Help!!!! New to this Pool thing.

[angls4jesus]

I purchased a Intex 15x48. I think it has around 4440 gallons of water. We filled it with water and put chlorine in it add a few other chemicals to it before I found your forum. Last night I received my water testing kit. I test my water only to find that the CYA was extremely high. So I drained over half the water out of the pool after reading on your forum that CYA could only be decreased by draining. So I filled pool back up this morning and turn pump back on after cleaning filter. Now I'm not sure what I need to start with chlorine adjustment or PH. The water is a little cloudy as well. I'm so non educated in this area that it isn't funny. I only bought this pool for my disabled hubby and my loving kids but I'm wondering if I have made a mistake.

FC between 2.0 and 4.0
CC between 2.0 and 4.0
CYA 50
PH 6.8
Ak 240
CH 120


PLEASE CAN YALL HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAVE PICKED UP SO BLEACH. DISCONTINUING THE USE OF PUCKS.
WE DONT EVEN WANT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT THE GUY AT THE POOL STORE GRRRRRRRR.

[CarlD]

OK:

You need to raise your pH to about 7.2. Use only Borax as your Total Alk is very high.

Then you need to shock your pool using bleach / liquid chlorine to get it up to 15 ppm to clear your pools

[angls4jesus]

Ok I will add borax tomarrow. Is there a special way of putting it in pool? How much do I add?
Is there a better time to add it?

Thank you so very much for your help.

Sarah

[Watermom]

Borax can be added slowly to the skimmer while the pump is running, breaking up any clumps. In this small pool, I think I would do one cup at a time and see how much that raises the pH. After you add it, wait a couple of hours and then retest and redose to get it where you want it. You can add it at any time throughout the day. No specific time is better than another for Borax additions.

BTW -- in a 4400 gallon pool, each cup of 6% bleach will raise your cl by 1ppm.

Welcome to the forum. Good for you for doing your homework and reading and learning about pool care on the forum!

[angls4jesus]

I have added Borax as yall have said. The water is still cloudy but not as bad. Do I now need to add some bleach?
I can see progress in pool LOL

FC between 2.0 - 5.0
CC between 2.0 - 5.0
PH 7.5
TA 200
CYA 50

[Watermom]

Yes. Shock the pool up to 15 as Carl suggested in his post above. Test 2 or 3 times a day and each time add enough bleach to get back up to a cl level of 15. When you can go overnight without losing more than 1 ppm of cl, then you can let it drift back down. Also run the pump 24/7 while you are trying to clear the pool.

As Carl mentioned above, your TA is high. The way to lower it is to use aeration which you can read about in the following thread. Your pH was dangerously low and thus the need for the Borax. Now, you'll want to continue raising your pH through aeration. When it gets up to around 7.8, you'll add muriatic acid. This will lower not only your pH, but also your alk. Then you'll use aeration again to raise the pH back up to 7.8 and repeat this cycle as often as you have to until the alk comes down to around 80-120.

More info in the following thread.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=191

[CarlD]

Backing up a little:

The Borax isn't to help clear your pool. It's to get the pH back into the safe range or it could soften and weaken your liner. You had to take care of THAT first.

Now we can move on to clearing the water and 'Mom's instructions.