Pool Help, Please!

[sturev]

Congrats! you have no CC... That's a good thing! If after 5 drops it's not pink, your in business!

Your ph is still low, add more borax and wait about an hour and test and add more if need be.

Are you still loosing water?

[waterbear]

Your pH of 7 is the lowest you would want to be and since the FC is less than 10 there is no interference from high chlorine at the present time. I would add another half box of borax to be on the safe side.
I would also perform the bucket test to check for leaks and insepect the equipment area to make sure everything is dry there. Pay close attention to any valves and unions that might be on the equipment and the lid on the pump strainer. (anything with an O-ring for that matter).

[megd22]

We have seen some water loss, we are going to do the bucket test tonight. We did find 2 tiny holes in the liner and we used a vinyl repair kit to fix those. Also, we do have a light fixture in the deep end of the pool which seems to be pretty loose. First, can we replace the light under water? I wasn't sure if this was encased in something that allowed us to be able to do that. Also, should we just go to the pool store to get screws that would allow us to tighten that?

Since the pool is cloudy, does increasing the pH help to fix this? Sorry for all of the questions! We’re still trying to figure all of this out.

[aylad]

Adding the pH isn't going to fix cloudy water. With a CYA of 80, are you being diligent about maintaining Cl levels no less than 5? Is this cloudiness new or is it something you're still dealing with from when you first posted? l If the water cleared, and is now becoming cloudy, then you need to shock the pool. If it's remaining cloudy after shocking to clear up algae, then you need to keep the filter running and just give it time to filter out. If the cloudiness happened when you added the Borax, it could be that it just needs more time to completely dissolve.

Can't help you with the pool light issue--but will be interested in the result of your bucket test.

Janet

[megd22]

We've been dealing with cloudy water since I first posted. It has gotten significantly better though since my initial post. We have been keeping the filter running for most of the day and we also vacuum as much as we can. On the bottom of the shallow end it looks like there is 'stuff' stuck to it that we cannot vacuum up. Is this dead algae that we need to scrub off?

After the last test here were the results I got:

CYA a little more than 100 (if the test gets cloudy before the 100 mark on the tester, how can you tell the exact number?)
chlorine: 2.5
pH: 7.6

so now that the chlorine dropped again, do I add more bleach?

After the bucket test it looks like we're losing about a 1/2 inch a day. So now we have to find the leak

[aylad]

It's very, very hard to read an exact number on the CYA test--that's why it's a ballpark at best. Also, since the CYA is using turbidity of the water as an indicator, running the test with water that is cloudy to begin with can give you falsely high results. However, it's better to overchlorinate than underchlorinate, so... Using 100 as your number, then you need to be keeping your chlorine no less than 8 ppm, so you definitely need to get some chlorine in there ASAP.

Hopefully you can find your leak without too much of a problem--if all else fails, you can always just let the water continue to drain out--when the water level gets to the level of the leak, it will stop and at least give you a place to start looking!

Janet