Hi, I know that the test strips are great but thats all I have right now so i'm using them. Anyway, my water has been cloudy for some time now and based on my reading, I have been shocking the pool with shock plus but with no results! I have gone through 4 1/2 bags of shock in just over a week. I have been shocking almost daily to try and get the water right.
I'm not really sure what my ph level is because the color I was getting on my strip, before i started shocking, was not any color on the bottle. It was kind of a very light orange and white - the lowest ph color is orange - the highest being florescent pink (i'm using aqua chem strips). Because the color was less than the first color, I started using Borax to bring up the ph, after going through 2 boxes of borax and buying a 3rd the color was still non existent on the strip! So, I came to poolschool and started reading. I found a similar post to my problem (the non existent ph color problem) which said it was a mistake to rise the ph that it was in fact way to high and to bring it down but to shock shock shock until the water was clear. Based on that, I went out and bought a 5 bag box of the orange Shock Plus bags and began to shock. I only have 1/2 a bag left and still my water is cloudy and my ph level now shows an orangeish color similar to the lowest level of ph on the strip.
I confused now, do i put more borax now, do i get more shock, do i really need to lower the ph? All other levels are right on but alklinity - although in between the ok ranges, seems to be in between 40 and 120 about 1/2 the color of each mixed.
I tried to use the calculator but since i'm not really sure of my exact numbers on ph I dont know what to do.
PLEASE HELP - I have about 30 kids coming to my house in TWO DAYS and they are ready to swim! As a side note, I have 6 kids who still swim in the water - cloudy or not - almost daily BUT its rained the last 3 days here so they have not swam in those 3 days.
I'm not really sure what my ph level is because the color I was getting on my strip, before i started shocking, was not any color on the bottle. It was kind of a very light orange and white - the lowest ph color is orange - the highest being florescent pink (i'm using aqua chem strips). Because the color was less than the first color, I started using Borax to bring up the ph, after going through 2 boxes of borax and buying a 3rd the color was still non existent on the strip! So, I came to poolschool and started reading. I found a similar post to my problem (the non existent ph color problem) which said it was a mistake to rise the ph that it was in fact way to high and to bring it down but to shock shock shock until the water was clear. Based on that, I went out and bought a 5 bag box of the orange Shock Plus bags and began to shock. I only have 1/2 a bag left and still my water is cloudy and my ph level now shows an orangeish color similar to the lowest level of ph on the strip.
I confused now, do i put more borax now, do i get more shock, do i really need to lower the ph? All other levels are right on but alklinity - although in between the ok ranges, seems to be in between 40 and 120 about 1/2 the color of each mixed.
I tried to use the calculator but since i'm not really sure of my exact numbers on ph I dont know what to do.
PLEASE HELP - I have about 30 kids coming to my house in TWO DAYS and they are ready to swim! As a side note, I have 6 kids who still swim in the water - cloudy or not - almost daily BUT its rained the last 3 days here so they have not swam in those 3 days.