Very confused...CH not registering, water is cloudy

[bdboogs]

I am having some issues with my pool chemistry and I need some advice.

I set up a small, 18' Intex pool for the kids this year. After reading the pool school and forum posts I recognize I started this wrong. I'm hoping to get some advice as to whether I should just refill the pool or if chemical adjustments will be enough.

Here are my test results. Right now I am using the cheap HTH 6 way test kit.

Here are my results from this morning.

CL 4
PH 8
TA 250-260ppm
CH Doesn't register. When I put the drops in it turns to yellow. I tested my tap water which I filled the pool with and it reads 300ppm. Not sure if the yellow indicates no Hardness or way to much.
CYA It appears to be about 20. I could still see the dot at 30 so just estimating.

The water is cloudy but I can see the bottom of the pool. I would describe it as having a milky haze.

I am using the Intex salt water generator as well. I realize my CYA is to low and the TA and CH are way off. I have had the CL at 0 before and have not really shocked the pool. I did the boost cycle on the SWG and it did raise the CL but I don't know how much. It has been above the scale on the test kit which is 5 but nowhere near shocking levels.

Hopefully I'm not missing anything about my levels or setup. I do want to follow the BBB method. At this point I don't care if I use the SWG or not. I just want to get back on track with the chemicals. So what are your thoughts? Should I just empty and refill the pool and start correctly or is the water salvageable? If it is going to take days and days or weeks to get back to normal, my thought would be to just refill. Would a 50% water change help? Also, should I disconnect the copper cell(?) from the SWG?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will be ordering a proper test kit as I know that is always recommended.

Thank you,
Jeff

 

[JasonLion]

First, lower the PH to 7.2, and do that again any time the PH gets to 7.8 or higher. Your TA is quite high, so this might happen fairly frequently. There is a reasonable chance that doing this a few times will also clear up the cloudy water.

I don't see any reason to replace water and I doubt that water replacement will make any difference. Measure the TA and CH levels of your fill water to see what the pros and cons of water replacement are.

You need to raise the CYA level to between 70 and 80.

I've never heard of the CH test turning yellow right off. What brand of test kit are you using?

 

[bdboogs]

It is the HTH 6 way test kit. What's strange is that it worked correctly with the house water and registered 300ppm of CH. I tested the pool water twice and both times the test turned immediately a yellow color. Not sure why it works correctly with house tap water and not the pool water.

 

[Richard320]

There's no chance you grabbed the wrong reagent?

I've been confused more times than I'd care to count because I was adding the wrong drops.

 

[bdboogs]

Ok...I wasn't mixing it enough. It turned a yellow color immediately as I put the indicator drops in but slowly turned red/pink. I added the reagent and the result is 300ppm CH. It's strange that the house water turns red immediately and the pool water needs quite a bit of stirring to get to red/pink.

So now knowing the CH level what recommendations would you make?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[JasonLion]

The same as what I said before, except it is far more likely that the clouding is caused by the high PH and high TA levels.

 

[bdboogs]

Thanks for the help. This site has so much information and without it us newbies would be lost.

Thanks again,
Jeff

 

[bdboogs]

I am on the slow path of lowering the TA in the pool. I brought the PH down to 7.2 and 48 hours later it is back at 7.5. The TA has gone down ~30-40ppm and is now at 220ppm. The only aeration the pool gets is the SWG and kids swimming in it.

Should I just keep the process up of lowering it down to 7.2 and repeating as it rises until my TA is at my target level? The water is still a bit cloudy but seems a little better. I can't wait until my TF-100 kit arrives so I can get more accurate results.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[jblizzle]

There is nothing wrong with doing what you are doing to lower the TA. If you add an aerator, you could speed up the process, but there really is not hurry.

 

[bdboogs]

So I've been at this for several days Nd have re-adjusted the PH down to 7.2 4 times after it went back up. My TA is still at 220ppm down from ~250ppm. Should I just keep this up or do I need to add an aerator? I've held off on an aerator because my return is not the standard return. I have an Intex pool with a return that I don't have any idea how to hook an aerator to.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[RobbieH]

Your SWG is a very effective aerator. Trust me, I know, mine is great at driving up pH.