My Father-in-law tried to open my pool! Help!

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Kgardiner

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May 17, 2015
102
Audubon, NJ
Long story short, he thought he was helping. He bought some stuff from some store and dumped it in. A Few days ago my FC was testing off the charts (I stopped after I had used 50 drops so as not to waste reagent). I use a K-2006 kit. I've been using my skimmer to pull leaves off the bottom and clean as much debris out of the pool as I can seeing as I can't see the bottom. Today when I went out to start working on it, there was a lounge chair cushion in the pool. :(
I've been backwashing, running the filter all day and haven't added anything until the chlorine came down. Here are my current test results:

Taylor K-2006
10200 gallon above ground, sand filter
FC: 0
TC:0
TA: 40
CH: 50
CYA: I'm saying 35 because the black dot vanished a bit after the 40 but definitely before the 30.
PH: <7 This is where I think I need to start, it was yellow, much lighter than the 7 reading.

So Borax? Should I assume it's at 6.9, aim for 7.4, and just keep testing and adding?

Missed you guys!! But that father-in-law is NOT invited to swim here this season!
 
For CYA, you round up so your CYA is 40 and you need to get chlorine up to 5-7. You may want to perform OCLT tonight just to make sure you don't have any organics that survived the massive shock you had. If you don't pass, you will need to SLAM. Shooting for 7.4 is good idea on PH.
 
So did the lounge chair survive the winter? :grin: Good thing is you have a K-2006 test kit. So from here it's simple ready:
- Yes, increase the pH a bit. At least to 7.0, but definitely above 6.8. I would aim for 7.2 if possible. 7.4 is fine, but it may be a while before you test again which is why I like 7.2.
- CYA of 40 requires a SLAM FC of "16", so just let the FC drop and then maintain it from there.
- Continue with the pool cleaning, sweeping, brushing, and vacuuming. Backwash when pressure increase by about 25% and in time you should begin to see improvement. If you have any other questions, let us know. Take a pic of the water each day so you can see the progress and show your father-in-law as he is restricted to house duties until the pool SLAM is complete. :)

Good luck!.
 
Before adjusting your pH, I would be inclined to dial up your TA a bit... 60... maybe 70.

It's somewhat low, which isn't much of a problem, except it makes it harder to get your pH adjusted.

Also, raising your TA will have a slight increase of your pH.

After that, I like Borax for raising pH. But, it might be nice to know if you already have borates in your pool... Especially if you have pets.

If you already have... like... borates in the 50's, and pets drinking from your pool, you might want to avoid putting in more. In which case, washing soda or soda ash is a better choice.
 
Shockingly enough, lounge cushion remains in tact and unfazed! CLEANER THAN EVER after that shock! lol

Okay, so I'm adding bleach until I get to 16 and keeping it there until SLAM is over. And adding borax to get my PH up to 7.2? Should I hold off on adding bleach until I raise my PH? I thought I've read high FC can cause PH reading to be off.

Should I be unconcerned about my TA?

My husband just showed me that his father added 8 bottles of Clorox Pro Results outdoor bleach! HE IS BANNED!

- - - Updated - - -

Is there a borate test in the kit I have?

So add baking soda first to up the TA?
 
A TA of 40 is about as low as you would want to get. If you decide t try and bump it up a bit, that's fine. Just don't get consumed by it. You can add some borax for the pH, but soda ash will raise both pH & TA. But I don't want you to make a special trip just for soda ash. If you increase TA to about 50 or so with baking soda it will be fine for now. As for the pH, yes, make sure it's good (7.2-ish) before maintaining the FC of 16. The pH is most important right now since it was so low before. Once you start the SLAM, everything should be fine until you complete the SLAM and can do some final adjustments.

Glad to hear the chair made it. Next year, you can toss all of your whites in the pool before the Father-in-Law goes bleach crazy. :crazy:
 
So before I start adding, I just want to get this straight. I have borax and baking soda on hand. I'll be running to the store for my bleach after work tonight.

I'm adding 27oz of borax to get ph up to 7.2
Also adding 19oz of baking soda to raise TA to 50. Can I do these concurrently or should I do one at a time and then retest before adding the other?

- - - Updated - - -

I just discovered my Borax is empty. :( I'm going to add the baking soda to get the TA up to 50 and grab Borax this evening.
 
Just noticed that it was OUTDOOR bleach that was added. In case you don't know... avoid that in the future... It has stuff added to it that you don't want in your pool.

If you are not noticing anything like foaming, it shouldn't be a problem, and should clear out eventually. Just stick to regular bleach (not splashless... not outdoor... not scented).
 

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So I added 27 oz borax this morning, waited about an hour to test, and my ph still tested "yellow", so below 7. I've added another 25 oz about an hour ago and about to go test. Should I be worried or just assume it was lower then my safe guess?
 
When it gets below 6.8 (yellow) it's a guess, so it's best to go in stages. Same could be said if your pH was over-the-top high and trying to come down. Just go in stages and re-test about every 20-30 minutes. Remember you can also use aeration at the same time if you have such a way to generate bubbles which also helps to increase pH.
 
Am I confused...are we not using Poolmath for that answer??
Click to expand...
You certainly can. The problem in some cases is the pH is actually so low (or high) that we have no idea how low/high it actually is, therefore it's tough to enter a current NOW number on the calculator. Since we try to avoid overshooting a target, it is sometimes better to be cautious and go in reasonable stages. The calculator can still be used though to determine reasonable dosage amounts.
 

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