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    Watermom's Avatar
    Watermom is offline SuperMod Emeritus Quark Inspector Watermom 4 stars Watermom 4 stars Watermom 4 stars Watermom 4 stars Watermom 4 stars Watermom 4 stars
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    Default Re: Test numbers are scary!

    You need to get some chlorine in there or you are going to have a green pool. You can use some dichlor as it will add chlorine and cya at the same time. If you do so, however, it will take some time to build your cya back up and in the meantime, you are going to be losing chlorine fast and have to add it often. Another option is to just go ahead and add some cya directly and then just use bleach. That is what I do. (I also open to no cya each year.) If you decide to do this, add enough per label directions to get to an initial reading of about 30. Add it to the skimmer while the pump is running and then don't retest for it, add more or backwash for about a week to give the cya time to dissolve in your filter. Until you start to see a cya reading, you'll probably need to test your water morning and evening and each time add some bleach. After the cya gets dissolved, you'll be able to just test and dose it with bleach in the evenngs. A good cya reading is anywhere between 30-50, but we usually suggest dosing for the low end. You can always add more later if you decide you need more, but as you have already found out, the only way to lower it is to do a partial drain.

    Your alk and ph are both a little high. Take a look at the thread at the following link for information on how to take care of that.

    http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191

    Hope this helps.

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    Default Re: Test numbers are scary!

    Good advice.

    But do not even THINK about T/A now. 200 is the absolute maximum acceptable value in a vinyl pool. Get your pH down to 7.3/7.4 and T/A should come down as well--Michael may be able to calculate that. Any T/A under 180 and over 80 don't even worry about even after everything else is stabilized.
    Carl

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    Default Re: Test numbers are scary!

    Thanks to all! I added chlorine and will continue to test to see how much more I need. I will have to get to the store to buy stabilizer and I don't think they will be open tomorrow so it will probably be Monday before I can get it. Can I go ahead and add 1 qt. of muriatic acid now to bring down the PH at the same time I'm trying to raise my Chlorine Level? By the way: My Cal. was 120-140 (I wasn't sure which shade of blue to look for?). Is that bad or good?

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    waterbear is offline Lifetime Member Sniggle Mechanic waterbear 4 stars waterbear 4 stars waterbear 4 stars waterbear 4 stars
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    Default Re: Test numbers are scary!

    Actually, in this thread Ben (Pooldoc) advises adjusting the pH to 7.8 so the ammonia products formed by the bacterial degreadation of the CYA will form monochloromines and hitting it with chlorine until the chlorine levels hold.
    http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1001

    Might be applicable here.
    Once the chlorine is holding would seem to be the time to worry about Alk and pH.
    Retired pool store and commercial pool maintenance guy.

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