high pH and TA, cloudy water

[aylad]

I wouldn't worry about the TA and pH right now. pH is fine where it is, and TA isn't going to be critical right now, as much as clearing up the algae is. Here's how to force your kit to read higher chlorine readings than it was designed to....
http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/how-...d-testkit.html

If your pool is 24' diameter, and 48" from floor to water level, then I'm estimating about 13,500 gallons. Do I have the dimensions right? In 13,500 gallons, each 1 gallon of 6% bleach you add is going to raise your FC by 4.4 ppm. Each 3.5 cups of bleach will raise your FC by 1 ppm, so you can use those as a reference point. You need to get it up to 15-18 ppm and hold it there by testing as often as possible and adding whatever amount of bleach you need to get back up over the 15 ppm mark, until you can measure at sundown and then again in the morning before the sun hits the pool, and not lose more than 1 ppm of chlorine in that time. When you get to that point, and the pool has cleared up, then you can let your chlorine drift back down--but only to the 3-6 ppm range. Any lower than that, and you're going to have algae growing. If you can, brush the pool after your chlorine additions, and keep your filter running 24/7 during the process, cleaning the filter as your pressure indicates.

Janet

[PoolDoc]

If your pool is 24' diameter, and 48" from floor to water level, then I'm estimating about 13,500 gallons. Do I have the dimensions right? In 13,500 gallons, each 1 gallon of 6% bleach you add is going to raise your FC by 4.4 ppm. Each 3.5 cups of bleach will rai

She listed 24 round x 3.5' depth on the pool chart. Assuming that the 3.5' is overflow, and her WATER depth is 3', her volume is ~10,000 gallons as she estimated. If the WATER depth is 3.5' (48" walls) then her volume may be closer to 11,800.

[fiveUNDERfive]

Thanks guys. Off to add more chlorine. Hubby says its closer to 4ft. He was estimating about 14,000 gallons, not the 10K I thought. I ordered more CYA reagent from the Amazon link last night, so hopefully that will come soon. can I get distilled water at Walmart? Will need to run there and get more bleach bc I think I only have 1-2 more gallons at home.

J

[aylad]

You should be able to get distilled water there--if you can't find it with the rest of the water, check the baby section...sometimes the stores here put it there for mixing formula bottles with.

In 10,000 gallons of water, that same 1 gallon of bleach will raise your Cl by 6 ppm. In 11,800, 1 gallon raises it by 5.1. So...you're still in the ballpark, just add what you think you need, test, and then adjust from there.

Janet

[fiveUNDERfive]

Well, hubby added two packs of HTH Super shock and swim that he "found" while I was getting more bleach at Wallys. Ugh. The previous owners left a LOT of stuff. We bought the house last summer, and they had not opened the pool the previous year so the shock is at least 2-3 years old. Reading the package, my est is that the chlorine should be around 15 by now, and by using the distilled water method, I dilute 3 times and it still looks the same- the bright yellow that is the 5, or sl brighter. The pool is still very cloudy (can not see the bottom) and green. So I am guessing I wait until morning and test again? How long can I expect it to be like this? I have no clue how it got this bad. Last year, we had little trouble with adding chlorine a few times a week, and using the trichlor pucks 1-2 times for CYA (it never seemed to add much). This year, it seems (tho I don't have the CYA reagent yet, and I guess the sticks are inaccurate) that my CYA is much higher bc the same amt of chlorine was not enough. Last year, if it ever got slightly tinged, I added a bit more bleach and it cleared up overnight. I never had the clear (not green) cloudiness that started this whole downslide. It was nearly 100 today and we can't use our pool (that right now looks more like the Erie Canal). YUCK! I hope we didn't mess anything up with the shock and swim, though I don't think it can get much worse! We will definitely be sticking to bleach after this (DH got an earful!).

J

[aylad]

Maybe the old shock and swim needs to "disappear" the next time he leaves the house for errands!

I would add bleach until you get dark yellow on the tester, then leave it til the morning and test again. The dilution method you're using gives a pretty good ballpark, but it won't hurt to put just a little extra in, for good measure.

Janet

[fiveUNDERfive]

Pool still very cloudy and green, tho lighter maybe? Yesterday I could not see the bottom when I brushed, but today I could actually see the brush. Nothing seems to be coming up, and the filter basket had very little debris in it.

Tested again this am with the dilution method. Got up to 4 distilled water to 1 pool and it was still bright yellow, so clearly still chlorine in the pool. pH now up to 7.8
On the dip stick (CYA reagent on order but not here yet) the CYA was 100?? Is that poss? I have not used trichlor pucks in a few weeks and have certainly not added any CYA. how did it rise? so I added 2 more gallons of bleach. Will test again in a few hours

Another scorcher here in upstate NY. DH wants to call the "pool doctor" so we can swim, but I've convinced him to hold out for a few more days. Anything else I should be doing?

[fiveUNDERfive]

Tested again now. With 6 dilutions, it is still bright yellow, but maybe slightly less than the 5 (tho darker than the 3). MY strips are showing a CYA of 100. I pray this is NOT accurate, but using Ben's best guess chart, perhaps it is and that is why the chlorine I have added has not done much. I wish I had a way to test CC but I don't. And my CYA reagent is supposed to ship today, with an estimated delivery of Fri to next Wed. So I brushed the sides and bottom (even tho still nothing in the filter basket except for some lawn clippings that blew in after our lawn was moved) and added 2 more gallons.

I know this process will take time, but I just wish I knew I was on the right track. When we opened our pool the first time last year and it was green (neglected for over 2 yrs) I don't recall it taking that long to clear. maybe it did.... UGH.

Any other suggestions or things I should be doing? Just keep at it and be patient?

[Watermom]

When you say 6 dilutions, do you mean 6 parts of distilled water to 1 part of pool water? If so, then that means your chlorine is approximately 28ppm since you would multiply your result of 4 by 7.) (Ex. 1 part pool water, 1 part distilled, multiply result by 2 so if you get 5 on the scale then it would be about 10ppm. If you do 1 part pool water to 2 parts distilled, you multiply by 3. So, 5 X 3 = 15, etc.)

Until you get the CYA reagent, just try and keep the chlorine in the 25ppm range as best you can. (It may be that your CYA is higher than 100 but no way to know that at this time.)

A pH reading will not be accurate at high chlorine levels. If your chlorine drops to 5 or lower, then retest pH. Otherwise, don't bother as you won't get a result you can trust.

Run your pump 24/7 and clean the filter as needed. Is your filter pressure rising?

And, yes ....... patience is necessary. Have your husband come and do some reading here on the forum and also over at our sister website www.poolsolutions. If you hold the course, your pool will clear up. If you start adding other things, it is probably going to complicate things and take longer.

[aylad]

Isn't the shock n' swim dichlor? or is it cal-hypo?

At any rate, you can't depend on a test strip to give you a CYA reading, so really the only thing you can do is keep the chlorine in the dark yellow range of your tester, brush the pool as often as you can with chlorine additions, and keep the filter running. It takes time, chlorine, and patience--patience often being the hardest part of them all.

Janet