Re: Brand New Pool Owner wants to start off on the right foot!
I wish I had seen this thread before you added all that acid! That was way too much. As I knew it would, it made your pH plummet. You are reporting 6.8 but that is as low as test kits will go so it is most likely much lower. Any reading below 7.0 is acidic and will damage your pool. It is CRITICAL that you get that pH up ASAP above 7.0. I hope you have some 20 Mule Team Borax. If not you need to go back to Wally World and get 3 or 4 boxes. (Look in the laundry aisle --- used to be a green box but they recently they changed it to white.) Start with adding one box slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running, breaking up any clumps. Let it circulate for a few hours, retest and redose until you get it to 7.4-7.6. (After the pH starts to move, add smaller additions instead of a full box at a time.)
Go ahead and buy some plain bleach at Walmart. In your pool, each quart will raise your cl by just about 1ppm. I'd probably add two of the 3-qt. jugs. That should take you to between 5-6. You'll most likely need to test and add bleach at least twice a day until you get some cya in there. Do you know about cya or do you need some direction in that regard as well?
Lesson learned ---- never add too much of anything at one time. Better to do gradual additions and sneak up on a target or risk overshooting the target like happened with your pH.
Another lesson --- Follow the guidance and direction from this forum rather than a pool store. Pool stores are in the business to make money and will gladly sell you something else to fix the problem caused by what they told you to do in the first place. (Anyone with pool knowledge would have known that that much acid was going to significantly affect your pH. I bet they didn't even mention that to you, did they?)
Remember, Borax ASAP. Come back here with more questions if you need to. Also, just go with bleach and forget the Pristine Blue.
By the way -- Welcome to the forum. Hope this helps.
EDIT -- funny thing is ---- they told you to add all that acid to lower your alk. Now, your alk is actually a little too low. Don't worry about that for right now. It isn't way off. Right now just worry about pH. After pH is in range, you can add a little baking soda to bring alk up to 80-120 range.
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