TA problem

[momspool]

Hi, I'm new here and , of course have a problem. My
TC is a little over 3, pH 7.2, calcium 30, TA is 240 and water is cloudy. How do I fix this??

[waterbear]

Hi, I'm new here and , of course have a problem. My
TC is a little over 3, pH 7.2, calcium 30, TA is 240 and water is cloudy. How do I fix this??

What is the finsih of your pool (plaster, fiberglass, vinyl)?
What is the CYA (stabilizer level)
How many gallons is your pool?
do you have a FC reading?
Your TA does need to come down and the instructions for doing that are here
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191
but before you do it would be best to post the above info along with the newest TC, pH, Cal, and Alk readings so the good folk on this forum will know just how far you need to lower the ALK and whether you need to bring up your CH also. The CYA level will let us know how much FC you need to maintain.
All these readings together will give us an idea as to what might be causing the water to be cloudy and the best way to help you

[momspool]

I'll have to check the water again in the morning. I have a vinyl, 18' round, 4' deep, above ground pool. I think it's 7500 gal. FC= a little over 3, pH=7.2, alk=240, cal=30, CYA=40. I just found the guide before I came back here, but I would still appreciate more input.

[waterbear]

How are you testing your FC and TC? Are you using test strips or a drop based kit? If you are using a drop kit are you testing with OTO (turns yellow in the presence of chlorine), DPD (turns pink in the presence of chlorine), or FAS-DPD (a titration test in which you count drops until the pink DPD/Chlorine solution turns colorless)
OTO will only test for TC and not FC (no matter WHAT some test kit instructions say!)
If you are using test strips then your readings are suspect since they just don't have enough accuracy to maintain your pool by (and if that is where your alk reading came from DO NOT do anything about it until you get your water tested with a drop based kit!

[momspool]

good morning, i'm using a drop base kit (cheap, K-Mart) with oto. Readings this morning:

TC= WAY over 5
pH= 7.8
TA= 240
hardness= 0
CYA= 35

I redirected my return this morning to get aeration. Should help, right?

[momspool]

Oh, I shocked again last night, noticed still a slight green, but mostly just cloudy.

[waterbear]

ok, couple of things going on here. First, I ask again, what is the finish of your pool...plaster, fiberglass or vinyl? This will determine if you need to add calciuim or not.

second, don't try and adjust the TA until your chlorine had cleared the pool and all the cloudidness is gone. High chlorine levels can give you inaccurate pH results and you NEED accurate pH results for adjusting TA!! Chances are that your pH is acutally below 7.8 but you are seeing the interferance from the high chlorine level.

Get your chlorine levels up to 15 ppm or slightly higher and keep them there with pump and filter running until pool clears then let them drop to about 5 ppm. Then adjust your TA.

To measure higher chlorine levels with your kit you can dilute a sample of pool water with an equal part of distilled water and then mulitply the test results by 2. If you need to go higher (and you will) you can dilite 1 part pool water and t2 parts distilled water and multiply by 3. You can use a 1:3 dilution and multiply by 4 or a 1:4 dilution and multiply by 5 but that is really about the limit.

The best thing to use to shock is bleach....download mwsmiths2's BleachCalc program...most of us on the forum use it....to see how much you need to add for your pool to maintain these levels....here is the link
Get BleachCalc 2.6.2 here: http://www.hal-pc.org/~mwsmith2/BleachCalc262.exe

[aylad]

Waterbear, She has already posted that her pool is a vinyl, ag pool.

Momspool, raise your Cl to 10-12 ppm, and keep it there until the green is gone. Also,run your pump and filter 24/7. You need to kill the algae, then give your filter a chance to get it out of the pool. With AG pools, this can take several days..just be patient. After you get the pool cleared up, then you can deal with the alk issue.

Janet

[waterbear]

Waterbear, She has already posted that her pool is a vinyl, ag pool.

Whoops! Missed that! Thanks for point it out out!

Momspool, ignore the first part of my post. the second and third still stand (Just as aylad said also!)

[momspool]

I guess im just in to big of a rush. I started on the pool last weekend and it was a brown-green mess. I was excited to get it to just cloudy that quickly. I'll just concentrate on keeping the chlorine high for a few days and see what happens before I bother with the pH and Alk again.
Thanks