New to the pool scene.

[jsb13428]

I am fairly new to the whole pool scene. (at least operating one properly). Untill I found this website I had no idea what was going on in that water! We have had our pool for a few years and all that we had done was run trichlor pucks in our in line chlorinator. Pool was always cyrstal clear. Must have just been dumb luck. Well, our luck ran out. Now we did have some test strips with the pool supplies, and if they were off on some of the stuff that they "test" for, I would try and adjust accordingly. Last year in august after the hurricanes, the pool turned green. That was the start of big problems. Then my son was born. It was already cooling off and no one was really using the pool so I closed green, knowing that I would be opening green as well. When I opened the pool 2 weeks ago it was so dark brown, it was almost black. And it stunk real good. I don't mean to ramble on, but from browsing the forum, I can see that every little bit of information can certainly be a big help. ( or lack thereof). Anyways I have been wasting my time and money at the LPS. So, through my own research and this website I have managed to get rid of the algae and turn the pool almost clear again. Its still a little cloudly though.You can only see 2 ft down or so. I suspect its because some of my specs are a little off. Well here they are,
FC 9ppm
CC .5ppm
PH 8.16
TA 390ppm
CH 110ppm
CYA 80ppm
When I opened the pool there was zero CYA. The PH was 6.2 and the chlorine was also zero. Trying to maintain shock chlorine levels is hard to do with out a test kit, so I gave up trying and picked up a Taylor K-2006. I figured I would make this post, then see what anybody thinks?

Thanks very much.

 

[britinusa]

Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like you are doing well, just keep going with what you are doing, your PH looks a little high, but i think you should be able to clear the pool then worry about the PH.
Someone else im sure will be along soon that can comment on that>

 

[Richard320]

You just need to follow the directions in Pool School for shocking your pool or This thread. You didn't get that pH reading from the K-2006; use it. Hold the tester at arm's length with a white background. Note the pH reading, plug numbers into Pool Calculator and then adjust pH to about 7.2. Then start shocking. It's going to take a whole lot of bleach initially to raise it to shock, due to the high CYA level. You might consider draining off 1/3 or so of the water, perhaps by vacuuming to waste? As an aside, stop using the Nature 2 system. If it's empty, don't refill it. If it still has some stuff in it, remove the cartridge. Then just keep brushing, filtering, and adding bleach to stay above 21. (Lower if you have done a partial drain) Once it's all clear, we worry about the rest of the values.

 

[jsb13428]

The PH on the K-2006 just goes as high as it will go when its maxed out. So I used a digital PH meter to see just how high it really was.