- Apr 26, 2009
- 419
Now that I "have the summer off", my friend knew about the great things I've done with my pool in the past month, and called me up to ask if I would come over today and help her open her 10.1Kg AGP.
So, I had her get 4 gallons of Cl, some MA, some borax and some salt...
Here were the numbers I read this morning...
TC=0 (expected)
pH = VERY VERY YELLOW (what???)
Ca = ~200ppm
CYA ~100 (or more)
T/A =... get this... ZERO (OK, now the pH makes a little more sense).
And the pool walls are covered in green algae...
It turns out her (now-ex) husband took care of the pool last year. In the shed I saw half-empty buckets of di-chlor, cal-hypo shock, dry acid, pH increaser (soda ash), and... an empty bucket of stabilizer. All this next to his trusty OTO pH/Cl test kit...
Step 1: We drained the pool by about 1/3, pulled the DE filter apart, cleaned the grids and added 2 gallons of 10% to raise the FC to 20, and brushed the Crud out of the walls. The water was now dark green.
Step 2: Once the pool was refilled, we turned the pump on and added 10 boxes (10 lbs) of Arm and Hammer added to raise the T/A to 70ppm.
Step 3: Waited an hour and took a TC reading, a pH reading and a T/A reading:
So, to try pulling the pH up, we added 4 boxes of Borax to the skimmer. Waited an hour, now the pH is in the 6.5 range... (and bring Borates up to ~30ppm). We waited another hour or so, and at least now the pH is reading a little above 6.5... Note - I didn't intend to treat with Borates today, I was going to wait a few days to get everything in-line not expecting a whacked-out pH & T/A, but leaving the pool running with that very-low whacked-out pH left me with concern.
By the time I left tonight, the water was no longer green, but white (and clearing - and waaayyyyy better than where we started). But with all of the changes made to the water during the day, I think I'm going to discount the "after" numbers from today and go over there tomorrow to re-test everything (give it some extended mixing time).
CC&S are welcome and appreciated.
Thanks,
- Jeff
So, I had her get 4 gallons of Cl, some MA, some borax and some salt...
Here were the numbers I read this morning...
TC=0 (expected)
pH = VERY VERY YELLOW (what???)
Ca = ~200ppm
CYA ~100 (or more)
T/A =... get this... ZERO (OK, now the pH makes a little more sense).
And the pool walls are covered in green algae...
It turns out her (now-ex) husband took care of the pool last year. In the shed I saw half-empty buckets of di-chlor, cal-hypo shock, dry acid, pH increaser (soda ash), and... an empty bucket of stabilizer. All this next to his trusty OTO pH/Cl test kit...
Step 1: We drained the pool by about 1/3, pulled the DE filter apart, cleaned the grids and added 2 gallons of 10% to raise the FC to 20, and brushed the Crud out of the walls. The water was now dark green.
Step 2: Once the pool was refilled, we turned the pump on and added 10 boxes (10 lbs) of Arm and Hammer added to raise the T/A to 70ppm.
Step 3: Waited an hour and took a TC reading, a pH reading and a T/A reading:
- FC = 50 (??? WTH? Why was this so high... we added 2 gallons of 10%, which according to TPC should have given us ~20ppm, plus whatever came in with the 3000G of replacement water, which I don't think there's that much in the city water)
[/*:m:1efqo98d] - T/A = 120 - again seems high based on the 70ppm I should have got
[/*:m:1efqo98d] - pH = Still VERY YELLOW (one less VERY)[/*:m:1efqo98d]
So, to try pulling the pH up, we added 4 boxes of Borax to the skimmer. Waited an hour, now the pH is in the 6.5 range... (and bring Borates up to ~30ppm). We waited another hour or so, and at least now the pH is reading a little above 6.5... Note - I didn't intend to treat with Borates today, I was going to wait a few days to get everything in-line not expecting a whacked-out pH & T/A, but leaving the pool running with that very-low whacked-out pH left me with concern.
By the time I left tonight, the water was no longer green, but white (and clearing - and waaayyyyy better than where we started). But with all of the changes made to the water during the day, I think I'm going to discount the "after" numbers from today and go over there tomorrow to re-test everything (give it some extended mixing time).
CC&S are welcome and appreciated.
Thanks,
- Jeff