Need Help!

[CarlD]

No, I'd say the 230 is the real number. It's the CHANGE in color that matters, not the shade. It may be as high as 300, but once it changed to purple you were there.

With the FC, DEEP pink is more usual than true red, at most a scarlet.

I don't think the CH is your problem. With a TA of 60, moderately low pH and a vinyl pool, even if you were really at 500 for CH it shouldn't cloud up. But you've put in clarifier and other stuff that can make it worse.

Still, if the cloud is white and milky it's probably not algae, but if it's darker or green it is probably algae and I think it is.

So... you STILL need more chlorine. With your CYA level you need to boost your pool to 15ppm for your free chlorine and keep it there. My BEST clue is you are still showing a CC of over 1ppm--you are fighting something so you need to shock your pool up. Use only bleach or liquid chlorine--neither Tri-chlor tabs, Di-Chlor powder, or Cal-Hype powder are appropriate given your numbers.

Good luck!

[Watermom]

More information makes it easier to help. Now that we have a CC reading of 1 which you weren't able to report before, and are now reporting calcium hardness of 230 rather than the 690 noted above, it changes things. It does tell us that you are most likely fighting an algae bloom. Follow the advice Carl gave above. Try and keep your high cl sustained. Test at least twice (and 3 or more is even better) times per day and each time add enough bleach to get back to shock level. Also run the pump 24/7. If you can maintain that high cl without letting it yo-yo up and down, it should take care of killing the algae and the filter can filter it out. When you get to the point where the water is clearing up, you have no more measurable CC and you aren't losing more than 1ppm of chlorine overnight, then you can let the cl level drift down. Keep us posted how it is going.

(BTW -- another example of how having a good test kit will help you figure out what is going on. Otherwise it is just an educated guess, at best.)

[wxwmn02]

How long after I add bleach, can I check the #s again? We had rain here today which basically negated everything I did. Current #s are as follows...FC: 5.2, TC: 5.6, CC: .4, PH: 7.4, TA: 90, CH: 350, CYA: 45

[aylad]

I would let it circulate for an hour or so before you retest.

Janet

[CarlD]

If those numbers hold (CC of .4), then I think shocking your pool up to 15ppm (FC) and holding it there for 24-48 hours should show significant progress.