What I am doing wrong?????

[kgolby]

My pool builder recommended for me to put in 2 gallons of Muriatic Acid in weekly to help with the white streaks or "creaming" on my pebble plaster finish. When I did that today it has messed up all the levels. I wasn't going to test the water today except there's been a very strong odor since I poured the MA in the pool this afternoon. The previous weeks I haven't smelled anything. I tested the water approx. 2 hours after pouring in the MA.

pH - 7.0
TA - didn't get a result b/c the water turned red instantly instead of green first after using the chemicals for that test in my kit.
FC - 5.0
TC - 5.0
CYA - 70
CH - I didn't test it.

Yesterday, my pH level was perfect so I knew pouring in the MA would mess it up. I reduced my SWG to 40% since my FC & TC level are too high. Should I just add baking soda and soda ash to help with the pH & TA? Is this something I'll have to do weekly if I continue to do the MA treatment for the plaster finish?

Also, yesterday I used a product from Leslie's called Pool First Aid b/c I noticed we were getting a build up of oil from sunscreen and some kind of scum on the top of the water. Leslie's also recommended Fresh 'n Clear. So I used those 2 products in the late afternoon but not at the same time. Did using these products mess up anything I did today? Is it necessary to use Fresh 'n Clear on a weekly basis? The worker at Leslie's said it's a treatment that I should use weekly since it's the summer & it's a non-chlorine shock.

Thanks for any help.

P.S. I did purchase the FAS DPD chlorine test that's been recommended here online today. I should have that soon and will be able to get very accurate FC & TC results.

 

[reebok]

your FC level is perfect. change it back to the previous setting. don't listen to a pool store ever again. read pool school and note the chlorine/cya chart (for swg's which is what you have). pool-school/
follow the builder's recommendations, new plaster will cause the ph to rise for up to a year.
don't use pool first aid or fresh n clear. use your SWG and acid. someone else will have to comment on the TA, not sure about that. how new are your test reagents? you definitely added the correct ones right?
that scum build-up will be taken care of by chlorine. you may want to boost it a bit even.
people who know a lot more than me will be commenting soon, but hopefully this will get you started, and reading pool school will be a huge help for you.

 

[kgolby]

I was going w/ the recommended levels my PB gave me when I had pool school. They recommended my level for chlorine be between 1-3ppm.

I bought a new test kit last week at Leslie's. I couldn't tell you how long it's been on the shelf but I have gotten correct readings for TA in the past.

Any idea of where the strong odor is coming from?

 

[reebok]

wrong pool school people in the industry subscribe to a flawed chlorine level standard, usually 1-3 or 2-4. get re-educated at this pool-school/
generally a bad chlorine smell is from CC's. can you describe it any better?

 

[kgolby]

If I use the formula for CC from my test kit it would be 0. FC =5 & TC =5 so 5-5=0.

To me the odor smells like MA. I just don't remember the MA smell lingering around last week or the week before when I used it. Today in Jax it's been cloudy, some rain, and no sun. Don't know if that could contribute to the smell lingering???

I have read the pool school info here. I keep rereading it b/c I learn something new each time. I guess it's confusing to me b/c I'll read something here and then read something completely different elsewhere. Or the info my PB gave me is different than what I've read here.

 

[JasonLion]

How old is your pool? In the first couple of weeks fresh plaster can require very large amounts of acid. Some builders like to add a really large amount of acid right at the start, which brings the PH really low. Other than that, you generally want to keep the PH between 7.2 and 7.8. It is somewhat unclear if they simply mean for you to maintain the PH around 7.2-7.8 and are just saying how much acid they expect it to take, or if they are trying to do something specific to the plaster. I would assume they simply intend you to keep the PH in range unless you are in the first week or they say otherwise. But it is probably best to ask them, since you don't want to do anything that would jeopardize your warranty.

If the plaster is one month old or older, then you just want to keep the PH between 7.2 and 7.8 and the amounts of acid should not be nearly that large.

With a SWG and CYA at 70, our recommended FC level would be around 3 to 5. The pool industry tends to suggest lower FC levels, but they also assume you are shocking the pool weekly (that is what the Fresh 'n Clear is for). It is noticeably less expensive and simpler to maintain slightly higher FC levels and not shock unless something goes wrong.

 

[kgolby]

Pool was completed a month ago. The weekly Muriatic Acid treatment is to speed up the process of the white streaks or "creaming" on our pebble finish to disappear. The PB told us that the white streaking could take up to 6 mos. to go away and that was unacceptable to my husband. So the PB said for us to pour in 2 gallons of MA in weekly and that should speed up the process. The PB did say if it didn't take care of the problem fast enough that's when they would come back and pour in a ton of MA to get off the white streaks.

That's good to know about keeping a higher level of FC and not having to purchase extra chemicals. Thanks for the advice!

But back to my original question, I was just concerned this afternoon about the strong odor. Since my pH level was 7.0 and I didn't get a reading for TA could that have been what was causing the strong odor? I think I'll test the water first thing tomorrow morning and if the pH and TA is still off then I'll purchase soda ash to take care of pH problem. You'll have to excuse my ignorance regarding chemicals and pool water. I'm trying to learn a lot about taking care of pool in a short period of time. This website is a great tool and I appreciate everyone's knowledge.