I have the "pinks" (instead of the blues!).

[Watermom]

Teach hubby to run the test instead of leaving it to sit. Even hubbies can be trained!

What kind of chlorine from the store are you talking about? If your stabilizer is low, it is ok to use a stabilized form of chlorine for awhile but you need to make sure what you use does NOT have copper in it.

Is your pool still green or now clear? What kind of chlorine have you been using so far, only bleach?

[onemsmom]

Crystal, sparkly clear. Bleach only.

[Watermom]

Do the overnight test. If you don't lose more than 1ppm of chlorine from sundown til within 2 hours of sunrise, then I'd say you're good and you can let the cl drift down.

[onemsmom]

Well, only a 1ppm drop overnight. Still turned a little pink with the R-0003, cleared with 1drop. Will let the ppms drift down to 3-6 now and deal with the CYA today.

How much stabilizer should I add since I can't get an accurate reading? When I do the test, the black dot is just a little cloudy at the top of the tester. Assume 30 and add enough to hit 50? Is the final goal 50?

Also, I should wait to adjust ph/alk until the ppms are down, right?

Just want to make sure. Don't want to mess things up and have to go through all of this again!!!

[Watermom]

Good that it was only a 1ppm drop in chlorine overnight. A CYA of 50 is good. It is not a precise test so hard to hit a target exactly. You are correct to wait until the chlorine drops some to test and adjust pH and alk.

[onemsmom]

Following up: Tested today and here are the results:

Chlorine: 7ppm
pH: 7.4
Alk: turned barely pink at 210, very pink at 220
CYA: barely above the 40 line, but I will retest in a couple of days - just added stabilzer on Sunday

Should I adjust pH up a bit? If so, how? I've never had to adjust it up before - I usually have the opposite problem. Is the Alk a little high? If so, when I add the muriatic acid, I guess that would mess with the pH too - pushing it down, right? Then I should bubble the pool?

Please advise. I'm on such a good track - I really want to get it right.

Thanks!

Jenn

[aylad]

Add your acid til the pH is 7.0, and the alk will also drop. Then aerate the water, and the Ph will come back up without raising alk. That way you can ratchet the. TA downward. Otherwise, a pH of 7.4 is fine.