your pH down.

Alk is fine at 130 or 140 with your pool. No more baking soda.

For now, keep the chlorine between 1-3ppm. As your CYA level rises, you'll need to keep it a little higher. See the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below for more about that.

Talked to Ben -- your trichlor should be fine to use. Just be careful to watch your pH closely and be ready to add Borax. Also, monitor your CYA level every week or so. Not too often or you'll run out of testing reagent.

Thanks so much for your help and info! I'll bring that algaecide back to Walmart, btw. From reading here it seems like just a little bit of monitoring and prevention saves you a ton of trouble and work, so I'll be sure to keep the levels where they should be and not let problems start.

Thanks again. My pool is just a little dinky one but perfect for my 19-month-old twins, me, and a husband overheated from 3 hours on his mower! ;)