I'm so happy!! Two weeks ago I posted that I was putting up the white flag in surrender. I felt like my pool had defeated me. But guess what? I thnk we'll actually be able to swim this weekend!!! What looked like a coi pond last weekend now is beginning to look like a lovely place to swim again! I've still got cloudy water, but we'll keep the process going. i'm mostly thrilled because I'm keeping CYA levels up!!!

Here were my numbers tonight:

cl: 1
fc: 0
tc: 1
pH 7.2
tA: 60
CYA: 40 !!!!!!
CH: 100
Salt: 920 (Haven't added any salt while I've been attacking the swamp!)

We're still getting LOTS of rain, daily. I'm trying to keep on top of it, but the chemicals are really easily displaced!!

Thank you all again for sharing your knowledge and experience!!

Keep more chlorine in your pool. Your chlorine should be around 16 ppm until your pool is clear. Nice work to this point but get a lot more chlorine in there and run your pump 24/7 and your pool will clear!

I am completely new at this, so this could be way left field.. but shouldn't TA be 100-130ish?

OK Duraleigh! Will do!!! These rains are killing me....Any suggestions there??????

(and yes, NWScott...I believe that is supposed to be higher. Right now I was concentrating on getting it clean. Now I'll deal with the rest of it!)

~Kathy

You can leave the TA where it is right now. Don't raise it unless your ph swings wildly. But absolutely do raise your FC level.

FC for CYA of 40ppm is minimum 3ppm, and high target 7ppm. This means, every night you'll raise your pool to 7ppm and expect to again raise it to 7ppm the next evening. 1.5ppm is far too low.

I had to shock my pool for the first time since filling (not counting winter mishaps with the cover and a week of sun) when I let my 40ppm CYA pool fall below 3ppm. Do NOT let your pool fall below 3ppm. It's a recipe for algae.

That range would be recommended only IF the OP was using trichlor tabs to chlorinate.
You can read Recommended Levels from Pool School here: pool-school/recommended_levels

TA works as a buffer to help ease rapid changes to ph, but it also has the effect of 'pulling' the ph up. So there is kind of a double-edged sword here - too low and the ph is very difficult to adjust, too high and the ph will continually creep up. The trick is to find the proper point for balance, and it differs from pool to pool. Some influencing factors include whether trichlor or dichlor is used, as they are acidic, and the ph/TA of the local tap water and rain, as well as several other things. Recommended levels are a good overall starting point (be sure to use the recommended level for your chlorination method) but the pool will be the ultimate indicator if where the TA should end up.