water balancing

  1. R

    optimal order of adding muriatic acid and liquid chlorine

    Is there an optimal order to add these: acid before liquid chlorine, or liquid chlorine before acid? I am not talking about huge changes like startup or SLAM. I'm talking about normal small maintenance doses during the week. I usually add in the evenings. I wait a little bit between adding the...
  2. Srbinette

    pH won’t go down in hot tub.

    New hot tub owner. Trying to balance chemicals. I cannot for the life of me get my pH down. It has been at or over 8.0 for several days despite adding acid. Water is crystal clear. Any suggestions? Do I keep adding acid every few hours until it works? pH 8.0+ TA 70 CH 150 CYA <30
  3. A

    TA High, PH slightly low

    Hi all, We opened our pool two days ago, much later than we usually open it and it was pretty swampy. We're making great progress and SLAMing is going well. When we opened, PH was 7.0 (possibly lower, test doesn't go below 7.0) and TA was 70. Been trying to get the PH up and it's now at 7.4...
  4. M

    Increasing Free Chlorine in Covered Pool in absence of CYA

    If a pool is covered and both TC and FC are zero, what would prevent chlorine from being increased after chlorine is added? There are many posts here that suggest increasing CYA in "chlorine lock." My understanding, however, is that CYA will prevent chlorine degradation from taking place...
  5. K

    Something isn't right, what am I missing

    My spa is about 2 years old. I was recently having trouble maintaining a chlorine level so I purchased Ahh-some and used it twice. Lots of foam but just a little biofilm. I drained and refilled it. Added calcium chloride to get CH to 140. Added baking soda to get TA to 70 which increased Ph...
  6. J

    Keep the pool open during winter

    Hello, I'm a new pool owner and planning for my first winter in Raleigh, NC. Even though I have a pool heater I am not planning to use the pool but still keep it open during the winter. Since I'm new to pool I have been getting a regular pool service. Since I will not be using the pool I want...
  7. Mark IT

    Muriatic Acid and Baking Soda

    Hi - I am a first-time pool owner. We broke ground Feb 18 and we began swimming in mid-March this year. I am trying to follow the TFP methodology. It seems that I am going through about a quart or two of Muriatic Acid per week and several pounds of Baking Soda a month. Not sure if this is...
  8. S

    Just opened up my pool

    Hi there, A pool company just opened up my pool, so I have pictures of what the water looks like along with the readings: FC: 1.5 CC: 0.5 PH: Unable to determine (more info below; see pic of attempted PH measurement) TA: 50 CH: 200 (using 25mL sample) --- 250 (using 10mL sample) CYA: 0 (I...
  9. A

    New to SWG- Question regarding balancing

    Hi all! We recently installed a SWG system for our pool, and we just opened the pool today. I know we need to balance everything first and then add some liquid chlorine before we add the salt and get the SWG going. At opening these were my levels: FC- 0 PH- 6.8 TA- 40 CYA- 30 I have sodium...
  10. S

    Trying to get my levels right

    Hello, I’m hoping someone can help me out… I have gone through all the information in the pool school tabs and have done more research on the side. My pool is a fiberglass pool, approx. 23,000 gallons. I just moved into this home and trying to maintain the pool levels has been a bit of a...
  11. T

    About to give up! HT HEADACHES!

    I have a 3yrold hottub that came with the house I bought in April 2021. I decided to start fresh as I saw things floating and the filters were really dirty. I bought new filters, treated with ahh spa pipe cleaner to make sure the pipes were clear & clean, drained and refilled. Then my problems...
  12. L

    Help-Not sure what to do

    Here are my readings. I am confused because on TA it says I need to add acid to reduce ph and TA but when I click on ph it says to add borax to raise. What should I do?
  13. N

    Confused about Metals in water & TC & maybe even Phosphates

    Hello all! It’s been a few weeks and it’s been going pretty good for the most part. I’ve had a few issues that I think I’ve taken care of as much as I can by searching and reading here without asking any questions. I discovered a few things at the end of July. When buying the pool the frog...
  14. J

    Don't know why flocculant isn't working..

    Hi, At the end of spring, we decided to set up our intex above ground pool ( it's a round 12 m³ pool ) and everything went good. After a month, the water started turning really green and we got rid of the algae by shocking, but now there is a lot of stuff dissolved in our pool that turns the...
  15. Q

    Ozone system pool water

    Hi, we just installed a new ozone pool system using chlorine as a secondary sanitizer. Instructions are to check chlorine, pH and alkalinity levels but do I need to balance the calcium and cyanuric acid levels too? Can't find anything online or in the manual about this. Thank you for your help!
  16. G

    Trying to balance

    I just opened on May 4th. My current numbers are: free chlorine 2.5, CC .5, total alkalinity 120, ph is low between 6.8 and 7.2. I use the Taylor test. I took a water sample to the pool store on Wednesday to see what their levels showed and they said my phosphates were high 4000, iron was .1...
  17. V

    New pool owner help!

    I am a new pool owner. We bought the house in January. Me not knowing anything hired a pool company to open my pool. We have a auto cover and the pool was dirty but the water was clear. When they left the pool was super cloudy and they didn’t clean it well. Still a ton of leaves and dirt...
  18. JessB412

    Test results....now what?!

    Ok, so I've been following this page a year and have read and watched so many videos I was totally thinking I was ready to take on the water chemistry. TFP breaks it down and it looks so easy! lol Well I still think it will EVENTUALLY be easy but now I'm just overwhelmed and learning something...