Chemical Reading after Refill - Need Advice

[JFAZ]

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

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: Start in Pool School with "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" At some point as you continue to read, you will find that no one here has any faith in testing with strips....none, nada!

I have to put a disclaimer here because I sell the kit most people use. That said, everything on this forum is about understanding Pool Water Chemistry and testing it VERY accurately and knowing what to do with the results.

For now, you need chlorine in your pool and you need some CYA in your pool. Do you have something other than strips to at least test for Chlorine and pH?

 

[linen]

Welcome to tfp, JFAZ

As duraleigh said, you are going to need a better test kit (see link in my sig).

I wish you had found us before you did the drain, we may have been help you fix your pool without the drain. With that said, even doing what you did, you probably still have to go through the shocking process. It is a process. Here is another pool school article for you to read: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/defeating_algae much of this applies to killing black algae as well.

 

[JFAZ]

Thanks for the info. I did read up more on the Chemistry. I just added 4 pounds of Trichlor granuals in hopes that this starts holding my chlorine and then adjust as needed from there. I understandabout a better test kit but I just have spent a lot on these strips and I would like to use these up first. I'm hoping to get stability here soon.

 

[Richard320]

Thanks for the info. I did read up more on the Chemistry. I just added 4 pounds of Trichlor granuals in hopes that this starts holding my chlorine and then adjust as needed from there. I understandabout a better test kit but I just have spent a lot on these strips and I would like to use these up first. I'm hoping to get stability here soon.

False economy. I had some strips. They were useless. I wouldn't get the same reading back-to-back. It depended too much on how much the colors bled into the neighbor.

 

[linen]

Not to beat a dead horse, but Richard320 is not alone. The experience on here by many posters is the strips are not going to cut it (use the google search at the bottom left of page if you are interested). Many times they are so far off that using those values worsens the situation.

In addition to the links we already provided above, please look at this link as well:http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool If you are going to do the shocking process, you might as well do it right

What is your pool volume and surface. It would help us if you put your pool details in your signature. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/read_before_you_post