Novice needs help with the bleachcalc

[mwsmith2]

If you're having any trouble with the calc, post here and I'll be sure to see it.

Michael

[winterlady]

I want to Thank everyone who responded to my problem!
I'm not so sure I have actually figured out how to use the bleach calculator correctly. I entered the number of gallons of water the pool holds (568) and the strength of the bleach we purchased (5.6) but when it came to entering the bleach amount with gallons in parenthesis I was a bit confused as well as the ppm needed, so we went by the test kit we have and figured ppm at 8. We had a gallon of bleach so that is what I entered in that blank box and it gave me an amount of bleach to add as 1 cup 2 oz. and using the borax calculator it gave me an amount of 1.5 oz. This is what we added to our pool, then tested it and got a very very high reading of chlorine and ph!
After doing a little research about it on the web, I found the suggestions to now add Muriatic Acid to bring the ph down and stablize the pool. Of course my husband is going to purchase the acid, but we have no idea how to use it or how much is needed. Sorry I am such a "novice" in this area, we have never owned a pool of this type for our grandkids before! I'm starting to think maybe we should have just stayed with the "old hard plastic types" we used to get EVERY summer!!

[aylad]

You need to keep your Cl level at about 3 ppm, so when you use the bleach calc,put in your pool gallons, the strength of bleach you have, and put 1 in the ppm increase blank, and hit calculate--it will give you the amount of bleach you need to raise your Cl by 1. Test your water and find out what's already in the pool,then figure out and add the difference to get it back up to 3.

WalMart sells a form of dry acid called pH Down that will also work to lower your pH if you don't want to deal with the muriatic acid. Muriatic is a little cheaper and works better, but the fumes are pretty nasty, so be careful with it if that's what you choose. Don't give up on the pool, you can do this!

Janet