help with adjusting please

[poolhelp101]

Thanks once again. I am so thankful to you for guiding me and being patient with me and all my questions! I just put the puck in and put the panty hose over the skimmer basket. I can only turn one jet up to bubble...is that going to be sufficient? or do i need to try to get the others too also, don't know if i can though. you didn't say whether it was okay to add more bleach or not but you had said earlier not to let the chlorine get low, which it is around 3 now, so i added one 3/4 gallon. i just hope that was the right thing. another question too, when the time comes to vacuum the pool you said to vacuum to waste, is that a must? i loose so much water doing that and then i am going to have to put more well water in and i'm afraid i'm going to be back in the same shape as i am now. Thanks again!! and let me know!

[mbar]

You don't need any more bleach right now. Since you have only a cya of 20, you should keep your fc at 2 right now. You don't want to have high clorine because that is what drops the metals out of the water. There is a "best guess chart" sticky at the top of the chlorine forum. You will have to check your chlorine every day though, because the chlorine will get used up more quickly breaking down what is causing the cloudiness so it can be filtered. You should keep your chlorine no higher than 5, and the puck will keep adding chlorine continueously. As for vacuuming to waste, you don't have to. especially if you keep the pantyhose on the skimmer while you vacuum. As for adding more well water - if you have enough sequestering agent in the water - which you do, then the new water will mix with the sequestering agent and bind any metals that are introduced. Just make sure that you do use a maintanance dose throughout the summer. Try to get as much aeration as you can - this will speed up the process. If possible I would try to get more aeration - you can hook up a piece of hose to a return jet and have it shoot water in the air and land back in the pool. Just be sure you watch the ph and keep it between 7.0 and 7.2 while doing this. I know all of this is confusing, but it will become second nature to you after doing it for a while Just remember, the less you put into the water, the less you have to deal with. Once you get your water in balance it is much easier to keep it that way as long as you check on the pool once a day, till you know how your water acts, everyone's pool is different - but once you learn the "reasons" you are using the chemicals it makes it easy to see what your own pool needs. Read the stickys at the tops of the forums and it teaches you what each value of the numbers you take mean. Don't worry about asking too many questions - that is how all of us on this site have learned

[poolhelp101]

the pool is starting to clear up but it is still pretty cloudy. CL 3, ph 6.8, ta 150, and my cya is 50 not 20. so i need to keep my cl at 5, is that right?
theres no way to make my other two jets aerate to lower my ta, is there anything else i need to try to do to lower it and increase my ph?
please advise and thanks so much for your help.

[mbar]

Since you have a cya of 50, you can take your chlorine up to 6, and even higher if you want to. You can take it up to shock levels (which for you would be 15-20) if you do it slowly - you have to watch to see if any stain starts to form, if it does that means that you need more sequestering agent. Your ph is low at 6.8, you need to get it up to at least 7 with aerating. You may want to invest in a pool fountain since your fill water is high in alkalinity. Here is a link to what I am talking about.
http://www.intheswim.com/shopping/dept.aspx?deptid=1257&GCID=C14163x040&e5=Y&e6=swim ming-pool-fountains&keyword=swimming-pool-fountains&s_kwcid=swimming%20pool%20fountains|7349 26481

You can find other places that sell them if you just google pool fountain.
Hope this helps, and feel free to ask any other questions you have

Just another thought, what is your calcium level? What do you mean you can't get a reading? High calcium with high alkalinity can cause a lot of cloudiness, plus sometimes it causes stains too. It's just good to know where the stains are coming from.

[poolhelp101]

i don't know what my calcium level is. when i try to test for it, the test water does not change colors at all. i plan on getting to the pool store soon to see what results they get(i live 40 miles away from a pool store that tests water).

[waterbear]

i don't know what my calcium level is. when i try to test for it, the test water does not change colors at all. i plan on getting to the pool store soon to see what results they get(i live 40 miles away from a pool store that tests water).

What test kit are you using and what color does it turn when you put in the indicator. If it turns pink you do have calcium present. If it turns blue you have non. If it turns any other color your chlorine levels are probably bleaching out the indicator.

[poolhelp101]

i use an aqua chem test kit. when i put the first solution in, it might turn just a hint of, a very little hint of yellow. then when you add the second solution it remains the same. my readings this morning are cl 5.0 ph 6.8 and ta still 150. it may take a while to get a water fountain, do i still just continue trying to aerate with the one jet or try to increase the ph another way? also, the pool has cleared quite alot, however it is still hazy. please advise and thank you

[mbar]

I would add a small amount of borax. Borax will raise your ph without raising the alk much. Just put a cup in and wait about 2 hours and test. You just want to take your ph to 7.0 - 7.2 no higher, so put a cup in at a time and wait at least 2 hours in between tests.

[poolhelp101]

i will get borax and do that right away.
new problem....this morning the pool was hazy...i began to vacuum the crap out of the bottom, slowly, but now the pool is completely clouded over again. cannot see the bottom. it didn't appear that anything was coming back thru the jets, but apparently it was??? should i shut the filter off and see if it will settle down and try vacuuming again or do i need to continue to run my filter 24/7? help!!!

[mbar]

One thing I don't like to recommend too often is to use a clarifier or a floc. If you use a flocculant, then you would add it to the pool, let it circulate for about 1 hour or two, or what is says on the bottle, and then turn the filter off for 24 hours. This will let everything fall to the bottom and then can be vacuumed to waste. The reason your pool probably clouded up is that the particles were so small that they just floated back into the water. Once the floc binds with the particles they get heavy and fall to the bottom of the pool. I like to vacuum to waste, cause then they are out of there, but you can vacuum to the filter and then backwash if water is expensive. Another thing that helps it to put a skimmer sock, or a cut pair of pantyhose on the skimmer basket to catch the fine particles before they go into the filter. THe first time I was dealing with metals, and using a pool store, my water was so messed up - too much calcium, too many chemicals they had me add, that it was just a mess. I drained 1/3 of the pool, refilled, added floc, let it sit for 48 hours, and vacuumed to waste. So after much money and many headaches I started to find out about pool chemicals and found this site. Since then I have stayed away from pool stores and my pool has never looked better. The philosophy is to put as little as you can in your water and keep it clean with Bleach. That is one of the reasons I would only use the floc when the water is not clearing and you have put some other chems in the pool. Now I add sequesterant (I have a well), bleach, borax, and baking soda if necessary. I add a little calcium to the pool (fiberglass pools seem to need some calcium to keep thier warranty). I try to keep to the philosophy of this forum - less is better when it comes to chemicals, and a good test kit is key so that you can take control of your own water.