Am I on the right path?

[Clayton993]

I just setup my first pool, its a 14' Intex ultra frame (3550 gallons) with the Intex Saltwater generator.

So far I added the required salt, 1.1lbs of stabilizer and 16 oz of muriatic acid.

I tested the water with the test strips that came with the salt generator and the ph was very bright pink and off the charts. My plan is to get the ph and alkalinity in range first then get the rest in range.

Am I off to a good start?

 

[zea3]

Yes, drop the pH to the 7.2-7.5 range first.

 

[duraleigh]

Put some Clorox in your pool. Enough to get to 4ppm or so. That way, all your SWG has to do is MAINTAIN the chlorine level rather than try to build it up which is often hard for them to do.

 

[Clayton993]

thanks for the help path?

Ok will do.

Thanks for the help

 

[Clayton993]

Well after testing again today, the ph is still very hot pink which I guess means very high.. Nor sure if the muriatic acid did anything.

chlorine is .5-1.0 and ta seems around 240 or more


Any suggestions?

 

[Bama Rambler]

It did but the pH may be higher than you think and it'll take a lot more acid than you think. Keep adding.

 

[Isaac-1]

Do yourself a favor and get a drop based test kit, the strips can be wildly inconsistant even the cheap $10 OTO chlorine and pH kit from Wal-Mart is an improvement.

 

[Clayton993]

Well yesterday I added 32oz of muriatic acid and 2 cups of Clorox.

I tested tonight and the ph is still the same but looks like the alkalinity dropped a little bit. I found a water report from my city from 2009 and the results show a ph of 7.3 and alkalinity of 325

I feel like I've already added way to much muriatic acid for the size of my pool.. I'm sort of lost on what to do. I'm going to buy a good drop tester this weekend and get my water checked from the local pool store .

 

[jblizzle]

I doubt you will find a "good drop kit" locally. If you are going to buy a kit, get one of the ones we recommend that includes the FAS-DPD test ... it will save you so much hassle in the long run. See the link in my signature for recommendations.

Take the pool store results with a grain of salt ... although they are probably better than the strips.

 

[Bama Rambler]

With and TA of 325 it takes a lot of acid to move the pH. Pick up a cheap OTO/pH test kit and check the pH with that. If your Walmart has the HTH 6-way kit that would be even better.

 

[aa62579]

That wasn't too much MA. That would be around the amount it would take your pool to go from 8 to 7.2 with a TA of 325 according to the pool calculator. In practice, I found I actually needed more than the calculator called for to make the change. This could be because gallons is an estimate or it could also be due to numbers not being as accurate with a TA being that high. Either way, using the numbers the pool calculator gives you may make the process take a bit longer, but for me, I never worried about it dropping the pH too low.

Last year I started out with a TA at 325. Didn't test this year at first because I knew it was high based on my high pH. (7.8) Added MA and it was back to 7.6 the next day - we did have a quick shower which could have created some aeration that quickened the increase. Did run a full test last night and my TA was 300, so I had to add more MA. I expect to repeat this many, many times over the summer.

Last year I found that if we didn't do too much in the pool, my pH would raise .1 to .2 per day, depending on wind conditions. If we did much splashing, .2 - .4 per day. I think the lowest I ever saw my TA was around 180, but I didn't test it all that often. With as hot as it was last year and no rain, we couldn't get away from topping off the pool 1-2 times per week. And with my fill water having such a high TA, there just wasn't a way to get a handle on it unless I would have spent a lot of time doing the MA/aeration cycles right in a row.