Help! I'm ready to pull my hair out!

[aylad]

You can add your phone number by clicking on "settings" in the top right corner from the forum main page, then edit your profile from there.

Janet

[CarlD]

Actually Borax and pH Up are not the same thing. Janet mis-spoke. pH Up and Washing Soda are the same thing.
But go ahead and follow the rest of her advice.

Pool store people run results using, mainly a fancier strip than they sell, but it's still a strip, not a drop test. I would trust YOUR pH result of 6.8-7.2 before I'd trust her "5.0".

We send people to get pool store tests only when they cannot do it themselves, but testing yourself is, for most members, far more accurate. I don't think I've EVER brought a water sample to a pool store.

Carl

[mortimay]

She uses a drop test. But she is pushing the chemicals...when I asked her about using borax she agreed that it would work but said the chemicals were better. Her words "you get what you pay for". Anyway, I plan to follow this forums advice exclusively from here on out. I'm all for not using expensive chemicals.

I will ask again: would it be beneficial to partially drain the pool and refill? Is it possible to get this thing clear by this weekend? Does anyone want to come to Indiana and fix it for me??? I think I would be really close had I not had to shut down the pump.

[CarlD]

You could come back to "You get what you pay for" with "knowledge is power!"

Paying $3/lb for Sodium Carbonate, pH Up!, Balance Pack 200, is foolish when you KNOW you can get it for $.80/lb when it's washing soda.

Borax has several advantages over Sodium Carbonate.
It's less corrosive--on your hands it's gentler
It doesn't add T/A to the water
It adds borates to your water and borates inhibit algae growth.

Mainly, I'd shock the heck out of the pool, keep the FC level at the max for the CYA level.

Carl

[mortimay]

added half a box of borax 2 1/2 hours ago. Just checked my pH and it is 7.2. We are about to get hit with a thunderstorm so won't be able to mess with the pool for a while.

If I am to keep my FC level at the max for the CYA level is that using the "best guess" chart? Would that mean for my CYA (18) I would add so that my chlorine is at the level in the far right column (20)?

Do I need to do anything at this time to get my CYA up?

Sorry about all the questions. I am trying to read everything on this site. I know I will get this eventually!! After all, I did fix my pump!

[CarlD]

If your CYA is between 10 and 20, your shock level is an FC of 12ppm.
CYA between 30 and 50: Shock to 15
CYA between 60 and 90: Shock to 20
CYA between 100 and 200: Shock to 25

From the best guess table.

Carl

[aylad]

Actually Borax and pH Up are not the same thing. Janet mis-spoke. pH Up and Washing Soda are the same thing.
l

My point was that the end result would be the same, for all intents and purposes.

Janet

[mortimay]

I checked my numbers this morning:

pH 7.2
Chl 12 using the shot glass method.

The pool is clearer, I can see the skimmer pole on the bottom of the pool. How often do I test? The sun hasn't hit the pool yet this morning. We did get a bunch of rain last night.

[madwil]

the more consistently you can test and maintain the FC, the quicker you'll get past the cloud... every hour is often enough, but 2 times a day is fine if that's all you can do- it'll just take a bit longer to reach the end!

[CarlD]

We generally suggest 3x/day--morning, mid-day sometime, and after sunset. More often than that doesn't hurt but if you want any hope of progress you need a minimum of 2x/day.

Carl