New pool owner. First water test results

[DuckinVegas]

Hello, brand new pool owner here with zero experiance. Took some water down the the local shop and got test results.

TC = 10
FC = 10
PH = 8.2
TA = 240
CH = 700

I picked up a Leslie's service test kit while I was there.I have a solar pool cover on now which will be coming off to aid in chlorine burn off. I am using a floating Trichlor dispener with 4 tabs in it. To lower the PH the pool shop told me to add 15 pts of muriatic acid. The pool calculator said 25 oz.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Butterfly]

Welcome to the forum

I get about 81 oz. (31.45% MA) to go from 8.2 to about 7.4. so, one of us is using wrong input!

Please use your new kit and post all #'s. Your TA & CH are high.

Also, it would be good to test the TA and CH of your fill water.

 

[DuckinVegas]

I'll test in the morning when I get home from work. I added 56oz of muriatic and will pull the cover off tonight.

 

[DuckinVegas]

Ok, pulled the cover off last night and tested today.

FC, TC, and CC are all above 5
PH 8.0
TA 350
CH 1250 just turned clear. Never turned blue
CYA maybe 200. about halfway to 100
Pool is clear, we do have a lot of calcium build up around the waterfalls and tile. I'm not sure if I'm using the Pool calculator properly. Came up with 3 pints 3 cups of muriatic (28.3%, bottle says 29%)to drop the pH to 7.4. FC should drop on it's own right? What can I do about the rest? Thanks

 

[iflyjetzzz]

The TA is too high. You need to reduce it with muriatic acid.
The CH and CYA are way high. You need to drain some water and refill OR have a company either reverse osmosis/soften your water.
I have high numbers on my CH and CYA; Richard320 recommended that I use pool water to water the plants around my house. I've been doing that for a while and it's brought down both my CH and CYA. I think using your pool water for watering your lawn would be the easiest solution - get a sump pump that you can hook a garden hose up to and try that. That way, you're not simply dumping the old pool water down the sewer system. If you've got to water your yard, it's better to use old pool water and then put new water into your pool.

... also, with the CH that high, you should probably target a pH of 7.2 to keep the CSI (calcite saturation index) from being too high. That should reduce the amount of calcium scaling. Muriatic acid will reduce the pH (and total alkalinity).

 

[DuckinVegas]

The pool is autofill from tapwater, so I tested the tapwater and got these results;
FC=.5
TC=1
CC=.5
PH=8
TA=140
CH=240
CYA=>30

Then I retested my pool water;
FC=15 (I took the Trichlor floater out two days ago)
TC=15
CC=0
PH=8
TA=320
CH=875
CYA= 200

The Pool Calculator gave me 165 oz of muriatic to drop pH to 7.2. To lower CH and CYA it said to replace 75% of the water. It's a new house (to us) and I was already considering draining the pool to acid wash the scale build up and clean it after summer is over. Would it be ok to wait or should I drain it now? If I should drain it now what's the best way to do it?

 

[Bama Rambler]

The first order of business is to lower the pH.

With a CYA of 200 I wouldn't recommend trying to wait to get it down. In Nevada, you may have R/O (reverse osmosis) treatment available to you and it may be cheaper than replacing water. It'd be worth checking into anyway.

If you do decide to wait till summer's over you might consider using some Polyquat 60% algaecide as an adjunct to your FC. We very rarely advise that but in cases where the CYA is that high and fixing it is not an option, it's one way you can get by till you can fix it.

 

[DuckinVegas]

I put another gallon of MA in yesterday and that brought it down to 7.4. From what I've read I should bring it down to 7.0 or so to lower the TA and aerate to raise the pH back up.
We pay $1.46 per 1,000 gallons so it will be around $30 to drain and fill the pool. I planned on draining it to acid wash but maybe I'll do that this week.