Both my ph and TA are excessively high according to HTH 6 way test strips and my pool being cloudy

[Kking42]

my pump broke so I had to order a new one so pool went without a pump and chemicals for a week while getting a round of rain. Finally got pump hooked up and tested my pool with HTH 6 way test strips due to cloudiness and my TA and PH are excessively high. HTH says to add 20 pounds of PH down to bring TA down but how should I go about this to make it all effective without bottoming out the two or without the TA bringing the PH back up. Current readings on test strip below

FAC- 0/0
TA- 240
PH- 8.4
TH- 400
CA-0
I understand my chlorine and CA are zero I expected that after a week with no pump or chemicals so that’ll be adjusted once ph and ta are in range.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
The pH and TA are the least of your worries. Cloudy water indicates algae.
You need to follow the SLAM Process. To do that, you need a proper test kit. I suggest the TF-100 or Taylor K2006C. A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.

While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.

 

[Bperry]

my pump broke so I had to order a new one so pool went without a pump and chemicals for a week while getting a round of rain. Finally got pump hooked up and tested my pool with HTH 6 way test strips due to cloudiness and my TA and PH are excessively high. HTH says to add 20 pounds of PH down to bring TA down but how should I go about this to make it all effective without bottoming out the two or without the TA bringing the PH back up. Current readings on test strip below

FAC- 0/0
TA- 240
PH- 8.4
TH- 400
CA-0
I understand my chlorine and CA are zero I expected that after a week with no pump or chemicals so that’ll be adjusted once ph and ta are in range. View attachment 512821View attachment 512822

Please don’t add 20lbs of pH down, it’ll crash your pH and add sulphates to the water. The TA is just a buffer for pH and so if you manage the pH to stay in the 7’s there’s no reason to ever mess with TA.

But those test strips are really bad at providing accurate measurements. Using them to make changes to the water can lead to bad outcomes. Look into getting one of the above mentioned kits. We’ve seen lots of people spend money chasing bad test results with those strips or the pool store “free” test being no better.

 

[Kking42]

Welcome to the forum.
The pH and TA are the least of your worries. Cloudy water indicates algae.
You need to follow the SLAM Process. To do that, you need a proper test kit. I suggest the TF-100 or Taylor K2006C. A proper test kit is needed to get the accurate water chemistry results needed to follow the TFP protocols.

While you are waiting on your test kit, add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine / plain bleach to your pool each evening with the pump running. This will replenish the FC lost each day to the sun and also inhibit any algae in the water from growing further.

Before I continue i will post all my levels before and after pump broke below. I forgot to share another detail, the pool sat for a week with no pump but it stayed crystal clear the whole time, after I got the new pump going I vacuumed the pool and that’s when it became a Cloudy blue. Before the pump broke it was already a bright cloudy blue like sky blue and this was after I shocked it and vacuumed because I had a tiny bit of algae. After I shocked it I let it sit for a day to let the chlorine levels drop to a safe level and it became crystal clear and all levels were in range except for high PH and TA which I had my neighbor test cause he manages the pool at the park but when we swam in it it became the cloudy sky blue color. Point being whenever the water isn’t being used and everything settles it becomes crystal clear but when the water is disrupted like swimming or vacuuming it becomes cloudy blue again after my last shock treatment and there were no signs of any algae after the treatment
Levels before pump broke:
FAC/BR: 1/2
TA: 180
PH: 8
TH: 200
CYA:20
Levels now:
FAC:0
TA: 240
PH: 8.4
TH: 400
CYA: 0

 

[Donldson]

According to your test strips your TA has changed by 60 ppm, your hardness by 200 ppm, and your CYA dropped to zero. Over the course of a few days.

None of that makes sense. And that is because test strips are notoriously unreliable, which is why we do not use their readings to offer advice or guidance.

 

[Kking42]

According to your test strips your TA has changed by 60 ppm, your hardness by 200 ppm, and your CYA dropped to zero. Over the course of a few days.

None of that makes sense. And that is because test strips are notoriously unreliable, which is why we do not use their readings to offer advice or guidance.

Ok I understand I will be getting a better test kit. I have one that you put the drops in and it gets the same for the ph but it’s a Clorox test kit and only test for ph available chlorine and total chlorine. The water level was only half due to old pump leaking so I added more water so maybe that’s why the PH and TA went up? Or maybe cause we had a big storm roll in with a lot of rain? My next question is why is it cloudy. The pool was clear before pump broke then i saw some algae so I shocked the pool with granules and vacuumed the next morning. After vacuuming the pool became a very cloudy blue color and I tested with my water test and the chlorine was good and PH was high I did test strips also they had same result as the water test and my neighbor tested with his kit so I added 2 ounces of clarifier. After a few hours the pool became clear and I did not see anymore algae so we swam and it became cloudy blue again but this time it was sky blue. The next day is when the pump broke so I stopped all water flow and took the pump off and the pool became crystal clear after 2 days. After 4 days I realized that there was this grey grainy looking stuff along the bottom against the wall and it felt like sand but it was grey and we didn’t have a sand pump or any sand around. After a week I got the new pump got it connected the water was still crystal clear with that grainy stuff on the bottom still and I did not see any algae surprisingly, I was shocked. I vacuumed after I got the pump going and it became cloudy blue again. Obviously I have no chlorine levels in the pool and the PH and TA are very high so can the PH be causing the cloudy blue color since I did not see any algae the day I connected the pump and it stayed clear when nothing was disrupting the water or could it be that grainy stuff I saw. It just seems to get cloudy when the water is getting stirred up.

