Major Chemistry Problem on open

[Watermom]

Ummm, yeah, I think you overdid the bleach a little. Adding 12 gallons to a pool with this volume would have added approximately 48ppm of chlorine! I hope your liner isn't toast!

Obviously, don't add any more bleach for awhile. As Carl said, you do ultimately need to get a good kit. As a temporary measure only, you can use a dilution method to force your current kit to read higher readings than 5ppm. More info about that here:

http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/lowe...p-by-step.html

I'm assuming by CA you mean CYA? If so, then your CYA is really high. I'm assuming that you have been using trichlor pucks for quite a while, maybe even for several seasons? They cause CYA to build up over time and that is how people get CYA levels like you have. The only way to lower it is to do a partial drain and refill but you do NOT want to totally drain a pool. Your other option is to keep the high CYA and just run higher than normal chlorine levels. Take a look at the Best Guess chart in my signature below for more info. At any rate, NO more pucks in this pool or dichlor shock. Both of these are stabilized forms of chlorine which will continue to add CYA and that is something you do not want.

Hope this info helps. By the way -- welcome to the Pool Forum.

[CarlD]

Probably the worst that will happen to your liner is it will be bleached. Beyond that, probably little chance of damage....but don't do that with Muriatic Acid ever or it WILL melt your liner.

Carl

[psciotti]

Thank you all - actually I only added 6 - 1.4 gal containers so not too bad I guess beyond just basically shocking it again. The other problem that arose after fixing the PH and adding the bleach is a VERY cloudy pool. Will this clear up as the TC/FC comes down?

[Watermom]

The cloudiness is not caused by the bleach. Probably from all the Borax that you have put in, (which was a major necessity!) combined with high calcium hardness.

I assume you had been using cal-hypo for a long while in addition to the trichlor pucks? NO more of either at this point.

Let the chlorine drift down and keep it between 8-15 all the time. With a CYA that high, if it dips below 8, you risk an algae bloom.

Run the pump 24/7 right now.

[psciotti]

thank you for all the help much appreciated....I'll post back in a day or 2.

[psciotti]

AARRGGHH! This is very frustrating! The PH level has again gone down below where I can read it... below 6.8. I tried with a 1/2 full vial on the test and it barely looked like it was 7 - interpolating I'm guessing a ph in the 3-4 range. I know I have to bring immediately but how do I stop it from dropping so quick?

I'm thinking of dumping about 1/4 of the water (I can only do this much with running into issues) and refilling with clean water and starting from scratch. Normally I would not care how long this took but I have a graduation party next weekend and I need it clear by then..ph or not at this point.

Does dumping water make sense?

thanks

[PoolDoc]

Dumping 1/4 of your water won't make or break your situation. To FIX thing by dumping and refilling, you'd have to do 3/4 or more AND have high quality fill water.

At this point, where we've at least hit a higher level of pH, I think if you simply run your filter 24/7 and add borax every couple of hours, 1/2 box at a time, you may be able to do fine. Do not clean your filter too much -- watch for the pressure increase on the gauge, and do not clean till you've seen pressure go up 4# above whatever the pressure was when the filter was clean.

One more thing: can you test your tap water, or whatever water you fill your pool with? We need to get a handle on how all that calcium got into your pool in the first place. If we don't figure that out, we can't really resolve your problem, since it's likely happen again.

[psciotti]

Makes sense what you say. Just very frustrated when I look out at pool and the water looks horrible and knowing I have 5 days to get this somewhat presentable. I will continue down this road and cross my fingers. I will test the tap water tomorrow and get back to you all.

Possibly the high calcium and high acid level might be from the 1" quick dissolving tabs I used for a couple of weeks or possibly from all the rain and pollen we have had here in the northeast. I opened the pool initially to an almost overflowing water level between the snow melt and rain. Either way I'm sure it will clear up sooner or later....hopefully sooner.

Thanks again for all the help!