The pool has a green tint to it

[goldfs]

I have a 40 to 50 year old plaster pool 18' x 36'
I am estimating my capacity at 24,000 gallons.

Using the hth 6-WAY test kit i get:

TA 100
PH 6.8 (at most)
total Chlorine above 5

The pool has a green tint to it.

From the given levels that I read I believe I should only being trying to raise the PH and keep the TA in check.

If I add borax will I not be also raising the TA? Should I add the amount of borax in divided increments as opposed to all at once?

Also CH is 220. I added a calcium chloride product called Prestone Driveway Heat. I felt a little uneasy doing this but the manufacturer said it is around 92% - 94% calcium chloride.

Could the low hardness level be a cause for the pools cloudiness?

Thanks for your help

Sam

 

[svenpup]

Yes, you will raise TA *slightly* as well as pH with Borax. The only reliable way to increase pH with no increase of TA is aeration. Your TA is really not unmanageably high and you can ignore the small rise in TA.

It is unlikely that low hardness would cause cloudiness. The calcium chloride you used is fine.

If it is green and cloudy you have algae and need to shock. Based on your low pH I assume that you chlorinate with pucks. Could you verify this and also provide a full set of numbers including FC, CC, and CYA.

 

[goldfs]

Yes. I have a chlorinator and have 7 3'' pucks in it right now.
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My test kit only has the TC test. When I test it is above the highest number 5.
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Today is 6/23.

ON 6/18 I went to pool store A. They said
TC = 0.0
FC = 0.0
PH = 6.8
TA = 30
CH = 110
CYA = 25

ON 6/18 I added 7 new 3" pucks to the chlorinator. I was using year old pucks previiously

ON 6/18 in the evening I added 9.5 lbs of calcium chloride

On 6/20 I went to pool store B. They said
TC = 7.0
FC = 7.0
PH = 7.6
TA = 100
CH = 180
CYA = 50

On either 6/21 or 6/22 the pool was still green We shocked the pool by using 3 1lb bags of shock.

Should we be brushing the sides and bottom every day?

Thanks.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You should get your own test kit. As you see from the wildly different pool store tests you don't know what to believe.

Now I'm going to do a little correcting here. You said you shocked by using 3 bags of shock. If you stick around here you soon learn that shock is a process not a product, regardless what they call it. So what you did was added some "shock" to your pool.

And now to answer your question. Yes you should be brushing.

 

[ssa]

Yes. I have a chlorinator and have 7 3'' pucks in it right now.
--------------------------------------------------
My test kit only has the TC test. When I test it is above the highest number 5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Today is 6/23.

ON 6/18 I went to pool store A. They said
CYA = 25

On 6/20 I went to pool store B. They said
CYA = 50

On either 6/21 or 6/22 the pool was still green We shocked the pool by using 3 1lb bags of shock.

Your CYA is raising fast. You need to stop using power or tabs to shock your poor.
Otherwise your CYA will get too high and you have to partial drain the pool to get
it down.

If you haven't done so, please spend some time reading the pool school:
pool-school/

Pay attention to the relationship between CYA and chlorine part.

Basically, you need to switch to liquid chlorine to shock the pool. Please check
your CYA level again and report back. If that 3 lbs of shock is what I think
it is, you might have the CYA up to 70 already. That is too high.

It is likely you have too much CYA to make chlorine less effective. If you
have proper CYA and chlorine level, the chlorine should do most of the
work to prevent the algae growing.

It is good idea to get a quality test kit like TF100 so you can do the
test yourself.

 

[svenpup]

The fact that your FC went to zero is another indication that you need to shock and also points at algae.

Regardless of what the pool store would lead you to believe, shock is not a product. I recommend that you read the pool school article about shocking your pool (link in my sig).

If we assume your CYA is 50 your shock level is 20. This means you have to bring your FC up to 20, and keep it there (by testing and adding chlorine) until you are done (clear, CC < .5, overnight loss < 1.0).

This will be a problem because your test kit can't measure that high. You have seen first hand how pool stores testing is so unreliable. To shock your pool and really to take control of your pool in general, you should really get a good FAS/DPD test kit (TF-100 recommended).

...and yes, regular brushing is an integral part of the shock process.