High ph and chlorine after opening pool

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stomp442

0
May 20, 2015
4
oxford, mi
My wife and I recently purchased a house with an inground pool. The pool was opened last week -- though not by the most helpful person. He managed to get get the filter, pump and heater up and running. Also dumped in four gallons of chlorine and left. The total volume of the pool is a bit of a mystery. As the pool is kidney shaped, and the shallow is 3.5' (supposedly) to 12.5'. My calculations, using an online calculator, came to: 30000 gallons of water.

After cleaning the pool several times -- there are some nearby trees -- we started to test the water and discovered that the chlorine level is at 10ppm and the PH at 8ppm.

The pool gets decent sun exposure, and for a while we had the pool heater + solar cover on.

Doubting my readings, I took a sample to the local pool shop. They recommended a product called: PhosFREE.

We cleaned the bottom -- again -- and added 1.5L of the product to the water. The water quickly clouded.

The next morning there was "goo" at the bottom of the pool. Not the entire bottom, but in patches. We cleaned this up. And tested the water again -- this time with a home strip kit.

My readings had not changed.

Per the bottle, I added the remaining 1.5L into the pool. 24 hours later. Some "goo". Not much. But the readings are still consistent.

I've been reading that adding muriatic acid to the pool is a means to drop the PH. Is this safe, recommended? Or am I chasing a different problem?

Advice, comments, questions, are welcome.
 
First, Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

Yes, Muratic acid is what you want to lower your pH. get it at Lowes, much less expensinve than most pool stores. Use Pool Math to figure out how much to add.

The pool store is going to recommend many things to you, all with the same goal - sell you something. Skip the PhosFree.

If you have read around here much you have probably seen that not much credence is given to pool store testing. While you would think that a "professional" would be the best, unfortunately in most cases it is quite the opposite. Between employees who blindly trust the word of chemical sales representatives and high school kids working in the pool store for the summer you end up with poor results from their testing.

If you are going to follow our pool care system you will need to pick up one of the recommended test kits. To effectively practice the TFPC methods, the FAS/DPD chlorine test is essential. All the kits on the list contain that test while very few other kits do. The kits sold at the pool store generally won't won't cut it, but be careful pool store employees are known to say “it's the same thing”. Generally it's not!
 
Welcome to TFP! The first thing I recommend is you ditch the PS reading and the Test strips. If you are serious about taking over your pool you will need a recommended test kit such as the TF 100 linked in my signature.

Don't worry about phosphates. That is just a way for the PS to get you spend money.

I recommend reading through Pool School. Especially the ABC's of pool water chemistry.
 

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