Help...about to pull my hair out or tear down the pool!!!

[aylad]

Just FWIW, a friend of mine recently bought the $20 HTH kit in the process of trying to clear up her messed-up pool (an Intex filled with well water ) and after taking my PS 234 over to test her water, I repeated it all with her new 6-way, and all the results were the same--so it appears that this is the same 6-way they had before, just without the blue plastic storage box. And the OTO block on hers reads to 5 ppm.

Janet

[PoolDoc]

That's good, and I'm glad.

I still don't trust them. The goop I found in Walmart this summer, under the HTH label, was discouraging. (BTW, I got thrown out of Walmart for taking pictures of the stuff! Still got the pics, though; just haven't gotten around to posting that info.)

[butterfly26_78382]

All right guys....I thought i've been doing good keeping my pool nice & balanced, well not so sure My water is clean & crystal clear but here are my newest readings from about noon today:
TH:0
FC:3
PH:7.5-7.8
TA:180-190
CYA:50
Now i've read that harness isn't really needed in a vinyl pool, but none at all?? when i put in the blue drops & swirled it around instead of turning blue it turned a light yellow or clear color, then as it sat for a while it turned red without adding the titrant. Freaked me out because the pool looks great & i thought i was doing so well. Also the TA is a bit scary, i just kept adding & adding those drops waiting for it to turn red. I got to 18 & it turned a very slight red then i added 1 more drop & became a more noticible red. But isn't that a bit high?? The PH side on the test kit is a lil darker than usual, which usually runs at a 7.5 so i guess it would be closer to a 7.8, but from what i gather that PH is an ok level. Please any advice would help me out, i'm freaking out about my numbers being a bit off, just let me know if this is ok & if not how i could get it back to what it was! I didn't add any bleach last night so my chlorine is a bit low, but toniight i will add about 47oz to get it back up to about a 6. Please let me know if i should add anything else. Thanks

[Watermom]

Your pH is ok up to 7.8 as long as 7.8 isn't the highest that your kit can measure. If it is, then a reading of 7.8 could actually be higher than that. Your TA is a little high. You can lower it by following the directions given here: Lowering Alkalinity Step-by-Step

Another guide for you to read: Using Muriatic Acid Safely

Don't worry about the calcium hardness reading in a vinyl pool.