 

[duraleigh]

I am going to repeat what others are telling you. pH and TA are not problems for you now,

Chlorine is the biggest problem you have. The second biggest problem you have is it's impossible to give you advice from the results of Test Strips.........they simply don't work.

1. order one of the test kits suggested.....please don't substitute We know these are accurate
2. put five ppm of chlorine in your pool each evening
3. It is not clear to me that your pump is running? Is it?

 

[dfwnoob]

We can only really give prescriptions based on two different test kits: the Taylor K-2006C or the TFTestKits.net TF-100/TF-Pro. Other tests are unreliable and/or do not allow for the testing capability that the TFP methodology requires.

pH does not cause cloudy water. Algae does. Add 5ppm worth of liquid chlorine daily until your test kit arrives. You can use the PoolMath app and the Effects of Adding feature to calculate how much LC you need. Additionally, for faster/easier help in the future, please fill out your Signature (you can see mine as an example below; if you're on a phone, you may need to rotate your phone to "landscape" mode to see it or edit yours).

 

[Kking42]

I am going to repeat what others are telling you. pH and TA are not problems for you now,

Chlorine is the biggest problem you have. The second biggest problem you have is it's impossible to give you advice from the results of Test Strips.........they simply don't work.

1. order one of the test kits suggested.....please don't substitute We know these are accurate
2. put five ppm of chlorine in your pool each evening
3. It is not clear to me that your pump is running? Is it

I’m going to start adding chlorine this evening. I’ll get one of those kits. First year owning a pool. Wanted to get all info out there to get all suggestions I may need not, trying to be hard. So I’ll start adding the chlorine and use the calculator to determine how much. I guess that leads to a question even tho I don’t necessarily see algae does that mean it can still be present just like an early bloom because I can’t believe there’s no algae in my pool after a week of no chemicals or filtration with rain

 

[Bperry]

I’m going to start adding chlorine this evening. I’ll get one of those kits. First year owning a pool. Wanted to get all info out there to get all suggestions I may need not, trying to be hard. So I’ll start adding the chlorine and use the calculator to determine how much. I guess that leads to a question even tho I don’t necessarily see algae does that mean it can still be present just like an early bloom because I can’t believe there’s no algae in my pool after a week of no chemicals or filtration with rain

That’s correct. Once you can see the algae, you’re in big trouble…$$

 

[Kking42]

That’s correct. Once you can see the algae, you’re in big trouble…$$

Ok gotcha so I’m assuming when I first saw the algae and shocked there was still non visible algae left and that’s why it stayed cloudy. I’m just shocked I don’t see algae now it’s been a week with no chlorine.

 

[Kking42]

Ok gotcha so I’m assuming when I first saw the algae and shocked there was still non visible algae left and that’s why it stayed cloudy. I’m just shocked I don’t see algae now it’s been a week with no chlorine.

Everyone’s saying use Liquid Chlorine which I do have but can I use Chlorine granules it’s 53% cal-hypo or should I use liquid to bring my CYA levels up

 

[Bperry]

Everyone’s saying use Liquid Chlorine which I do have but can I use Chlorine granules it’s 53% cal-hypo or should I use liquid to bring my CYA levels up

No one here trusts the test results you have so don’t do anything based on those. If your calcium is too high, you don’t want to use calhypo. Liquid chlorine doesn’t have CYA so that’s why the recommendation to use it.

 

[Kking42]

No one here trusts the test results you have so don’t do anything based on those. If your calcium is too high, you don’t want to use calhypo. Liquid chlorine doesn’t have CYA so that’s why the recommendation to use it.

Ok thank you. I’ll start with the chlorine and I’ll come back when my new test arrives

 

[Kking42]

Hey guys my friend had the TF-100 test kit so we did the testing and I went to pool math and started my SLAM process the water is getting semi clear now I’ve only been using liquid chlorine, when I go to brush it still gets cloudy so I’m continuing my SLAM but when I brush I also notice these little white flakes start floating around and they look big enough for the skimmer net to catch them but it’s like they evaporate or go right through. I used shock one time right before I found this website could it be shock or calcium buildup or something else

 

[Bperry]

Hey guys my friend had the TF-100 test kit so we did the testing and I went to pool math and started my SLAM process the water is getting semi clear now I’ve only been using liquid chlorine, when I go to brush it still gets cloudy so I’m continuing my SLAM but when I brush I also notice these little white flakes start floating around and they look big enough for the skimmer net to catch them but it’s like they evaporate or go right through. I used shock one time right before I found this website could it be shock or calcium buildup or something else

What are your test results with the TF-100?