laundry detergent in my pool....Whoops

[uncle Jabba]

I asked my wife to pickup 10 pounds of baking soda for our pool and told her to check the laundry detergent area for big bags or boxes. Without reading the boxes she brought I proceeded to dump 10 pounds of Arm & Hammer detergent in our 24 feet above ground pool . What is that going to be the long-term negative effects of this? The PH is off the scale at 8.2+ and the aqua chem. Site says that the total alkalinity is to high also and that the calcium hardness is to low.

[waste]

Unca, I don't really know, but can you drain and refill ? If not mahaps someone else here knows of a solution

[uncle Jabba]

please help me someone . there must be someone with experience with a problem like this through accident or via pranksters. I put some ph down in tonight but it just looked a bit foamier (if thats a word). I will retest in the morning and also take a sample to my pool shop. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Thanks,

Uncle Jabba

[waterbear]

Besides the detergents you have added a lot of sodium carbonate (pH increaser) to the pool with the addition of the laundry detergent. Your TA and pH will be the easy fix. The foaming from the detergent won't be. I would recommend draining the water and refilling. You might want to try a defoamer (simethicone) but I don't know how well that will work or what the long range effects will be.

[cruzmisl]

Drain it and refill. That's what I would do.

[duraleigh]

Drain it.

[drumr]

I would throw all of my laundry in there and wash.....

Just kidding!!! I think draining and refilling will be the only option too.

[ladybug_3777]

I would throw all of my laundry in there and wash.....

HAHA! I love that option!

I would agree... draining is all you can really do unfortunatly. When I was in college we had this large pool like water fountain on campus and every year the seniors would fill it with laundry detergent and dish soap. It would foam like crazy! The only way they could clear it up was the drain the entire thing and rinse, and rinse, and rinse.
Just becareful draining, I know sometimes a pool shouldn't be drained all the way down b/c it can damage the liner? (don't know the truth in this) Good luck! What a horrible discovery I bet! Next time I bet you read the label at least 5 times before adding it in LOL

[BlueAngel6]

My problem is someone sabatoged our community pool, with dish soap. We plan to drain our pool this week, then refill. My question is, do I have to change the sand in my sand filter? Any help would be truely appreciated, Thank-you.