No tests yet. I'm not even sure I know how to use this test kit yet. I'm off tomorrow and saturday, so I'm thinking I might try to test the water over my days off and see what I can come up with.
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I'd run some tests tomorrow and see where things are.
FC, PH, CYA. You don't want things going south !
FC, PH, CYA. You don't want things going south !
Hoping to get it all vacuumed out on my days off. I'm not really sure I know what I'm doing with the test kit yet so I think I'll be experimenting with that as well on my days off.
Still working on getting all the dirt out of the pool. There was a bit more mud in there then I realized. I vacuum for a few minutes, my pressure skyrockets, then I backwash. It's been taking awhile. I tested my water for the first time and provided I did everything correctly, my results are as follows:
PH - 8.2
TA - 210
FC - 0
CYA - 0
Should I wait to until I get the rest of the mud out considering all the back washing I'm doing before I add anything to the water?
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PH - 8.2
TA - 210
FC - 0
CYA - 0
Should I wait to until I get the rest of the mud out considering all the back washing I'm doing before I add anything to the water?
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I would lower your PH now with acid. You could be higher than 8.2. I would also get 2-3 ppm of FC via bleach in there to hold off algae to you get things cleaned up. What is the water temp ? You'll lose all the FC with zero CYA during the day, so add bleach accordingly. Add the stabilizer after your done cleaning and backwashing.
Good post^^. When you're lowering pH, do it in steps. You don't know how high it is, but you don't want to add too much and overshoot the other way.
Not sure of the temp. I just went out to check it when I realized I don't have a thermometer. Lol. Still new to all this stuff.
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The reason I asked about the water temp is that algae starts to like it when the water temp gets to 60 or so.
Any recommendations as to best places to purchase CYA, muriatic acid, etc?
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You can get acid at Lowes HD. The CYA you can get at Walmart, pool store. I got my last batch at Leslie's. It dissolved pretty quickly in cold water. It's cheaper at Walmart I believe.
Pool math will tell you. Plug in your pool volume, make sure it's accurate as can be. In the CYA section put zero for now and put in your target number and hit calculate. Play with it to get used to using it. It's not hard.
I picked up 2 gallons of muriatic acid so I can bring the PH down. I've also picked up 6 gallons of bleach. I should hopefully have all the mud out of the pool in the next day or two. Not sure how much stabilizer I'll need to get me where I need to be. This pool is going to get a lot of sunlight, probably 8-10 hours of sunlight per day.
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I've got the pool calculator app on my phone. Pretty sure that's the same as the pool math right?
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I'd shoot for a CYA level of 40. If you need to be higher you can always add. PITA to remove.
Ok, so according to pool math, it says I'm going to need about 7lbs of stabilizer by weight (if I did that right). I noticed everything also says that increasing CYA will also decrease PH. Since my PH is so high, and I should have the pool cleaned out in the next day or two, should I hold off on adding the muriatic acid until a week or so after adding the stabilizer and then recheck everything?
No. The stabilizer will only lower PH a little bit. Use the acid to get your PH down. It's too high. The test only reads to 8.2 it could be higher.
At the bottom of pool math there is a place called Effects of Adding Chem's. That will tell you how much the CYA will lower your PH.
At the bottom of pool math there is a place called Effects of Adding Chem's. That will tell you how much the CYA will lower your PH.
Sounds good. I would like to see ya get that PH down out the 8's that's all. Don't forget about the FC.?