Hi Everyone, I just did a Chlorine Wash/Refill as I was battling black algea and the plaster looks just emaculate now as well as the pool water. I was wondering if someone could please give me some advice on my chemical readings? A bit of backstory first. The pool started over with high calcium readings and black algea spots around all of the walls. Tried scrubbing and adding tons of Chlorine before draining too but the pool was not holding any chlorine no matter what I did and I figured a fresh start over would really help. Not heavy blotches, but just tons of maybe dime shaped spots all over primarly the walls. Once I confirmed this was black algea I did a grid teardown and cleaning and I drained the pool and used a putty knife to scrape off all of the waxy surfaces so the real fight could begin. Then I gave it a good brushing with a wire algea brush and then I poured chlorine (6 gallons) down the walls over every single inch of the plaster. I waited about 15 mins and then I hosed all the chlorine off. All spots in the pool completely disappeared like magic. I have since refilled it and I'm not real sure what I need to do to get my pool stable so per my test strips here is where I'm at. This is with adding 1 gallon of muratic acid in too as my first test ~ 2 hours after fill and filter system on showed very high PH.
Results: 12 hours after refill and 4 hours after 1 gallon of Muratic Acid
Total Hardness: 500 - OK
Total Chlorine / Total Bromine: 1 / 2 - OK
Free Chlorine: 0.5 - Low
PH: 6.8 - Low
Total Alk: 80 - OK
Cyanuric Acid: 0 - Low
I'm not sure if I need to be more patient and test it again in 24 hours or should I be doing something more right now. I've heard that new fills can be someone difficult to stabalize and I want to be sure my pool had good chemistry now as that was a lot of work to fix the black algea issue. Since I live in Arizona, I do want to keep my chlorine levels above high but right now I'm not sure if I'm even getting inaccurate readings I'm thinking so to say due to the new water fill. I just dont want it to be back to square one that for some unanswered reason, my chlorine will not stay because that was the whole point of me even draining it this late/hot in the year. Any advice would be extremely welcome!
Thanks,
JFAZ
Results: 12 hours after refill and 4 hours after 1 gallon of Muratic Acid
Total Hardness: 500 - OK
Total Chlorine / Total Bromine: 1 / 2 - OK
Free Chlorine: 0.5 - Low
PH: 6.8 - Low
Total Alk: 80 - OK
Cyanuric Acid: 0 - Low
I'm not sure if I need to be more patient and test it again in 24 hours or should I be doing something more right now. I've heard that new fills can be someone difficult to stabalize and I want to be sure my pool had good chemistry now as that was a lot of work to fix the black algea issue. Since I live in Arizona, I do want to keep my chlorine levels above high but right now I'm not sure if I'm even getting inaccurate readings I'm thinking so to say due to the new water fill. I just dont want it to be back to square one that for some unanswered reason, my chlorine will not stay because that was the whole point of me even draining it this late/hot in the year. Any advice would be extremely welcome!
Thanks,
JFAZ