new to pool stuff

[Watermom]

If you get no pink with 2 dippers of powder, then you have no chlorine. I hate that you wasted so much of your powder! Also, when you test, use the 10 ml sample instead of the 25ml sample so you'll save on your reagents. A 0.5ppm precision rather than a 0.2 is just fine.

If your pH is 8, then you do want to use a little muriatic acid to drop it down a bit. Please read the using muriatic acid safely link in my signature.

Have you added any CYA or any trichlor or dichlor since your last CYA test which you reported as being less than 30? You say that the CYA test didn't work. What do you mean by that? You should add pool water up to the 7ml line and then R-0013 to bring it up to the 14ml line and then gently shake it and let it sit for a minute. Then, hold the tube at waist level in good daylight and pour the contents slowly into the graduated cylinder stopping when you can no longer see the black dot. If the black dot never disappears, then you have a CYA level less than 30ppm. Does this describe what happened when you tested?

Go ahead and add 7 gallons of bleach this evening if you can. Wait an hour or so and test the chlorine level. Then, in the morning, test again within hours of sunrise and note how much chlorine you lose overnight and if you have any CC reading. Then post those results.

Here is an online demo from Taylor Technologies that may be helpful to you. http://www.taylortechnologies.com/pr..._slideshow.asp

[Red Gate Zoo]

Added 7 gal. bleach @ 10p. Here are my results @ 11:30p: FC=14, CC=1, Ph=8 (3 drops R-0005 brought pH=7.7). Results @ 8a: FC=7.5, CC=1, pH=8 (2 drops R-005 brought pH=7.4), TA=70, CH=275. CYA test was as you described, each time dot did not disappear. I have not added anything but bleach since my last post. Thank you for the links & the help!

[Watermom]

You're welcome. i hope you went ahead and added more bleach this morning. With a 6.5ppm chlorine drop overnight and a CC reading of 1ppm, you are still in the fight. Continue to keep the chlorine at shock level, testing and adding bleach several times each day and especially important to do so in the evenings. And, continue to do the overnight test as described above. You need to continue to do this until you lose no more than 1ppm of chlorine overnight, have no more than a 0.5ppm CC and the water is clear. Once all three of these conditions are met, then keep the chlorine high for one additional day and then you can let it drift down.

You do need to lower the pH with some muriatic acid as I mentioned before. However, having said that, please make sure you test the pH when the chlorine isn't so high. Testing it at shock levels will usually give a falsely high pH reading. *IF* your pH reading above was done when the pH was at shock level, don't trust it and don't add any muriatic acid until the pH test is run again with lower chlorine levels.

Once you get this cleared up, what are your plans for adding CYA? Do you want to buy some and add it separately or do you want to use some dichlor for awhile which will add chlorine and CYA at the same time? Once you get the CYA to 50, you'll want to stop the dichlor however.

[Red Gate Zoo]

What exactly is shock level? I used up all my bleach last night so I'll need to run out & get more. I'll test again before I add the bleach to see if my chlorine & pH is still too high to add muriatic acid. I think I would like to add CYA separately.

[Red Gate Zoo]

Results @ 1:30p: FC=0. Added 7 gals. bleach. Will test again in an hour.

I forgot to mention the pH was 7.6 at last test (1:30p), so I did not add any muriatic acid.

[Watermom]

7.6 is just fine.

[Red Gate Zoo]

Results @ 3p: FC=5, CC=2, pH=7.6. Should I add CYA now? How much?