Just opened pool, Ph > 10 and CC = 5.5

ColoradoPool2022

Active member
Dec 7, 2022
25
Denver, CO
Pool Size
10880
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-20
Hello again,
We just opened our pool in CO for the 4th season and the chemicals seem to be at their worst. The company that opened our pool on Monday said the Ph was really high (not sure if/how they tested it) and put 64 oz of 20' muriatic acid in. They also put in 2 lbs of 54% cal-hypo shock. I was busy and didn't run my own tests that day (two days ago). I ran my test today and holy cow, things are a mess. I'm mostly concerned with the CC level as I tested twice and got 5.5 and 6.0. That would suggest that my break-even chlorination level is 55! That's >9 lbs of shock and that just feels like a bad idea.

My main question is- do I just drain the pool and start over? Below are my full readings as of today. For now, I'm trying to bring down the Ph and then will work on the CC based on the advice I get here. Thx for any advice!

FC- 0.5
CC- 5.5-6.0
Ph- it was purple. It took 7 drops of R015 to get to about 7.4. That suggests 70 oz of acid but I put in 50 to start and will recheck tomorrow morning. I also turned the pump up to 2,300 RPM.
TA- 130 (for some reason my TA always goes up over short periods of time. It was 80 when I closed the pool in October. Hopefully addressing the Ph situation will get me back down around 100 and I'll go from there)
CH- 370
CYA- zero. I plan to address this after the Ph and chlorine concerns. This was 60 when I closed the pool.
Salt- 3,000. I plan to address this after the Ph and chlorine concerns. This was 3,200 when I closed the pool.
Temp- 68
CSI- pool math can't calculate it given the Ph level
 
If the water is not a swamp, no need to dump.
When doing pH adjustments, do it in .4 reductions. Larger reduction calculations are not accurate. Lower .4, pump running, test 30 minutes later. Repeat until your pH is in the 7s.
Can you go test pH again now?
 
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I don't believe the CCs. It takes FC to make CCs and they burn off rather quickly.

Have you been adding FC ?

Is the cell working yet or is it still too cold ?

Are you sure the chemicals above are all the pool guys added to the pool ?
 
The company that opened our pool on Monday said the Ph was really high (not sure if/how they tested it) and put 64 oz of 20' muriatic acid in. They also put in 2 lbs of 54% cal-hypo shock.
2 lbs of 53% Cal Hypo corresponds to 13 FC in a 10k pool, if I’m running pool math correctly.

FC- 0.5
CC- 5.5-6.0
After ~ 2 days.

I don't believe the CCs. It takes FC to make CCs and they burn off rather quickly.
@Newdude can you please walk me through that statement? What kind of ratio would you expect to see between the FC added and having been converted to CC, and how quick should the resulting CCs burn off? Honestly looking to learn something from this. Where I live we don’t have winter, so I don’t expect to ever close a pool...