Wow, I need help!
This is my second year with this pool and I seem to be getting dumber. Last year I had no problems.
This year when I opened everything was good, within recomended limits, but no chlorine and the water was blue but cloudy. I kept dumping tons of shock, different kinds of shock, and running the automatic chlorinator and pump 24/7. Eventually I read on here not to use test strips. So I bought the kit and new drops and I haven't had low chlorine since.
I have struggled all summer to keep the PH up however. I have a metal problem and so I add a bottle of metal control every other week. That seems to eat up some PH and some chlorine.
About 2 weeks ago my chlorinator was out of tablets and my pool turned cloudy. So I shocked it and refilled the chlorinator. Ph and chlorine were perfect so I let it run for a few days and it was still cloudy. I added clarifier and it did nothing. So I added more. Still nothing. So I test the alkalinity and it's 200. But my PH was 7.4. So I added 1 gallon of acid (only half of what was directed) and it's down to 160. But my ph is crazy low!! What do I treat now? PH or alkalinity?
I have a 16 by 32 inground with a vinyl liner. 3 feet in the shallow and 8 feet in the deep end. (22,000 gal) I have a Hayward pump, and a big heater that we know dumps metal into the pool because it was not properly maintained before we bought the house. We can't afford to replace it so we run it very little and clean the DE filter often. I always seem to have powder in the bottom of my pool too. I vacuume and waste it to try to keep it clear. I have an automatic cover and it stays closed most of the time for the safety of my little ones. The pool is not used very much.
Thank you for any help you can give me!!
This is my second year with this pool and I seem to be getting dumber. Last year I had no problems.
This year when I opened everything was good, within recomended limits, but no chlorine and the water was blue but cloudy. I kept dumping tons of shock, different kinds of shock, and running the automatic chlorinator and pump 24/7. Eventually I read on here not to use test strips. So I bought the kit and new drops and I haven't had low chlorine since.
I have struggled all summer to keep the PH up however. I have a metal problem and so I add a bottle of metal control every other week. That seems to eat up some PH and some chlorine.
About 2 weeks ago my chlorinator was out of tablets and my pool turned cloudy. So I shocked it and refilled the chlorinator. Ph and chlorine were perfect so I let it run for a few days and it was still cloudy. I added clarifier and it did nothing. So I added more. Still nothing. So I test the alkalinity and it's 200. But my PH was 7.4. So I added 1 gallon of acid (only half of what was directed) and it's down to 160. But my ph is crazy low!! What do I treat now? PH or alkalinity?
I have a 16 by 32 inground with a vinyl liner. 3 feet in the shallow and 8 feet in the deep end. (22,000 gal) I have a Hayward pump, and a big heater that we know dumps metal into the pool because it was not properly maintained before we bought the house. We can't afford to replace it so we run it very little and clean the DE filter often. I always seem to have powder in the bottom of my pool too. I vacuume and waste it to try to keep it clear. I have an automatic cover and it stays closed most of the time for the safety of my little ones. The pool is not used very much.
Thank you for any help you can give me!!