I don't really have any questions.............YET

[jw1977]

I went ahead and bought some stabilizer (CYA) Should I go ahead and get some in there now? or continue to only worry about CL and PH?

[Watermom]

I'd wait a couple of days and keep shocking the pool. If you are consistent and keep it high enough, it will clear up for you. Then, you can add the CYA.

[jw1977]

It was looking good on Sat. Not crystal clear, but getting there. The ph was good so I let the kids swim. I added 3 gal of bleach right at dark.

Sun am - Water clear, not crystal - white haze adjusted PH and swam all day w/ 6-7 people. Added 2 gal of bleach last night.

I hooked up my SWCG, but the wire connected to the flow meter has a short in it - going to fix that tonight. Anyway, I took a water sample in to the pool store from this a.m.:
FC: 27
TC: 41
PH: 8.8
ALK: 110
Salt: 2370
I know I need to get the PH Down, which I will do tonight when I get home. I also know I need a good test kit (Supposed to get my Taylor this week)
As long as I keep adjusting my PH, is it alright to let the kids keep swimming? I am assuming my CYA is less than 30 - because that is as low as my current test kit will measure.
Or should I put the pool on lockdown until I can get it crystal clear?

[Watermom]

If your chlorine readings are right, you should not let people be swimming right now. Not only are the readings sky high, but if they are right (and I doubt that they are) that would mean that you have a CC reading of 14!) Those numbers can't possibly be right. I don't think the pH of 8.8 is right either. You can't get an accurate pH reading when chlorine levels are high.

Until your kit comes, please go to Walmart or the like and pick up a cheap OTO/Phenol Red kit (yellow and red drops). It will hopefully read to 5 but some only go to 3 on the chlorine side. But, you can force it to go higher with a dilution method described here: Testing Without a Good Kit

Then, repost with the numbers you get with the OTO kit. I'm not too confident in your pool store ..............

[jw1977]

I already picked that test kit up - I will grab some distilled water on the way home!

[jw1977]

So I got home and used the distilled water - my TC was somewhere in the 6-10 range
PH was dead on at 7.2......pool is crystal clear - I can see the drain in the deep end for the first time ever!
Time to get my SWCG on, and get in maintenance mode instead of battle mode.
(Bleach on standby just in case!)