Few chemistry questions?

[dcrob95]

Pool = 25000 gallons, SWG, plaster, opened 5 days ago:

Recent test results from this morning using TFT test kit:
Temp = ?, need a new thermometer, I'm guessing it's about 70 if I'm lucky
PH = 7.0-7.2 was 8.0, added MA to bring TA down, opened spa returns this a.m. so it overflows into pool to aerate to bring PH back up
FC = 4.0
CC = 0
TA = 80, down from 100
CH = 180, will add calcium later today, calcium was not low last season, however I had to add some new water and some rain/snow water got in over the winter when the cover blew partially off, maybe 12inches of water had to be added, we still probably could use another inch or so, especially with no rain forecast for the foreseable future. I'm guessing the addition of new water brought down the CH? We do have well water which I need to test to see what the chemistry is.

Should I bump up the CH to closer high end of the range to 350? Looking at the pool calculator.com, even if I get everything into fall within the ranges provided, it seems to tell me that the CSI is not good and "Potential to become corrosive to plaster"?

CYA currently about 45, will be purchasing some CYA today to start to try to bring that up to 70, so I'll have to get the FC up to about 8.0 by running the SWG more

I want to add borax, but my local walmart only had 8 boxes, so I need about 12 more, but I do have 7 gallons of acid on hand currently to add when I gather up enough borax.

Should I lower the TA some more?
Does it matter what order I start adding these things?
Will CYA bump lower the PH and lower the TA some at the same time, since it is an acid?

Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

CYA will lower PH, just not all that much.

Yes, go ahead a bring TA down some more.

At this point I'd focus on CH, while waiting for the PH to come up some more. You can also go ahead and add CYA any time.

 

[Richard320]

What's your fill water like? If you have hard water, meaning, white scale on the showerhead and coffeemaker, you probably have plenty of Calcium. I know I do! Anyway, if you have hard water, go easy on the added Calcium, because you will be adding lots more during the summer through refills after evaporation. The water evaporates, but the Calcium stays behind and keeps growing and growing and growing....

Aim for the low end of safe. You can always add more, but getting rid of it is a bear!

 

[dcrob95]

What's your fill water like? If you have hard water, meaning, white scale on the showerhead and coffeemaker, you probably have plenty of Calcium. I know I do! Anyway, if you have hard water, go easy on the added Calcium, because you will be adding lots more during the summer through refills after evaporation. The water evaporates, but the Calcium stays behind and keeps growing and growing and growing....

Aim for the low end of safe. You can always add more, but getting rid of it is a bear!

We are supposed to have hard acidic water in our area. We do have a water system to take care of that for that house, however, my outside hose that fills up the pool is now bypassing the water system for the house since the end of last year. So even with our supposed hard water coming directly out of the well, my Calcium is low, making me thing that our water really isn't that hard? I'll be checking the fill water later today. Thinking about this, I think I will add an extra spigot outside, just to use for filling the pool, that does go through the water system to avoid any issues with iron content of the well water.

I did add some calcium to the pool yesterday, calcium was up to about 240 this morning so I'll add a little more calcium today. My PH seemed to bump back up nicely with the spa overflowing and aerating the water for almost 22 hours, so I added some more acid last night, TA is now down to 70. Will aerate some more to bring the PH back up a little.

 

[dcrob95]

checked the fill water last night with the TFT test kit: CH=0, TA=10, PH=? it was yellow, probably about the yellow of between 1 and 2 on the chlorine side?