confused and need some advice

[danpik]

Hi all
As the title says, I need some help figuring out the chemistry in my pool. short story, Came back from vacation to a messy pool. All was fine when I left. Current readings are PH <6.0, FC 0.5 (after a shock yesterday), TA 18 - 20 (suspect this is the problem) and stabilizer reading close to 0 (I had to use a test strip for this one) (yeah, I know). anyway, not sure what to do with the low TA reading. I am suspecting baking soda. Oh yeah, the pool is an 18' above ground. Currently re-reading pool school.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Since your pH and TA are low you need to use washing soda or soda ash.

Was a lot of acid added to your pool while you were gone?

 

[danpik]

No, nobody was here. I suspect that since I still use pucks that that is the source. Unfortunately, this summer has been so bad here that the solar cover has not been off for a couple of weeks and I have been away from home more that usual. This has led to my neglecting the pool for at least a month other that putting pucks in the float. Once I am done with this batch of pucks this year I am going full BBB method. thanks for the confirmation Dave.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You really need a good test kit. If you're still using tablets there's no way your CYA could be zero. You should know better than to trust strips with as many posts as you have.

 

[danpik]

Yeah, I know. I used to use my neighbors kit when needed. He got promoted to a different position which caused him to move. (Or maybe he moved cause I was always using his kit...Hmmmmm) I fixed his heater a couple of times and bailed him out one cold winter night when his boiler pump quit. We got along quite well actually.

I got the TA back up to around 100 (titrated earlier, PH looked better too) wanted to check again but, it is raining buckets now. I will see tomorrow afternoon where I am.