Sour tasting water after months of rain in Texas, help me understand

[exptrade]

Since we had rain in Texas for months I have not been checking chemistry and now that sun is finally out I wanted to get water in balance. Water is crystal clear, but tastes acidic. Here are my reading with Taylor K-2006 kit. What should my first step be?

• PH is way to low, below 7.0, yellow color
• Chlorine 45 ppm
• Cyanuric Acid 90 ppm
  
• Calcium Hardines - this test at test step 3. turned to medium pink, not red. After adding 20 drops in step 4 it turned to light purple
• Alkalinity test is inconclusive. Sample never turned green at step 3, but turned dark pink. Proceeded to step 4, added 5 drops and noticed no change in color.

 

[Sandra B]

Your first step is to get your pH up. Use pool math to determine how much to get it to 7.2. You may be way below that, so test after 1/2 hour and adjust upwards again. Once you get to 7.2-7.6, post up your full tests again (except CYA) for the next step. Your chlorine level is suspect, so let's do the tests again.

Lemon juice is pH of about 2, so the lower your pH, the more acidic your water is going to be.

 

[tim5055]

At high chlorine levels the colors on the CH & TA can be "different". What you are looking for is the color shift. On each test you will start with color A and add drops until it shifts and stops changing to color B.

My inclination would be to suggest you change some water out if you are not under restrictions to get your CYA down to around 70. At that point adjust the pH up. Why waste chemicals to adjust the pH only to dump water. Now, if you want to hold the 90 CYA, then yest adjust pH first.

 

[bware]

But remember with FC over 10, your PH will not be accurate so dumping water makes sense.