Opening pool today and dunno which to tackle first?

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C

claymerica

0
May 17, 2012
34
tn
FC 0
Ph 8.2
Cya 0
Ta 60

So can i tackle ph and cya together at same time? I need to get cya up before I do any shocking (pool is green) but I also need to get ph down and prob get TA up. Any recommendations would be great. I have stabilizer and MA.
 
I would drop the ph first, then retest ph in 1/2 hour and redose as necessary. At that point check your TA again to make sure it is not below 50 ppm.

Once ph is down in the 7.5-7.8 range then I would get enough FC in there to keep algae at bay (I would shoot for 3 ppm FC).

Then start getting the cya level up by putting it in a sock and hanging it in front of the return.
 
Ok so after I get ph in check I can add bleach and hang a sock in front of return at same time? In other words I dont have to wait on cya to come up before I bleach. Since pool is dark green im gonna assume I need to get to shock level
 
Yes, once you get your first dose of bleach in there, then start the cya sock.

claymerica said:
In other words I dont have to wait on cya to come up before I bleach. Since pool is dark green im gonna assume I need to get to shock level
Click to expand...
Yes, go to shock level for 0 cya, then when your cya is mostly gone from the sock, assume it is in the pool and raise your shock level accordingly. I would shoot for 30 ppm cya while your shocking.
 
One more question, what raises Ph level so high. My neighbor is trying to tell me it using bleach. I laughed at him cuz he said thats what pool place told him. I wanna be able to argue with him. Any rebuttles i can use?
 
Pool stores tend to make their most money on selling trichlor, dichlor so they like to distort this subject. Bleach temporarily raises ph, but when the added chlorine gets used up the ph basically goes back to where it started from which is why we say bleach is effectively ph neutral. Technically there is a very small net increase in ph but it is so small and typically masked by other factors that tend to raise ph more such as high TA and aeration.
 
Ok so TA is down to 50 from 60. Do I need to get it up or is it going to be ok while im lowering ph. Just wanna make sure I do this right and not hurt anything. I have a nosey neighbor who would love to see me fail lol.
 

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Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Unless you water is below 40 degrees, I would raise TA to 70-80 ppm with baking soda, then lower ph down (maybe shoot for 7.4) and recheck TA and ph after 1 hour, then adjust as necessary.
 
No worries I appreciate you helping me. Ok I will try to raise TA and lower PH at same time. I just didnt wanna waste the acid I had already put in the pool to try to lower ph if I was fighting other issues. Ill test water temp in morn but there is no way its below 40. We havent seen below 40 in over a month.
 
Update: Ok so this is day 5 of the shock process. I got the levels pretty good. Water started really green and went to cloudy blue on the second day of bleach. It has stayed cloudy since then. Not a whole lot of change since wed. Shallow end is a pretty blue but a little cloudy. Deep end is really cloudy blue. My question is could debris on the bottom of the deep end be keeping it cloudy or have I just not had enough days of shocking to get clear. I assumed I could get the water clear no matter how much stuff is on the bottom. I have not vacuumed but I have brushed the bottom daily to stir up anything. It was covered over winter (mesh) so there shouldn be a whole lot of stuff, mostly algae. I have kept FC about 10ppm or above per chart. Usually is about 8 when I check in morn. Here are my levels currently

FC 12
Cya 30
Ta 100
PH 7.2
CH 100
 
If you have debris in your pool, it too will use chlorine and slow the shocking process down. Get as much out as possible using a leaf rake.

How often are you having to backflush?

Don't trust (or adjust) ph when above 10 ppm, the result is not valid (reads high).
 
If you are getting enough visible stuff when you brush, go ahead and vacuum it up rather than suspend it in the water and ask the filter to catch it.

Stay the course. You are still losing some chlorine overnight so not everything is dead yet. You might try dosing to 15 or so this evening. Sometimes adding just a bit more chlorine than is on the chart makes a difference....DO NOT overdo it, though.
 
Update:
Im still looking like I did almost a week ago. Blue but cloudy. I am not getting anything visible when I brush or vacuum. My CYA level was more around 20 so I raised it to about 35. I am losing chlorine overnight so that tells me there is still algae but I have been keeping it at shock level most of the time except overnite of course. Am I just being impatient or should I not be clear at this point? I realize it has only been 10 days but given the drastic turnaround in 5 days time IO expected to be clear several days ago. Here were my stats as of this morn.
FC-9
CYA 35-40
PH- 7.3
TA- 90
 
Sounds like you are still killing something. How much is your OCLT loss? What is your CC level?

I would get your FC up to or a little above 16 ppm (shock level for 40 cya from the chlorine/cya chart) and try and keep it at/above 16 ppm (overdose a little if you have to when you can't be by the pool to keep it at/above 16 ppm) and see if that speeds it up.
 
Update a still cloudy, a tad bit clearer but still cant see bottom of shallow end, almost though. My levels are still good and been keeping FC around 16. It is dropping overnight to about 13 so I def still have algae. I think maybe I have been letting it get a little below 16 and maybe that is the prob? I cant figure it out. Can i run the automatic robot now or do I need to wait til pool is clear and chlorine level down before I start using it. Really thought the pool would have been clear a week ago. My neighbors got clear within a couple of days. I know I shouldn compare but frustrating
 
Still making progress, great!

Yeah keep it at or a little above 16 ppm now.

In reference to comparing to your neighbor, remember each pool is different. Also, if you neighbor used the common pool store approach of tossing in magic elixirs, it may have cleared his/her pool quickly, but that approach may just be hiding some underlying problem...and the problem will likely rear its head again. Be confident in your approach and the fact that you know what your approach is and why your doing it. Once you are clear, if you continue to follow the methods taught on this board, your pool will remain clear (and if you have a problem again, you can quickly deal with it). However, this my not be true for your neighbors approach/pool...
 

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