Thanks To All!! Clear Pool At Last

[waterbear]

yep, it tests total hardness...and there are some known issues with the test that have been discussed on the forum before so it is not the most accurate. It is not what you need. You need a calcium hardness test such as the one in Ben's test kit or a taylor K-2006

As far as acid goes, use muriatic...comes in gallon jugs. Be aware that this is just another name for hydrochloric acid so have some repect for it.

[karenkr]

I will get some muriatic acid tomorrow. I am assuming I can get it at Ace?
Oh and should I use the cal hypo or should I stick to bleach.
I have wanted to get Bens test kit or the Taylor kit but I have never ordered anything on line(we dont use or have credit cards) and have been unable to find the Taylor kit locally. We live in a small town and do not have a pool supply store. so I have to depend on Wally world or ACE. Next time we go to the big city "Tulsa" hope to be able to locate a pool store.
Thanks for the info and help--will let you know how it goes with the acid
Karen

[chem geek]

We really don't know what your Calcium levels are yet so stick to bleach if you can, though if you already have some Cal-Hypo you want to use up that's probably OK if it's only enough chlorine for about a month.

[waterbear]

I will get some muriatic acid tomorrow. I am assuming I can get it at Ace?
They should carry it...the one I work in does but we have a HUGE pool dept.
Oh and should I use the cal hypo or should I stick to bleach.
I have wanted to get Bens test kit or the Taylor kit but I have never ordered anything on line(we dont use or have credit cards)
Just a suggestion. If your checking account has a visa ATM card you can use that with paypal and order from Ben.
and have been unable to find the Taylor kit locally. We live in a small town and do not have a pool supply store. so I have to depend on Wally world or ACE. Next time we go to the big city "Tulsa" hope to be able to locate a pool store.
Thanks for the info and help--will let you know how it goes with the acid
Karen

hope this helps.

[karenkr]

Thanks Waterbear
I did find some acid, purchased a gallon. Our ACE store has a small pool supply area. No kits except HTH like I have.
I have not used Pay Pal either. Was wondering if I could send a check, guess I could email Ben and find out. He could wait until it clears if he wants.
Just added 28oz of acid, have 6 boys coming today for a swim party so hopefully that will work. How long does it take before I would notice a change in my PH and TA?
Thanks to you Chemgeek for all your help also
You guys have been great!!!!
Karen

[chem geek]

Chemicals you add to your pool usually mix rather quickly. Usually within an hour, your entire pool will have some of the chemical you've added to it. I did a test using some colored dye and found that when the pump was running and when I poured it over the return jet in the deep end, it spread fairly evenly throughout the pool within a half hour (most of it within 15 minutes).

Now there are some websites that I've seen that say you have to wait longer before measuring pH because it takes a while to stabilize, but I've never seen any chemistry justification for that. All of the reactions that I'm aware of in the pool are very fast (except for chlorine breakpoint). Only the slow pH rise due to outgassing of carbon dioxide is very slow and that will never stabilize since you always keep your pool intentionally out of balance in order to maintain a TA level (with a pH near 7.5).

So my opinion is that you can test your pool chemistry an hour after you've added chemicals and you are likely to get a decent result -- so long as you have your pump running the entire time.

Richard

[karenkr]

Re-tested my pool. The PH and the TA did not change.
PH 7.8
TA 160
Should I add 28oz. more (per Bens chart)? I guess I am afraid I will add too much.
Suggestions???
Chlorine 8 would that have anything to do with my ph?
Thanks
Karen

[chem geek]

Re-tested my pool. The PH and the TA did not change.
PH 7.8
TA 160
Should I add 28oz. more (per Bens chart)? I guess I am afraid I will add too much.
Suggestions???
Chlorine 8 would that have anything to do with my ph?
Thanks
Karen

Karen,

Did you ever tell us the volume in gallons of your pool? 28 oz. of Muriatic Acid into a pool of 16,000 gallons would lower the pH to 7.44 and the TA to 153.5 so either you have a much larger pool or something strange is going on. With the numbers you show, if you have a larger pool than you won't be adding too much.

Are you trying to follow the procedure in this thread to lower your alkalinity (TA)? If you want to stop fighting the pH rise and frequent additions of acid, then you'll need to follow the procedure to get your TA down to 100 or maybe even 80. Ben's procedure for lowering TA in the referenced thread has you add a lot of acid to get your pH down and then has you aerate which has the pH rise and you add acid to keep the pH down, all the while your TA will drop.

Let us know your pool size in gallons so I can roughly calculate what should happen when you add acid.

There's also a possibility that your high chlorine level is fooling you with your pH test. Usually a level > 10 will cause you problems, but maybe 8 is enough to cause concern. You are kind of in a difficult situation with high chlorine and trying to measure pH (more on that in my next post).
Richard

[waterbear]

[quote=chem geek

So my opinion is that you can test your pool chemistry an hour after you've added chemicals and you are likely to get a decent result -- so long as you have your pump running the entire time.

Richard[/quote]
I agree with this based on my limited knowledge of chemisty and from my own observations!