New to BBB

[minermom]

Thanks for your help...
I realized after reading this site, that I was pool stored . I think the UV shield was CYA, and I added it through the skimmer. However about two days after adding, I did backwash for a little bit. What will that cause?
We have had ALOT of rain here and I think that with leaving the pump on 24/7 has caused the water to clear up significantly.
Can you please answer a couple more questions?
What is stabilizer? Is it CYA? Our pool is 23000 gallons and the last test I did at home the CYA was about 55. Also is there a chart on how much to add (like 1 box of A&H washing powder will raise ph and alk. certain ppm).

[CarlD]

Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is stabilizer.

It slows down the breakdown of chlorine, especially by UV rays. Without it your chlorine can vanish in as little as 15 minutes.

But it's a two-edged sword. It slows down chlorine breakdown in EVERY way, including what you want chlorine to do---sanitize your pool.

There's a chart, called the "Best Guess" table that tells you how much chlorine you need depending on your CYA level. The more CYA, the more chlorine.

[minermom]

So, here's today's numbers:
CL - 1.0
PH - 7.3
TA - 150
TH - 0
CYA - 0

Any help is appreciated. The water is still milky in the deep end and a little cloudy in the shallow.

Is there any chance that the low hardness is causing it to be milky and have foam on the water?

I'm still running the pump on high all the time. (Scared of my electricity bill).

Kerrie

[aylad]

What are you using to test your water? You said in an above post that the last time you tested for CYA at home it was 55, but state that it's now zero. Unless you totally drained and refilled it since the 55, then that's not possible...the only way to reduce the CYA is to either let the pool go completely green or drain and refill 100% of the pool all at one time.

Stabilizer is the same as CYA, and I suspect that's what they labeled as "UV Shield". Look at the container. If it says the main ingredient is cyanuric acid or isocyanuric acid, then it's CYA. If the container lists any additional or different ingredient, then please post that here, because it may effect what you have to do to clear it up.

Having a zero hardness is not the cause of the milky water, and certainly does not cause the foam. I think that the combination of lots of additions all at one time and the phosaway stuff you added are the problem. The only thing I know to do at this point is to keep your chlorine levels up (and if your CYA is really 55, then Cl of 1 ppm isn't going to be high enough) and keep your pump running.

Also, if your alk is 150, do not add any washing powder, because it's going to go too high. You can use Borax to raise the pH if you want that any higher, but personally, I'd leave it alone. Continuing to add stuff to the mix is going to make the problems worse instead of better. To answer your question about the chart, no, there's not one that I know of that will tell you about r washing soda calculations. There is a bleach calculator around the forum that has Borax amounts listed as a calcuation, but that's not for pH control, it's for the use of Borates, which isn't something that you need to worry about for right now. Won't do you any good for pH control issues. At 7.3, I'd leave it alone.

Janet

[kwong]

try this :

http://www.minbar.com/pool_calc.html

and what i do is i have those kitchen pyrex measuring cups in 1 cup and 1/2 liter sizes and when i need to convert xxx grams or whatever units to something else (that is referenced in either beachcalc or pool_calc).. i goto www.google.com and type in:

convert xx grams to oz

and google spits out a nice answer that i can measure with my measuring cups!

[minermom]

I am using a HTH kit from Wal-mart, and I probably am doing it wrong. I know that the two previous times I used it the circle at the bottom became hard to see at about 55 or so. But yesterday I could see it, even after the liquid was all the way to the top of the vial.
I'll redo it today and see.
I really appreciate the help and the link to the chart. That's what I had in mind.
So would you recommend just adding bleach? My chlorine level was about a 1 yesterday.
Sorry I'm so confused....
Kerrie

[dawndenise]

I think the UV shield was CYA, and I added it through the skimmer. However about two days after adding, I did backwash for a little bit. What will that cause?
We have had ALOT of rain here...

Backwashing and draining off excess water from rain will also drop your CYA/stabilizer/conditioner level. That's why you try to add CYA and not backwash for awhile, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. If you have to drain a bit from excess rain, that's what you have to do. Then you retest after the rain stops and adjust accordingly.