Need help balancing water for daughter's birthday party in 2 days

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oof, this thread is crowded with experts :bump: ...I'm going to not post anymore as you are in excellent hands and I don't want to add any confusion. Good luck!!

:gone:
 
My goal is to try and raise the ph at this point without throwing off anything else and making it unsafe to swim. The water clarity isn't far off right now. Several pieces of advice in the thread. Should I add the sock with 2lbs of cya as well as the 1lbs ph plus at the same time? I'm not sure if I can do multiple at one time here or if there is a specific order.
 
PH and CYA are safe to add at the same time.

Pour the PH up in front of the return. Put the CYA in a sock or two and walk around inside the pool squeezing the socks to get the CYA dissolved faster. This will also help mix everything up and into the water for the party tomorrow.

Kim

- - - Updated - - -

OH I am so sorry but I wanted to say I hope your doggy is feeling better :(

Kim
 
The CYA will take its sweet time dissolving - just squeeze the sock every so often as you walk by. Go ahead with the pH plus, just do it in a different area (just good practice, not any chemical interaction hazard that I'm aware of). If the CYA isn't all gone by the time of the party, just pull it out while people are swimming.

Make sure you don't forget the bleach - without chlorine, the pool will not be sanitary, i.e. germs can pass from swimmer to swimmer - not something you want to encourage for a kids' pool party.

Incidentally, the copper based system you have been using is not effective for sanitizing water (quickly killing pathogens). You would have killed stuff every other week, when you added the dry product, but with minimal stabilizer in the water that germ killing effect would have been brief.
 
How much of what should I add? What does the bleach do for me?
Click to expand...
read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School. You have not done any reading here and TFP is ALL about self learning and self testing. You must make the commitment to educate yourself if you want to follow what we teach.

Start with that ABC's article....that should lead to other questions while you are waiting for your test kit.
 
What we know:

You're using a copper based mineral system that calls for adding chemicals bi-weekly.
Despite it being called "Perma Salt," no salt is used and it does not generate chlorine.
You added a product called Perma Salt "Preparate" at opening which contained Borates, CYA and an unknown "Mineral Remover."

Chemicals you have:

"Pool Shock"
contains 10% Sodium Hypochlorite (aka Bleach / Chlorinating Liquid)
(Keep and use this! It's chlorine and it's the best way to keep your pool sanitized.)

"Swimway conditioner"
contains cyanuric acid (CYA) (aka Stabilizer)
(Keep and use this to protect your Chlorine from the sun.)

"Swimway pH plus"
contains Sodium Carbonate (aka Washing Soda / Soda Ash)
(Keep and use this to increase pH. It will also raise TA some.)

"Perma Salt Activate Shock Treatment"
contains DiChlor (Sodium dichloro-striazinetrione) & Oxone (Potassium peroxymonosulfate)
(This may come in handy as it does contain two "shock" products, 45% DiChlor and 50% Oxone. Dichlor is chlorine and CYA, Oxone is an oxygen based (non-chlorine) oxidizer)

"Swimway Blast"
contains Oxone (Potassium peroxymonosulfate)
(This is more of the non-chlorine oxygen based "shock" product that was in your "Activate Shock Treatment," it could have a use later when you've mastered the basics)

"Perma Salt Klairate Natural Enzyme Clarifier"
contains an unknown enzyme based clarifier
(Don't bother using this product)

"SwimClear Deluxe Water Clarifier"
contains "cationic polymer"
(Don't bother using this product)


Your water - Last known levels from the HTH 6-way test kit:

FC: 0.5
pH: 6.8
CYA: 0-30
TA: ?
CH: ?


Questions

What are your TA and CH levels?
You did not provide a TA (total alkalinity) or TH (total hardness) result. Like other's have mentioned, you may as well complete these tests and report back. It gives us a better idea of the overall balance of your water.

Did the "Perma Salt Preparate" product have a full contents list somewhere on the bucket?
I can't find any MSDS info on this product. It would be helpful to know how much Borates and CYA they've added.

Can you find a Cyanuric Acid % listed on the Swimway Conditioner package?
Upon looking up info about your Swimway Conditioner conditioner product, I found:
"Add 1 pound per 7,000 gallons of water to raise the stabilizer level 10 ppm. For best results, do not backwash the filter for 3 days after adding Conditioner."
If my calculations are correct, this means the product is only 58% CYA, as 100% Cyanuric acid would raise CYA to 17 in the same volume of water.
 
The only things that make the pool unsafe are if the pH was WAY WAY off ... or the FC was very high ... or the FC is too low.
That last is the case for your pool.

Did you add the soda ash yet?
Did you add the stabilizer yet?
Did you add the chlorine yet?

All those were recommended 7 hours ago. You can retest the pH and FC levels after 30 minutes (safe to swim then too).
The CYA may not register for a week after it dissolves.

You are too focused on things that do not matter. All that matters is having the pH in the 7s for comfort and having enough chlorine in the water to be safe. If you can see the bottom of the pool, then it should be safe to swim in (assuming you get some more chlorine in the water).

I wanted you to bump up the FC high this morning so it would help oxidize whatever is in the water and the FC level would drop over the course of today so it would not be too high tomorrow.

BTW, we recommend testing your pool and adjusting at least for pH and FC daily ... that is not likely something you are accustomed to.
 

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2 cups of baking soda added instead of ash

I also did the bag and bottle since that was due which is my equivalent to a shock. This was done then the two ph + baking soda adds separate. I'll go put in the sock now. Can I add the liquid chlorine as well or should I wait?
 
Baking soda raises TA and not pH ... No one said to add baking soda ... Please follow our recommendations or let us know you are going to do what you want regardless what we say and we can end this thread.

You added a bag and bottle of what?
Then how much ph+ (good)
Then 2 cups baking soda (bad)

You should have put the 2 pounds of conditioner in the socks this morning and the bottle of 10% chlorine this morning (or was that the bottle you said you added?)

I agree with Dave above, I think you need to do some reading before much else happens.
 
Bag + bottle was the Activate and Klairate

I was told to do baking soda instead of PH+ by the guy who sold me the pool and who did the pool training at the store. He said baking soda would raise PH but not raise TA. Apparently that was wrong. I'll stop listening to him.

The bag + bottle was done together in the morning. 3 hours later 1 cup of baking soda was added. 3 hours after that another cup was added. 2 hours after that (now) I just added one bag of conditioner in a sock still sitting in my skimmer. The second bag would not fit in the sock and made my pump start to lose prime so I slowly poured that into the skimmer directly in small quantities over 10 mins.

I have not added any liquid chlorine, nor PH+ at this point. What would you like me to do next?
 
1lbs bag added to skimmer. The sock was fully disolved so both of the CYA bags are in at this point. I'll add the gallon of liquid chlorine in 15 mins.

I have more PH Plus:

10 lbs of Swim Clear pH Plus (100% sodium carbonate)
4 lbs of HTH pH plus (98% sodium carbonate, 2% inert ingredients)

Thanks for the continued help.
 

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