Need SOOOO much help!

[duraleigh]

Loretta,

Please don't get mad at this answer....even tho I don't think it's what you want to hear.

If you download Mwsmith2's calculator from any of his posts it'll tell you how much to add of the different stuff...depending on where they are now.

That said, how will you know where they are now without a test kit? Those pools store numbers are too old to be useful. I'll say it again, every post in your thread will simply be an arbitrary guess until you find a way to post your current numbers.

Next, how will you know when you get to where you need to be? You need the test kit and then we will all work hard with you to get your water sparkling!!

Dave S.

[aylad]

OK, I'll get a good testkit. But is there somewhere on this forum that lists what exactly I need to raise PH so much, and how much of it. As well as the others. I kneed to know exactly how to get my pool to the levels they need to be at.

You don't need to raise your pH, in fact, your chlorine will be more effective if you lower it. Use baking soda to raise TA with only a negligible rise in pH. However, I'm going to echo what you've already been told.......you're wasting time and money without a good test kit.

Janet

[lorettasweet]

Loretta,

Please don't get mad at this answer....even tho I don't think it's what you want to hear.

If you download Mwsmith2's calculator from any of his posts it'll tell you how much to add of the different stuff...depending on where they are now.

That said, how will you know where they are now without a test kit? Those pools store numbers are too old to be useful. I'll say it again, every post in your thread will simply be an arbitrary guess until you find a way to post your current numbers.

Next, how will you know when you get to where you need to be? You need the test kit and then we will all work hard with you to get your water sparkling!!

Dave S.

Why would I get mad? Those test numbers were from the day I posted them so they may not have been up to the minute, but as quick as I could post them. I downloaded Michaels calc and it just tells me how much bleach to put in.

What I need to know is where can I find out how to raise or lower my other levels other than chlorine to get them where they should be? Or does the bleach just balance everything else out?

[Sherra]

There are more options in the bleach calc if you go up to the menu bar...
You can calculate how much to add for Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, pH, Cyanuric Acid (CYA/Stabilizer/Conditioner), Salt, etc. Under Settings you can set it to save your pool capacity, what bleach/liquid chlorine strength you generally use and whether you prefer US (Imperial) or Metric units of measure.

[CarlD]

OK my new friends. I finally got to the pool store with my sample, here's the results that they printed for me. You guys let me know what I should do now.

Free Chlorine: .2PPM
Total Chlorine: .2PPM
Combined Chlorine: .0PPM
PH: 7.7
Hardness: 70 ppm
Alkalinity: 19 ppm
Cyanuric Acid: 5 ppm

We have a 27 foot round above ground pool. 52 or 54" deep I can't remember for sure.
...
Soooo, now what?

Loretta:
Youve gotten ALL kinds of advice, but I have to take issue with a lot of it. I NEVER advocate dumping tons of baking soda in at once. Your pool is 17,000 gallons so I would NEVER add more than a one pound box of baking soda at any time--EVER! It's always easy to add another pound of baking soda to raise total alkalinity but it's a royal pain in the patoot to lower it. You want it to be 80- 125 normally but with a vinyl pool I prefer 100-180ppm.

Your Chlorine is low--if your water is clear than one gallon of regular bleach should raise it to 3ppm. But if you have algae, you'll need to add 3 1/2 gallons to raise it to 10ppm. That is based on a CYA of 5ppm.

Your pH is FINE at 7.7--maybe a tad higher than I like but I wouldn't mess with it. Period.

Your CYA is low. You'll need to add some (stabilizer). Figure out from the directions how much you think you'll need to get the pool to 30-40ppm of CYA and add ONE QUARTER of that amount and wait a week. Test CYA again and if it's low, add that same 1/4 amount again and wait another week. CYA, like Total Alkalinity, is easy to raise but an ever bigger pain to lower--you must drain off water. So it's always better to try to NEVER go over your target.

Ignore hardness unless it approachs 500ppm. You CAN use Cal-Hypo for chlorine.

But the advice about test kits? Absolutely! There's another alternative that's also very good. If there's a Leslie's, near you, they may have the FAS-DPD test kit under their own label (made by Taylor). It's about $20. They also have a nice drop test kit, also made by Taylor, for $40 or $45--You use the FAS-DPD kit for chlorine rather than the one in the other kit.

But Ben's kit is the nicest of them and easiest to use.

With your current numbers you can safely use Tri-Chlor pucks or Di-chlor powder--but if you do so, don't add extra CYA--they will do it for you. Just make sure the pucks don't have copper in them.

[jawman]

Your Chlorine is low--if your water is clear than one gallon of regular bleach should raise it to 3ppm. But if you have algae, you'll need to add 3 1/2 gallons to raise it to 10ppm. That is based on a CYA of 5ppm.

Carl,

Can you please explain the math? I'm struggling to understand this stuff too. Also trying to figure out how the CYA of 5ppm figures into the equation. For example, if the CYA were 10ppm, would you advise Lorretta to put in the same amount of Chlorine?

Thanks,

jawman

[huenix]

Carl,

Can you please explain the math? I'm struggling to understand this stuff too. Also trying to figure out how the CYA of 5ppm figures into the equation. For example, if the CYA were 10ppm, would you advise Lorretta to put in the same amount of Chlorine?

Thanks,

jawman

He is taking those numbers off the "Best Guess" chart. http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

CYA is stabilizer. It makes CL stable in water. So the more Cyanuric Acid (CYA) there is in the water, the more free CL you need to kill bacteria. As you can see from the chart linked above, the more CYA, the more free CL you would have.

As a side note, most people recommend a CYA level of 30, but I ran mine last year at 60+ with no issues and no algae. That was not intentional (I mis-measured...) but it worked out just swell. All I had to do was keep my FC at 9-10. My water was so clear it hurt to look at it.