Spring opening cloudy pool excessively high PH > 8.2

[JuJuBee]

18 Apr 2012

Thank you Doc and Janet - I'll get to work on all this right away and report back.
It's so nice to have a plan of action!!!

Judith

19 Apr 2012

Janet, we used an HTH 6-way test kit I bought 2 years ago that could check for CYA. I never used the kit...I only needed the phenol red bottle. When my husband transferred the cloudy solution to the CYA view tube, the black dot on the bottom never disappeared even when overflowing. I've already ordered the recommended test kit from Amazon and expect it should arrive today or tomorrow. I'll use that to check the CYA. Can't tell if my BioGuard products contain calcium. They don't list all the other ingredients anywhere on the containers and not even their websites. How can I find out exactly what ingredients are in a BioGuard product? (because I also want to check for Copper....)

Doc, my husband added only one gallon of the muriatic acid instead of two, (cuz he's a pessimist...) and this morning the pool water is still cloudy but it's a bright, clean blue. He should have added both gallons I'm assuming and I might add the second this morning.

We'll add the bleach this evening but I wanted to check with you first, is it o.k. to add regular chlorine bleach if we have the Bioguard Silk Sticks in our in-line chlorinator around the clock? Is there any problem with both types of chlorine in the pool together? (Sticks are trichlor......?)

I am reading about the borates thingy. What's your opinion of using BioGuard Optimizer over borax and acid? I know it's more expensive, but by the time I found somewhere to buy enough of the borax and acid, the price was only a $40 savings but the "steps" involved are more cumbersome initially. Is it just the price or are there some other things in the optimizer that don't belong? Can I continue to maintain borates with borax and acid after initially getting there with BioGuard???

Thanks! no rush, too cold to swim...