Cloudy gone, new problems now

[Watermom]

With a cya of 95, it doesn't hurt to swim in cl of 10. I wouldn't swim with cl at shock level however. Are you going to just run high cya and high cl or do a partial drain? Not sure why the swing in alk.

[duraleigh]

It's not clear to me if you're still trying to get your water crystal clear. I think you are but please post back and confirm that before we reccommend a plan.

[lskeate]

This is the real deal. Maybe. The pool is very blue, a color I'm not familiar with. My inclination is to tell you it's not cloudy any longer, but the blue color really is throwing me for a loop. The fiberglass is not blue, but white. (And now appears to have stains, but that's another thread for another day) So let's assume it's clear.

I am now the proud owner of a 5-way WalMart test kit. These are my results as of 10 minutes ago.

CL-Orange
Ph-7.5
Alkalinity-after 60 drops changed only to a champagne color
Cyanuric-below the mark. Maybe 3/4 inch of solution covered the dot
Hardness-indicator turned water pale, pale, barely there champagne

Not very similar to the pool store results of yesterday. How many square yards of dirt does it take to fill in a 20,000 gal pool?

[duraleigh]

Iskeate,

99.0295 cu. yds of dirt will fill a 20,000 gallon pool....about 7-8 dump truck loads. However, don't call them just yet!

I'm gonna recommend you shock your pool pretty hard. Since it's FG, I'd like to see you bring it up to 30ppm. To do that you'll need to know where you are now so, unless you get an accurate result (not "orange"), let the Cl drift on down 'til it looks like about 5ppm (might take a day or two)....then add 25ppm more to get to 30 (8.3 gallons)

I'm not familiar with the testing method for that kit but your pH is fine so I would disregard the Alk and CH for now, at least.

I believe that's all you need to get the water to crystal clear blue. Run your pump 24/7 the entire time...that'll help your water clarity, too.

Others will be along to help you interpret your Alk results...it's an easy fix, if necessary....so is the hardness if it needs it.

You would do well to disregard the pool store's advice....what they recommended doesn't make sense.

[lskeate]

Where do I get an accurate reading? The HTH kit doesn't go that high and the local pool store says their machine doesn't read past 10. Our previous shocking episode was based on info received at this site. If your cya is X then Y gallons of bleach will bring it up tp Z. It was truly a guess. And to complicate matters, we are leaving town on Friday at noon not to return until Wednesday afternoon. Gracias.

[CarlD]

Now I noticed that you had a CC of 2.2. That means you are STILL fighting something so hammering your pool up to a FC of 30 is a pretty good idea (I assume F/G can handle that).

Your other numbers are generally OK. Alk is a tad low, CYA is high, but both are handle-able. Get everything else straight first.

[lskeate]

That's what I understand CC to mean also. Yesterday, when I asked the pool store girl if CC meant "the chlorine was currently working and still killing something then becoming unavailable to kill again" she told me no, that's not what it means. She couldn't explain to me why I wanted such a low or nonexistent CC level. One of us needs retraining.

But I still don't know how to increase the cl to a for-sure level of 30. Aside from the method I mentioned earlier, which is a best-guess scenario, how do I measure that high?

[duraleigh]

Accurate tests for Cl can be obtained with Ben's kit (the best) or a Taylor 2006 kit (orderable online) Ben's kit will get you speaking the same language as all of us and is well worth the wait.

You can get a reasonable idea of your Cl level by diluting your test water with distilled water. So, if you dilute by 50% and get a reading of 5ppm, your "real" reading is 10ppm. It's not very accurate and it's a "stop gap" method but you'll get close enough for this purpose.

You are slightly misinterpreting the "best guess" chart. The CYA does not affect the total Cl....the Cl is simply less effective at high CYA levels. That's why I'm suggesting 30ppm of Cl.

Since you're leaving town, get the 8 gallons of Cl in there tonight and get the process started. I have a feeling your water will clear before you leave. See if you can get a neighbor to put in small jug of Clorox each evening and run your pump for 8-12 hours each day....that'll protect your pool while you're gone.