What to do next? High Alkalinity & Combined Chlorine, Well Water & Iron issues

[aylad]

Don't add any more acid until the pH comes up. Household bleach is not stabilized so you will need to add CYA.

Janet

[madwil]

if your 3in pucks are trichlor, you can add them in a floater along with adding bleach- they will slowly add CYA along with Chlorine. Just stop using them once your CYA is built up where you want it!
They do tend to lower pH, so you need to watch it while using the trichlor...
Or just add the CYA direct, and don't use the pucks!

[CarlD]

Fiberglass pool? Alk= 190? Hardness=160? Nothing to worry about now. Seriously, it's not going to cause you any problems in the short term, so ignore it for now and fix the other stuff first.

I would STRONGLY recommend against using Tri-Chlor puck given a pH of 6.9. It's asking for trouble. Now is the time to rely on bleach and aeration.

Meanwhile, if your pump sizzles, something is definitely not right and needs to be addressed.

Carl

[aylad]

I would STRONGLY recommend against using Tri-Chlor puck given a pH of 6.9. It's asking for trouble. Now is the time to rely on bleach and aeration.

I agree with this--if the trichlor pucks drive your pH down, then it won't rise enough to let you make any progress on your alk. Stick with bleach and aeration.

Janet

[madwil]

didn't see the 6.9, saw the earlier pH reading... so retract the trichlor for now, keep using bleach!

[lady.k]

Ok folks - here's my update: A combo of the homemade batting/sump pump filter, a 1 qt. bottle of GLB Sequa Sol ($26 @ local pools store), a whole-house filter hooked up to the output, rigorous vacuuming, nightly doses of a 1.5 gal jug of bleach and we have a clear pool! We swam last weekend but I didn't have my Taylor Test kit yet so I refrained from posting. Haven't put anything in since Sunday (1/2 lb of Stabilizer).

1st try with the Taylor test kit (K2006) tonight -
FC - 0
CC - 0.5
pH - 7.5
TA - 150
Calc. Harness - 250

-Tried to test for CYA and the black dot never disappeared so I don't know if we just don't have enough to register (???)
- We haven't gotten the chlorine levels up to shock level yet (that I'm aware of) and I don't know where to go from here.
On hand, I have: bleach, borax, baking soda, muratic, 1 lb bags of sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione (9.53% avail chlorine), and pucks that are tricholro-s-triazinetrone 93.5% copper sulfate pentahydrate 1.5% (93.50% avail chlorine), and ~3/4 lb stabilizer. The shock and pucks are from before I did my research and found the BBB method - if I could use them, great. If they will mess up the good thing I have going then I don't want to use them yet.

Do you all think I would be ok to put the pucks in and shock with I have - or just stick with the bleach? I still haven't figured out what the heck I'm doing! Thanks all - I really, really appreciate the input!

[madwil]

ok, if your CYA isn't reading, the dichlor is ok to use. the pucks, I wouldn't use because of the copper...
your pH is fine right now, so just hold on to the acid, soda, and borax for later when it's needed
add bleach- 1 gal will give you 6ppm in 10k gallons, so add enough for FC 2 to start, and add more later as needed.
As long as your pool stays clear, slowly get your FC up to maybe 5. I'd use the dichlor a little later, after you get some FC in with bleach first, then add CYA to get to 30ppm.