iron and copper

[szampino]

Bonni,

Why do you have to get the chlorine up to 5 - 10?

Mbar- Is there a problem keeping it between 1-2?

So far, my water has been almost perfect. I am not planning on raising my Chlorine above 1-2 unless I see a problem.

All comments welcome.

**last year I had a problem with the cloudy water (same entex 18x48) Nothing fixed it. But my remedy this year if it happens again is to treat it like staining, add Ascorbic acid, which will bring down the chlorine and then slowly raise the chlorine again until it gets between 1-2.

[gerri]

Do the metals always fall out of suspension when you raise the chlorine? It seems like this will be a never ending cycle

[mbar]

szampino, the reason I told bonni to raise the clorine is that she has a cya of 70. With a cya of 70 you need to have the chlorine between 5 & 10. The water may be cloudy from algae starting and never getting completely killed. It is more important to have a sanitized pool, you can swim with metal in the water, but I wouldn't swim with unsanitized water. If you have a cya level of 20 or less, then it is fine to keep your chlorine at 1 to 2 ppms. You just have to test often and not let it go down to 0, because then you are leaving yourself open to an unsanitized pool.

Gerri, as long as you have enough sequestering agent in the water, you will be able to shock without stains forming. If you keep your chlorine at the right level, and never get a combined chloirne reading, it isn't necessary to shock. You will get the hang of how your water reacts - when you shock, always bring your ph down to 7, or 7.2 before you add the chlorine.

[gerri]

Do you use muriatic acid to bring down the ph?

[mbar]

yes, you can go on the bleach cal, click on more calcs and it will show you how much you need to bring it down in increments of .2

[szampino]

Just got back from an out of town business trip and my pool must have been angry that I left it alone.

After numerous Rain days with no attention my pool has decided to go cloudy.

I checked my stats and it looks like my PH is about 7.2-7.4, FC - (not on the charts) TA-80 and CYA-Under 30 but over 0.

I've Triaged and have decided to take the following course of action:

1. I've added a good dose (about 1 cup of Pool Magnet)
2. I'm raising my FC - to 10 (Very slowly, over a few hours) (Raising it with incremental small amounts of pool shock
3. I'm going to let the Chlorine stay at 10 for at least 1-2 hours.
4. I'm going to add Ascorbic Acid - to bring down the Chlorine and hopefully eliminate any chance of Metal(s) impact.
5. I'm going to Vaccuum (hopefully anything dead will get sucked up)
6. I'm going to bring my chlorine up slowly again to 1-2.
7. The constant Fountain during filtering should adjust my PH and Alkalinity'
8. The my chlorine tabs are stabilized so I'm hoping it will adjust my CYA
9. My pool should(will) be Crystal Clear.

I'd welcome any Doctor's opinions and suggestions. This is my first time trying to triage my own pool based on the information I've learned by this site and thread.

What do you think?

[gerri]

I don't know if I'd add Ascorbic Acid if you aren't having a problem with staining. It could possibly keep your water cloudy. If it were me (and I am an admitted newbie but I've read a lot) I would skip the AA unless you have a staining problem and just let your chlorine come back down after the shock and the water should be clear.

Do you have combined chlorine in the pool? I agree that you are right about adding the pool magnet. I always just try to add the least amount of "extras" that I need to be effective, that's why I say to skip the AA, it will bring your Ph down as well if you add it.

[szampino]

Gerri -

I missed your post by about 5 minutes(unfortunatly) before charting down my triage path. I only added about a 1/2 pound of the AA let it sit for about 25 -30 minutes and started to run the filter.

My PH budged a little (7.2-7.0) and chlorine was squashed.

The water is still a little cloudy but I'm trying to be optimistic that it will begin to clear as the filter runs, my plan is to leave it on overnight. The cloudyness really concerns me because last year, prior to finding this site, I couldn't get rid of the cloudyness for anything. I think if you read through this thread it looks like Bonni had the same problem(cloudy) as I did last year. I tried everything, Clarifiers, Turning the vaccum over in the center of the pool over night. Nothing cleared it and it was very frustrating. The only thing I can think of that may be clouding the water is the damn metal. I'll keep posting and let you know how it works out. I'm still open to any other suggestions so keep'm coming. (My challenge is patience between posts.)

Mbar - mentioned a flocking agent in some posts and that is something that I haven't tried yet.

Just for the record - ive got a 18x48, entex, cartridge Filter, and self-rigged Skimmer/Vaccum attachment.**Couldn't survive with the GardenHose vaccum)

[gerri]

Good luck getting your water cleared. I think bringing your chlorine back in slowly may help. Keep us posted as to how it goes. I have cloudy water right now from Ascorbic Acid, but I'm in the middle of my stain removal so I'm not letting it bother me.

[szampino]

Thanks for the quick reply - I will keep the post updated with my progress