Clorine Block - Need Advice

[kevinob]

Well, when I got home last night, the Ph was up a bit - to almost 7.0 from 6.8. We put in 1/2 box of borax and that raised the Ph to 7.2 or so and that held overnight. The Cya last night appeared to be 85-90 instead of 100. We are having difficulty reading this - seems somewhat arbitrary based on who is doing the reading. Should the black dot disappear completely? If it is bearly visible is the reading finished? We also discovered we have a problem with the pool test kit we are using. It only measures up to 5 ppm. I have ordered the kit recommended on this site through amazon - but it will be about another week before we get it. Anyway, we added 6 (182) oz containers of bleach last night - which would amount to about 20 oz more than the recommended 8.3 gallons. The water immediately turned from blue to green. But by this morning, it was blue again, with a reading of 3 ppm TC (by drop kit) and 2 FC (by strip - only method we have right now of measuring FC). Pool was heavily brushed and vacummed this morning. We did add the mfg recommended dose of Clarifier to try to help clear the dead algae. We are waiting to see what happens when we get home tonight to the readings. Any thoughts?

[Watermom]

Don't add anything thing else right now but bleach. No clarifier, no other pool store goop. With a CYA of 85-90 or even 100, I'd suggest shocking up to 20-25ppm. Each time you test, add enough bleach to get back to 20-25ppm. No such thing as testing and shocking too often when you are trying to clear a pool. You should also be running your pump 24/7 and cleaning the filter as needed.

Regarding the CYA test --- you read it when the black dot completely disappears. It definitely is the hardest test to read.

Until your kit comes, you can use a dilution method to force your kit to go higher. You will need to buy a jug of distilled water to use to dilute your water sample with. More info about it can be found here: Testing Without a Good Kit

Hope this helps!

[crystalclear]

agreed, keep things balanced