Renovated pool and some water chemistry questions

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D

djbilo

0
LifeTime Supporter
Sep 9, 2013
66
Carrollton, TX
Pool Size
16500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
We have a newly-renovated pool just in the last phases of after-care from new plaster, tile & coping, and Dec-O-Seal.

With the amount of rain we have had in the DFW Metroplex during this process, little wonder the water's chemistry is a bit off.

Today the pool company came by and noted the following:

Chlorine - 0 (3 days ago I added four gallons of 8% bleach and also some additional CYA to bring that # to 50 just now).

pH is >8.2, after 4 gallons of Muriatic acid were added post-renovation during after-care. The pH caught the pool guys off guard since it was so much higher than expected a week after the acid was added.

Alkalinity: Just at 80.

Calcium: 300

They want me to of course add more acid (didn't have any with them - didn't expect the pH to be high, but rather low and that they'd have to adjust it upwards). They shocked it, but with the pH off this much, the water is cloudy, even having had the filter cartridge cleaned several times during this process.

I have not put in the new filter cart I got, just yet, until we sort out the cloudiness.

Also, I have acquired, at the recommendation of the pool renovation company, a PoolRX to use once things settle down, to help reduce chlorine levels.

Thoughts and Suggestions? Many thanks!
 
Amazon.com: PoolRX (What is PoolRX). The pool refurbish company uses them and it has reduced their chlorine demand dramatically even for large commercial pools.

I'm in charge now. They finished their part though I could probably argue that point a bit until the pH is proper.

Yes, I have the test kit. I also have the stirrer - am disappointed it has a rusted screw to the battery compartment (I did not get it wet or let it soak) and I cannot take off the back to try and see why it failed, much less to replace the batteries -without breaking the unit. I didn't use an easy-out to try and get the screw off, so I am back to doing my mixing by hand after only 1 season of having the stirrer.

- - - Updated - - -

I forgot to ask - in the context of new plaster and Muriatic Acid versus dry acid, should I have any concern about the effect of either type on the new plaster? I need to get the pH down without reducing alkalinity, so the dry seems to be more often recommended for that, than Muriatic, which can impact both values together much more?
 
Yeah, we DEFINITELY do not recommend the use of minerals in the water ... can end up with stains or green hair. Lots of threads discussing this. One quite heated right now, similar idea of adding minerals with an Ionizer, but this will have way more technical data that you might care about: Ionization alternative

Who did you buy the SpeedStir from?

So what do YOUR test results say?

- - - Updated - - -

Dry acid has other side effects like build up of sulfates ... stick with the muriatic, and raise TA with baking soda if needed.
 
Bought the SpeedStir through here (the companion site where I got my advanced test kit).

My results are what I posted. I did add Muriatic last night and will check the values again tonight after work and post if they still look funky. The water looks much better once I got the pH down, so now with some baking soda I'll raise TA back to normal range (it plummeted with the addition of Muriatic).
 
How much acid did you add to lower the pH? The TA should not have "plummeted" with a reasonable acid addition.

You need to be testing daily to ensure that you mare maintaining adequate FC levels.
 
Tested just now:

FC = 8
CC = .5
TC = 8.5
TA = 30 (Baking Soda - off to the pool calculator)
CH = 390 (up from 300 last check)
pH = 6.8 (at least now I can let it rise slowly instead of being so high we could not measure it)
 
But we do not recommend having the pH that low ... now you do not know if it is BELOW the level of your test kit. Especially with new plaster.

How much acid did you add after the TA of 80ppm and pH . 8.2 reading?
 
I added a gallon, checked, it was about 8, then added another half gallon, checked and it had overshot.

Today's numbers:

FC 4.0
CC 0.5
TC 4.5
TA 50
pH 7.2
CYA still about 30.

I still need to add about 3 to 4 pounds of baking soda to bring up the TA enough per the pool calculator.
 

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