bought house with pool late last summer. I did not have time to learn anything about the pool last year with moving and all and I am having trouble understanding all this. bought the Taylor k-2006 test kit finally after deciding the test strips recommended by someone must not be accurate enough. will have to use this test kit this year and next year will get the one you all recommend.
this year's story:
pool cover removed May 28. man who opened my pool called me and said vinyl had tear in it, I had no idea what to do- so he left it uncovered and did not start the pump,
I was going to get pool service to fix tear- but they would not be able to get out here for at least 3 weeks, so the man who opened pool for me said he would make the repair for me. after 4 days with no pump running, pool starting to look pretty bad so I dumped chlorine granules in it to kill algae and repair was made next day, and then one more day before I got water level back up in order to start the pump and filter.
water was blue but very cloudy. tried vacuuming and after several days realized dirt was going back into pool through returns and then I started vacuuming to waste and dumping lots of calcium hypochlorite into pool to keep chlorine levels up. after 2 1/2 weeks of vacuuming to waste almost daily- water finally starting to clear up. but not perfect yet. now that brings me to my problem: ph does not remain stable, and chlorine does not remain stable, so I ordered this taylor test and tonight I got these readings:
ph 7.8
TA 180
calcium hardness: 100
FC 1.2 ( checked it twice)
CC 0.2 1st test and 0.4 2nd test
CYA did not register, the test sample was not cloudy after adding the reagents, and the black dot in the bottom of the tube could be seen clearly, pretty sure I did it correctly- but will retest tomorrow.
I do have a tub of sodium dichloro s- triazinetrione, but since many do not recommend using that- I have been using the calcium hypochlorite granules and the HTH brand ph reducer,
Saturday I was starting to get algae again and have dumped the chlorine in and got he water blue again, but tonight the chlorine levels are down and the ph is going up again.
I really am not sure what to do to get ph and chlorine to stabilize.
I put 2 1/2 lbs of ph reducer in it tonight. After searching I think I should get ph down first but I am not sure what to do next.
Am I supposed to have to put a ph reducer in it every couple of weeks to keep the ph down?
Thanks for your help.
this year's story:
pool cover removed May 28. man who opened my pool called me and said vinyl had tear in it, I had no idea what to do- so he left it uncovered and did not start the pump,
I was going to get pool service to fix tear- but they would not be able to get out here for at least 3 weeks, so the man who opened pool for me said he would make the repair for me. after 4 days with no pump running, pool starting to look pretty bad so I dumped chlorine granules in it to kill algae and repair was made next day, and then one more day before I got water level back up in order to start the pump and filter.
water was blue but very cloudy. tried vacuuming and after several days realized dirt was going back into pool through returns and then I started vacuuming to waste and dumping lots of calcium hypochlorite into pool to keep chlorine levels up. after 2 1/2 weeks of vacuuming to waste almost daily- water finally starting to clear up. but not perfect yet. now that brings me to my problem: ph does not remain stable, and chlorine does not remain stable, so I ordered this taylor test and tonight I got these readings:
ph 7.8
TA 180
calcium hardness: 100
FC 1.2 ( checked it twice)
CC 0.2 1st test and 0.4 2nd test
CYA did not register, the test sample was not cloudy after adding the reagents, and the black dot in the bottom of the tube could be seen clearly, pretty sure I did it correctly- but will retest tomorrow.
I do have a tub of sodium dichloro s- triazinetrione, but since many do not recommend using that- I have been using the calcium hypochlorite granules and the HTH brand ph reducer,
Saturday I was starting to get algae again and have dumped the chlorine in and got he water blue again, but tonight the chlorine levels are down and the ph is going up again.
I really am not sure what to do to get ph and chlorine to stabilize.
I put 2 1/2 lbs of ph reducer in it tonight. After searching I think I should get ph down first but I am not sure what to do next.
Am I supposed to have to put a ph reducer in it every couple of weeks to keep the ph down?
Thanks for your help.