HI PAMSEL!
mbar (Marie) PM'd me and asked me to look at this thread. Perhaps I can explain a few things.
First, your high pH.....
Your ALK is very high, this is what is making it so difficult to change your pH. Total Alklinity is just a name for the buffer system in the water that keeps the pH from bouncing up and down. If it is too high then the pH doesn't want to move and it can take a LOT of acid and airating to get it in line...Once it is you won't have the problem with pH control. You can use up the dry acid (sodium bisulfate) but it is not as effective as muriatic acid. Once it is gone it is more economical to stick to muriatic acid. High pH also makes your chlorine less effective. I am going to spare you all the chemistry but that is another reason to get your ALK and pH in range. Your chlorine will work better.
With very high ALK you will be putting in acid and nothing seems to happen. just put more in later in the day and test your pH again... You are going to find a point when the pH starts to come down...you have finally overcome the buffer in the water. At this point your pH will come down as you add acid. Calculators and dosage charts really work best when your parameters are within normal ranges. When something is as out of whack as your ALK readings they are not going to really give you correct dosage info.
ONE IMPORTANT THING. If your chlorine levels are high it will interfere with the pH test. Once again I will spare you the chemistry but you will test at 8.2 even though the pH is much lower than that!. I would not test pH right after adding chlorine or any time you have much over 10 ppm chlorine in the water! Ditto for trying to lower the ALK. Deal with one thing at a time until you get everything in line.
As far as the huge chlorine demand that your pool was showing and the algae problem, That is a bit complicated but I will try and explain it. You have been using trichlor pucks which put stabilizer in the water then you closed your pool and when you opened you had no stabilizer. Where did the stabilizer go? Bacteria ate it while the pool was closed and excreted ammonia and urea compounds. These will eat up chlorine fast until they are finally 'burned off'. It can take a LOT of chlorine to do this as you have seen.
You said that you are finally holding chlorine and can smell it. If you can smell it you need more! The smell is combined chlorine (CC)....this means that the chorine is staring to burn off the ammonia compounds in your water. Keep hitting the pool with chlorine, BRUSH, BRUSH, BRUSH, and vacumn as much out of the pool that you can. Keep cleaning your filter....As you kill the algae and get the stuff out of the water you will find your chlorine levels are holding and the strong smell goes away. Once the pool is clear let the chlorine levels drop to normal ranges and start working on your ALK and pH.
You have gotten very good advice so far from the other posters, and as you can see, it is starting to work. You have also gotten some very bad advice from the pool stores.
ONE red flag when up when you said '3 month algacide' What brand? All the ones I have seen are copper based and copper can make the water green ( but not cloudy), especially if you are shocking the pool a lot. The good news is the same sequstering agent that will help you get rid of the iron will also do the same for the copper. If you know your fill water is yellow with iron then you must keep a sequestering agent in your pool all the time. Follow the directions on the bottle to a letter for the initial treatment and for maintenance. Be sure to add a bit evey time you add new fill water also.
One last thing, to extend the range of your chlorine test you can dilute the pool water with distilled water, mix them, and then test (a shot glass makes a good measure). Here's how:
1 part pool water, 1 part distilled water, multiply the reading by 2....you can now read up to 10 ppm Total Chlorine.
1 part pool water, 1 part distilled water, multiply the reading by 2....you can now read up to 10 ppm Total Chlorine.
1 part pool water, 2 parts distilled water, multiply the reading by 3....you can now read up to 15 ppm Total Chlorine.
1 part pool water, 3 parts distilled water, multiply the reading by 4....you can now read up to 20 ppm Total Chlorine.
1 part pool water, 4 parts distilled water, multiply the reading by 5....you can now read up to 25 ppm Total Chlorine.
The test kit you have will not read FC accurately, As soon as you can try to find a kit that uses FAS-DPD to test for FC and CC. Most of us on the forum use the kit that Ben sells on the sister website www.poolsolutions.com
There are also good kits from Taylor Technologies and LaMotte that use this test for FC and CC but Ben's kit is definitely the best 'bang for your buck'. The kit you have right now is fine to get you started but if you really want to take control of your pool and save some money invest in a good kit. You have already found that the pool stores near you just use strips. Strips are fine for a quick check just to make sure everything is within range but are usless for adjusting anything. For example, how can you ajust your pH when you only know it is somewhere betwwen 7.2 and 7.8, which is the scale on most of the test strips I have seen!
From what I saw in your last few posts you are making real progress. Just keep at it and you WILL be swimming soon!
Hope this has been helpful and didn't confuse you!
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