Newbie needs help/advice

[Henrys514]

Also, it's probably a good idea to get a Calcium Hardness reading since you have a concrete pool. The range to be in is 200-400ppm.

Welcome to the forum. You'll learn a lot here.

[duraleigh]

How does your water look?

[poolgal]

water looks fine, clear with light blueish tint

Don't have the CYA or calcium testing kit yet

stupid question alert: anywhere in particular I should put the bleach in the pool?

told you I was new to this!!!

thanks for the help!

Di

[CarlD]

I just pour it in the skimmer with the pump on and leave it on for several hours.

Or you can walk around the pool dribbling it in.

Or you can pour it slowly into the return stream.

But no matter what your CYA is, your FC at .4 is definitely too low. I would add a full gallon of bleach and get it up to 5.5 (about) for now.

But get those other tests!

Better still, get your own test kit and run the tests yourself.

[poolgal]

ok just been in the pool box and found some test strips (I know they prob aren't the best but its all I have right now)

just took this:

hardness = 1000
FC = 0
PH = 7.2
Alk = 180
CYA = 0

Di

[poolgal]

Forgot to add we have a DE filter

Di

[CarlD]

ok just been in the pool box and found some test strips (I know they prob aren't the best but its all I have right now)

just took this:

hardness = 1000
FC = 0
PH = 7.2
Alk = 180
CYA = 0

Di

I HOPE those numbers are wrong...in fact, I believe they are impossible and either you read the strip incorrectly, or the strip is tainted.

Hardness(CH) should be 200-400ppm. Scaling can occur above 500ppm and partial draining and diluting is the only cure.

But Alk is 180 and with CH at 1000, you should be getting clouds and clouds of calcium percipitating out.

Alk also is too high for your pool--it should be 80-125. Again, scaling can occur.

FC = 0 means you have NO chlorine and NO protection against algae and other contaminants.

CYA=0 means your chlorine has no protection against UV breaking it down, often in as little as 15 minutes.

I would IMMEDIATELY pour in 3 gallons of regular bleach, and get some CYA ASAP and add it--just enough to bring you to 30-50ppm, no more.

If you have tri-chlor pucks, now is a good time to use them because they will constantly add chlorine AND CYA. But they will lower your pH, which, at 7.2 is a bit low. Still, start with the 3 gallons of bleach.

For your situation, high Alk, low pH, no FC or CYA, I would either use pucks, or add bleach and CYA.

But I would also aerate my water and keep aerating it. With pucks, that's all I'd do, just keep pH between 7.0 and 7.2 and Alk should come down.

If you do NOT use pucks but use bleach, I'd still recommend aeration, but everytime pH rises above 7.2, add Muriatic Acid to bring it back to the 7.0-7.2 range.

But mostly, I'd get a better test kit (you clearly already know this) and maybe have a pool store test the water in the mean time.

If CH IS that high, I don't see any alternative to draining off 2/3 of your water and refilling.

The 3 gallons of bleach should help right now and, with your pool, can't hurt anything.

[waterbear]

TEst strips test total hardness (calcium and magnesium) not calcium hardness. You need to test for calcium hardness. Depending on your water makeup it is possible to have a very high total hardness but have a much lower calcium hardness. Also the strips have very poor resolution (the numbers on the color chart scale jump from 250 to sometimes 400, if you have a GOOD brand of strip, and then to 1000 ppm with no readings inbetween!) and the hardness colors are difficult to read with any kind of accuracy since they are such close shades of blue and purple.