yet another Newbie here! :) Cloudy water

[azPOOLnewb]

hello everyone
well i am a new pool owner, as of dec last year, in phoenix (ie, lots of sunshine!). we had a pool guy for a couple months, and used various chemicals thereafter by ourselves, then all of a sudden it got cloudy a couple weeks ago. i have attended pool school 8) but haven't graduated yet! (i'm halfway through!) so i got a couple cheap test kits from WM and lots of bleach. here's the test results before bleach:
TC 1
FC 0
TH 200
pH 7.5 (other test says 6.4 - not sure which is correct)
TA 120
CYA 0

so... i don't have any stabilizer - though i could get some tomorrow. i've put in 5 gal of 6% bleach - now my FC level is at least 10. (test doesn't go higher than that.) since i don't have a test for just CC, i can't just stop shocking when it gets to 0. so do i stop shocking when it looks clear? and then add the stabilizer? or get the stabilizer in asap, and then shock to clear?

thanks!
kristy

btw, i put in my sig that my pool is 15k gal, but it's definitely a guesstimate.

 

[reebok]

stabilizer asap. shoot for 30ppm. then continue to shock per pool school. your problem isn't the cc test (which I think you do have a test for kind of) but not having a fas-dpd test to monitor overnight chlorine loss. you also need to find out what your ph is as 6.4 is way too low. actually I'm not sure what could measure that low. is it a test strip?

 

[azPOOLnewb]

yes, the 6.4 measurement came from a test strip. the reagent test came back as 7.5. I've added about 6 gallons of bleach, and i can see the bottom of the pool! whoohoo - water is pretty clear. not sparkling, but getting there! i'm not prepared to spend $60-75 on a test kit, so that will have to wait a while. i will get stabilizer probably in the morning, since today's schedule is quite full. i'll probably just need to buy more bleach to make up for what was lost in the sun today & tomorrow morning.

after i get the cya up to par, and my pool looks beautifully clear, then i will measure pH again and make sure it's good. sound like a plan?

 

[reebok]

well a 3rd source would be nice with such a variance. I recently bought some ph reagent that turned out to be so old it was bad. it gave me false high readings. the fas-dpd kit by itself runs $25. it will help you spend less money on bleach, but whatever you want. your plan sounds ok, it sounds like you know that ph reads falsely high when the fc is over 10. but like I say, if you could get a third source like a pool store to test ph, it would be nice.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Is the 7.5 from the Wal-mart 6 way drop test kit? I would say trust that one, if it is...

Yes, keep shocking until the water is clear and FC appears to be holding overnight. Without an FAS-DPD test that's all you can really do.

Get some stabilizer!