My ph is low and it laughs at Borax

[Unabomber007]

I'm dumping in baking soda to raise the ALK of the water. That's what you do to raise it unless the instructions on the side of the bag are wrong. Not hatin' with this statement, just stating why I am doing what I am doing.

I have no clue what T/A is??? The only unknown I have in my chem right now is CAL.

[Unabomber007]

New testing:

FC 6
CC 0
TC 5
PH 6.8
ALK 60
CAL 0?
CYA 80 (tested twice and got 80 both times)

During the CAL test my water just BARELY turns pale, pale pink and even 40 drops does nothing to change the color. So I'm guessing no CAL as previous years I've had some results from that test but nothing this year.

The pool has only been circulating for 1 or 2 hours so the Baking Soda is working and hopefully will go up a touch more later. I ended up adding 2 12# bags to the skimmer and 1 12# bag to the deep end. I still have one bag left and 2 boxes of Borax.

[waterbear]

New testing:

FC 6
CC 0
TC 5
PH 6.8
ALK 60
CAL 0?
CYA 80 (tested twice and got 80 both times)

During the CAL test my water just BARELY turns pale, pale pink and even 40 drops does nothing to change the color. So I'm guessing no CAL as previous years I've had some results from that test but nothing this year.
Wrong guess. If it stays pink at 40 drops then you are over 400 ppm CH or CAL. You need to keep going. It is possible for Calcium Hardness to be over 1000 ppm
The pool has only been circulating for 1 or 2 hours so the Baking Soda is working and hopefully will go up a touch more later. I ended up adding 2 12# bags to the skimmer and 1 12# bag to the deep end. I still have one bag left and 2 boxes of Borax.

As far as the use of trichlor (and the Corox toilet tabets are the same chemical, btw. They are also trichlor), the reason it's used in erosion feeders is that it is a slow dissolving form of chlorine that is made from stabilizer and chlorine (a chlorinated isocyanurate). It's the nature of the beast. The next slowest dissolving form of chloine is cal hypo and that dissolves MUCH faster than trichor and cannot be used in erosion feeders but must be used in skimmers or special vented feeders to avoid explosions.

IF you continue to use trichlor tabs your CYA will continue to rise at the rate of 6 ppm for every 10 ppm of chlorine introduced and since most pools need to have 1-2 ppm FC replaced every day you can see that in just one month your CYA will rise by about 20-40 ppm!

[Unabomber007]

Just tested the ALK again after running the pump along with the robot for 2 cycles and it's 150 now. My wild guess turned out to be not too shabby. I added some more floc and I'll vacuum tomorrow and probably start working on pH and Calcium I guess. I'll have the pool store test my Calcium to triple check my kit and I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and buy their stuff as there is no "Walmart fix" for calcium that I know of.

Refresh to see above advice edit:

Thanks for the advice above....I guess tomorrow I'll go ahead and drain a bunch to stave off the CYA and keep a better eye on it. I used to be a testing ninja, but recently slacked off. I understand about the calcium issue....I'm having the pool store check it for me as well. That test over the years has gone from a high of 190 like 4 years ago down to like 40 last year. I (being honest here) never paid attention to it and it has been steadily going down over the years, which leads me to believe that it's now 0 vs. some ungodly number. So I'll have them check to be sure.

[waterbear]

If you are going to continue with trichlor then your TA (ALK) of 150 is on the high side of OK. However, you will very soon run into problems with an oversabilized pool. I would suggest ditching the tabs and dosing with bleach every evening.
Also, there are cheaper alternatives to pool store calcium if you don't mind buying a 50 lb bag of calcium chloride (usually sold either for deicing or as a concrete additive). Look for the Tetra brand. It's a bit purer than the Dow brand.

[CarlD]

Also STOP with the baking soda--your T/A at 150 is OK for a vinyl pool, but you cannot use soda ash to raise your pH now.

Why didn't you read the directions we provide here in our stickied threads? Now you have to deal with too high T/A and too low pH simultaneously. We NEVER recommend using baking soda for anything but raising T/A. Plus, if you are using Soda Ash to raise pH, you don't use baking soda for the T/A.

I suggest AGAIN that you drain half your water and refill to give you a fighting chance on CYA, T/A and pH which are all out of whack. And you cannot use your tri-chlor pucks now.

[waterbear]

Been using the teachings here for 6 years or so and I am finally stumped.

Your very first post! I think you need to take some time to review the teachings on here by reading through the stickes, by reading everything you can on the sister PoolSolutions website, and while you are at it, also reading the Pool School section over at Troublefreepool.com. (Carl, if that last line is not OK please edit it out!).
Not being critical or anything like that but you really do not have a grasp on the basics that are taught here. Once you understand them you will not be stumped.
Also, I too buy my baking soda in the big bags from Costco and the directions on the side of the bagf/box will overdose you and raise the TA too much. (Then again, Church and Dwight AKA Arm and Hammer do want you to buy as much baking soda as possible, don't they?

[CarlD]

Your very first post! I think you need to take some time to review the teachings on here by reading through the stickes, by reading everything you can on the sister PoolSolutions website, and while you are at it, also reading the Pool School section over at Troublefreepool.com. (Carl, if that last line is not OK please edit it out!).
Not being critical or anything like that but you really do not have a grasp on the basics that are taught here. Once you understand them you will not be stumped.
Also, I too buy my baking soda in the big bags from Costco and the directions on the side of the bagf/box will overdose you and raise the TA too much. (Then again, Church and Dwight AKA Arm and Hammer do want you to buy as much baking soda as possible, don't they?

SACRILEGE!!!!! YOU ARE HEREBY BANNED UNTIL THE UNIVERSE COLLAPSES!!!! ABANDON ALL HOPE!

(Just kidding......not a problem )

[Unabomber007]

I drained a good amount of water today and am refilling. I'd guess maybe 1/3 of the water...maybe 1/2. It's currently refilling and I'd test levels hopefully later tonight or tomorrow.

I think what I did wrong was to not check ALK like I should. I'll make sure to start keeping an eye on this. My reason for being dumb on these issues is my wife took over ownership of the pool last year due to my being overseas. So much of my pool smarts disappeared. I've been here and to those sites you've mentioned more times than probably anyone. Though I'm a Pool Forum n00b, this forum stuff is old hat for me....I have over 23,000 posts on the other forum I belong to.

Anyways, we'll see what the new testing brings.

[CarlD]

Good Luck! Post it and we'll see what we can do.