New User Getting Butt Kicked By Algae

[Watermom]

Kinda hard to know how to help without some good numbers. Hopefully your kit will arrive tomorrow.

HCL is ??? and why are you adding it?

Welcome to the Pool Forum!

[TCP007]

HCL is Muriatic Acid or Hydrochloric Acid. I'm adding in order to raise my CYA level and also bring my PH and TA down.

I decided not to wait another day for the kit (and hope it actually arrives as estimated), so I added another gallon of Muriatic Acid and later shocked with 10 gallons of liquid chlorine. Hoping for better results with the extra gallons of chlorine.

I will definitely provide better readings when the Taylor test kit arrives. Thank you!

[Watermom]

HCL or muriatic acid will not raise CYA. You need cyanuric (or isocyanuric) acid.

[BigDave]

@Watermom: HCl is hydrochloric acid, it's the same as muriatic acid. I think it's being used to lower TA.

@TCP007: Don't let the pH drop below 7, it can damage your pool. If you are trying to reduce TA, you'll need to aerate the pool to bring pH up after adding HCl.
If this were my pool, I would concentrate on killing and removing the algae before trying to adjust TA, 180 is high but livable. The test stips are useless for CYA but if you see alge, you need more bleach. Hopefully the K-2006 arrives today and you can get a good measure of CYA level.

[Watermom]

For some reason I didn't think muriatic and HCl where the same exact thing which is why I questioned it. But, I did a little research and found out they were. Thanks, Dave. But, he also states that he is using it to raise CYA which I addressed in my post above yours.

[BigDave]

@Watermom: Ah! I didn't see that post before responding, thanks.

@TCP007: I stand behind my advice in post #6 and Watermom is right, HCl won't raise CYA.

[TCP007]

Thanks to both of you for responding. I used liquid chlorine, so if I'm correct... this will not help my CYA. I did add 10 gallons of liquid chlorine, so hoping it will take care of my algae issue. I use granular (99% Sodium Dichloro-S-Triazinetrione) which I dilute in water and pour into pool, along with 1" tabs in my floater (98.6% Trichloro-S-Triazinetrione). These are supposedly good for keeping my CYA up, yes? Soooooo... maybe I've been adding too much water with all the vacuuming to waste I've been doing!?

Thanks again for the help. Hoping to share better news very soon.

[Watermom]

Dichlor and trichlor do both add CYA. Go ahead and order that Taylor K2006 kit as soon as possible so we can find out your CYA reading.

[TCP007]

The kit was scheduled for delivery today, but I checked earlier and now it's looking like tomorrow. I'll be lucky to have good numbers before Sunday as my schedule is booked solid over the next 2 days. But... I'll post numbers asap.

Final question for today: Now that I have "super-chlorinated" with liquid chlorine (last night)... when should I think about adding any Dichlor again, and trying to get that CYA number up? I've noticed my TC and FC levels don't seem to change very fast, and are usually on the higher end. Before I shocked last night, the FC was between 3 and 4, and the TC was closer to 8. So, I doubt those levels will drop within the next couple days or so. My only concern is that I have kids that are anxious to get back in the pool. Thanks, Watermom!

[TCP007]

Test came and here are my results:

FC = 22.5
CC = 1
PH = 7.3
TA = 200
CH = 170
CYA = less than 30. Dot was still visible after small comparator was completely filled.

I am reviewing the treatment tables, but wanted to post my results immediately. Thanks for suggestions in the meantime.

Additional note and question:

My chlorine results could be wrong or skewed. I took a few minutes to read some materials/tables AFTER my sample went from pink to clear. I then added more reagent until it went clear again, which added to a higher FC result. The initial calculation would've put my FC at 17.

Perhaps I need to wait a couple more days to test for chlorine, since I just super-chlorinated 2 nights ago. (?)

I think the other results are accurate.