Went From Black to Bluish Grey but numbers off

[johng1990]

All,

I opened my pool yesterday to black water, added 3 lbs of granular shock before reading how to turn your green swamp crystal clear.
Pump has been running 22 hours.

Today i have changed the DE twice and cleaned it out. But i decided i better do some test to see where i am at.
Both kits have new chemicals last month form the manufacturer
Quick test with K-1000
Chlorine is 5
PH is below the chart with yellow matching the chlorine test.

TF-100 kit
FC = 4.5
CC=0
TC=4.5 of course
CYA is below 20 ( i never did get he black dot to disappear completely but it did get harder to see) did test 2 times
TA= 10 (did test 3 times)

Should i get the PH up using the calculator. or the CYA or both ?

Help.

 

[Richard320]

All,

I opened my pool yesterday to black water, added 3 lbs of granular shock before reading how to turn your green swamp crystal clear.
Pump has been running 22 hours.

Today i have changed the DE twice and cleaned it out. But i decided i better do some test to see where i am at.
Both kits have new chemicals last month form the manufacturer
Quick test with K-1000
Chlorine is 5
PH is below the chart with yellow matching the chlorine test.

TF-100 kit
FC = 4.5
CC=0
TC=4.5 of course
CYA is below 20 ( i never did get he black dot to disappear completely but it did get harder to see) did test 2 times
TA= 10 (did test 3 times)

Should i get the PH up using the calculator. or the CYA or both ?

Help.

That low pH is going to be rough on any metal pool equipment in contact with it, but at least you don't have a plaster pool to dissolve.

When pH is that low, adjustments can be pretty volatile without the dampening/buffering effect some TA adds.

So...

1) Raise TA to 50-60 ish. It doesn't need to be exact. If some even number if boxes gets you to 48, close enough. You can fine-tune later.
2) After the baking soda has had time to dissolve and mix - half an hour is plenty if you also brush - recheck pH and TA and plug the readings into poolmath and target 7.2 pH. Add whichever you choose, borax or washing soda, to get to 7.2. If you have any leftover "pH up" or "Soda Ash" some pool store sold you, that's washing soda. Again give it time to mix. Recheck pH. It may still be below the scale. Just repeat the chemical addition until it's there.
3) You're now ready to add some bleach. Shock level for 20 or less is 10 FC. Add that and brush again and recheck it in 10 minutes.
4)If FC is greater than 5, and CC is less than 3, you don't have ammonia. You can add some CYA to get to 30 and proceed with the standard SLAM Processusing 12 FC as your target.
5) If FC is less than 5 after 10 minutes or CC is greater than 3, post back and someone will type out the rest of it for you. I'm only adding this step because the pool was black and you have no CYA and we're seeing a lot of ammonia pools for some reason this season and since you added some CYA via the powdered shock and it isn't registering.