Baking Soda added,pool turned brown

[mjones]

Sorry, I realize that didn't make alot of sense. She said it was clean & clear (no tint), but it was cloudy. Now she says she can't see bottom because it is so brown. A couple of days ago, I'm trying to remember, ph low,alk ok,fc ok,hardness was high I think. Pool is a Wal-mart Intec (pot of gold style) I think 18ft round by 3 1/2 or 4 feet deep. She said she has 2 chlorine floaters in there. I told her to try taking one out because her cl level was ok, maybe even a little high?

[mjones]

Thanks! I posted into correct place. I am new at this!!

[CarlD]

FYI:
I moved this thread here, and deleted the other one that was here because it had no responses.

[mjones]

kinda confused, but ok. Thank You

[prh129]

How big was the "bag" of baking soda? What was she hoping to do by adding it? The baking soda will raise alkalinity but you say alkalinity was OK. If she was trying to raise pH then she should have used Borax. Without knowing what the original pH is it would be hard to guess how much to use.

If you can post some test numbers that would likely help get you some suggestions but "bag" to me sounds like a lot (25 lbs?) so I have a feeling that the alkalinity is now through the roof. I don't know what would happen in that case but I'm sure someone else here would.

Peter

[mjones]

She said it was a 12 lb bag from wal-mart. She is going to check levels & call me. I will post a.s.a.p. It is suppossed to clear up the cloudiness according to the bag.

[prh129]

According to the chart I have, 1.4 lbs. bicarbonate of soda per 10,000 gallons will raise total alkalinity 10 ppm. If I use BleachCalc on an 18 ft 3.5 ft deep pool, I get 6700 gallons so I figure that 0.94lbs of baking soda per 6700 gallons will raise the alkalinity 10 ppm. If this is correct then 12 lbs would raise her alkalinity by almost 130 ppm. Since the recommended total alkalinity from my chart is 80 to 150 ppm (and the maximum recommended level is 180 ppm) I would guess the odds are pretty good that she is now way too high. I don't know what the effects of that would be but there is a whole section in the forum on alkalinity so you might want to look there.

Peter

[aylad]

It's really anybody's guess without test results in the form of numbers taken with a drop-based kit.......if you can post numbers, along with what type of sanitizer she's using and the source of her water, that would really help....

Janet