Where do we start to get this water balanced? 🤪

[Bradenpool]

Hi there,
We are using the pool maintenance guy our pool builder recommended. He’s admittedly had a hard time getting the water balanced (new salt water pool, Stonescapes finish about 4 months old) due to something not working with the pump and/or salt cell. He had to treat the pool due to algae last week. We also have something like “sand” (maybe calcium according to the builder, see pics in comments). It’s starting to look better, but the numbers from Leslie’s test (we took it in today) don’t look great. What should we address first? Leslie’s gave us 4 bags of Power Powder Plus to add and some no PHOS, but now I’m starting to doubt everything since we’ve had so many “pros” like our builder give bad advice. Plus the bottle of no PHOS says it’s for properly balanced water which ours is not. Thanks for your help!

 

[Bradenpool]

Stuff that builds up. We vacuum it out and in a day or two more accumulates.

 

[Bradenpool]

What our pool currently looks like.

 

[wireform]

Ok, I'm going to get to the point really fast. Stop going to Leslie's and start doing your own testing
Test Kits Compared
. I trust nothing that last test sheet shows.
Pool Care Basics
FC/CYA Levels
PoolMath
SLAM Process
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

 

[Bradenpool]

Ok, I'm going to get to the point really fast. Stop going to Leslie's and start doing your own testing
Test Kits Compared
. I trust nothing that last test sheet shows.
Pool Care Basics
FC/CYA Levels
PoolMath
SLAM Process
Overnight Chlorine Loss Test

Read through all the links and they are very helpful. We ordered the Taylor test kit and we’re hoping it arrives tomorrow.

How long should you wait in between adding stuff to the pool? For instance, if we add some muriatic acid to try to bring down the alkalinity and PH, how long should we wait to add stabilizer to try to bring up the Cyanuric acid?

 

[Bradenpool]

Bought the subscription to PoolMath to start tracking.

 

[mknauss]

How long should you wait in between adding stuff to the pool? For instance, if we add some muriatic acid to try to bring down the alkalinity and PH, how long should we wait to add stabilizer to try to bring up the Cyanuric acid?

Only thing to wait a few minutes between is muriatic acid and liquid chlorine.

See Recommended Pool Chemicals

 

[Bradenpool]

Only thing to wait a few minutes between is muriatic acid and liquid chlorine.

See Recommended Pool Chemicals

Thanks! We are going to add liquid stabilizer today to try to raise the CYA.

 

[wireform]

Thanks! We are going to add liquid stabilizer today to try to raise the CYA.

Liquid stabilizer should only be used if you're going to use the complete jug and then rinse it out well with pool water to get its 100% contents. The nature of the liquid is it has lots of sludge at the bottom so if you were to use a partial jug you have no way to know how much you've added to the water.

 

[Bradenpool]

Liquid stabilizer should only be used if you're going to use the complete jug and then rinse it out well with pool water to get its 100% contents. The nature of the liquid is it has lots of sludge at the bottom so if you were to use a partial jug you have no way to know how much you've added to the water.

Good to know! As it turns out my husband came back from the store with the granulates so he put it in a sock in the skimmer.

 

[Pauls234]

I wouldn't add any CYA based on a pool store test - if you over shoot it can only be reduced via water exchange. You said test kit was arriving today? Get that and post up a full set of results and then go from there. You mentioned salt, do you have a way to test that? Taylor K-1766 salt kit is recommended.