Chemical help.

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M

Mweltz88

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Jun 5, 2016
73
Whiting, Iowa
I've used the pool math and Ran tests today, my FC is 2.5ppm, pH 8.2, TA 450-500ppm, CC is 0, and hardness/calcium 800+, CYA is less than 30ppm.

I'm wanting to raise CYA a tad, and get FC to 5ppm, and the pH also needs addressed. Water looks great, super clear, no scaling, just high pH and TA. Pool math is calling for over 2 gal of muratic acid, it just seems like a bit much, never put that much in before. Also, what is the proper order to address the issues/add chemicals? Add acid then chlorine, add on the same night? Wait a day? Just not sure on what to do.

Thanks,
Mike
 
At that level of CH, I would suggest exchanging at least one-half of your pool volume.

How did you get that high of a CH? I get that here in the desert with our 250 CH fill water and massive evaporation.

Did you use lots of cal-hypo?
 
Wow. You will walk a tightrope on preventing scaling.

I would like to have some folks a little more versed in water chemistry with those numbers to advise you. Have never heard of a CH that high in fill water ---

Take care.

Just thought of this.

Is that total hardness or calcium hardness from a TF100 or K2006 water test? Makes a difference.
 
Time to back up a little.

Those numbers are outrageously high. I hope this isn't a fresh fill.

Doublecheck that you used the right multiplier on the TA and CH tests. Also, you might try repeating the TA test after wiping the tip of the R-009 with a damp paper towel. That will remove any static charge that can shrink the drops and give you a falsely high reading.

If those numbers are real, and a partial drain won't change anything, then work carefully. 30,000 gallons is a huge pool, so it will take huge amounts of chemicals. I would work the pH down a half gallon at a time, leaving the pump on and brushing things a bit to really mix things. Picture your pool as a giant cup of coffee and you're adding sugar. Give it half an hour. Then recheck pH. If it's still off the top of the scale, repeat it. When the pH starts reading somewhere on the scale, then take another TA test and do your final adjustment.

With the exception of CYA, half an hour between any chemical additions is plenty. CYA can go in any time, since it takes so long to dissolve. See Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals for more information on adding things.
 
Yeah my City water is pretty hard stuff, pH out of the hose tap is already a 8+ and my softener gets the hardness down to 150-200 but when I run a continuous fill it just doesn't regenerate fast enough

- - - Updated - - -

I just ran another test backed up by test strips... pool is 800+ hardness and 300 TA

It is a fairly fresh fill, you helped me out with SLAM on the beginners forum. Had really high CYA had to 1/3 drain and fill 4x about a week or 2 ago
 
Mweltz88 said:
Yeah my City water is pretty hard stuff, pH out of the hose tap is already a 8+ and my softener gets the hardness down to 150-200 but when I run a continuous fill it just doesn't regenerate fast enough
Click to expand...

Again - is that Total Hardness or Calcium Hardness? It makes a big difference in our advise.
 
Sorry total hardness is 800+, CH is 300+

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mknauss said:
Wow. You will walk a tightrope on preventing scaling.

I would like to have some folks a little more versed in water chemistry with those numbers to advise you. Have never heard of a CH that high in fill water ---

Take care.

Just thought of this.

Is that total hardness or calcium hardness from a TF100 or K2006 water test? Makes a difference.
Click to expand...

K2006 C
 
OK. That is doable.

Follow Richard's post. Work slowly at bringing down your TA with acid. Add CYA and bleach to maintain the recommended ranges. See Pool School.

Take care.
 
Mweltz88 said:
Sorry total hardness is 800+, CH is 300+
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That's better!

Go ahead and start messing with the pH, then. I looked back and see you have a K-2006. Did the 2 gallons of acid come from the acid demand test, or from poolmath?

When you have real high CH, use a 10 ml sample, 10 drops of R-0010, 3 R-0011L, and then each drop of R-0012 counts as 25. Saves time and reagents.
 

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Yeah been using the 10 mil test, used 16 drops. Not on the CH test, the total hardness. And pool math is where I got the 2 gals of acid

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So tonight, headed to bed shortly, work in the morning, should add about half a gallon of muratic acid and see where it lands when I get up at 4:30?
 
And as far as chlorine goes? Wait until I get pH down? I have a lot of dichlor 1lb bags on hand, and a lot bleach. Both of those would raise the pH I assume? Didn't know if I need to take it one battle at a time or go ahead with the chlorine too
 
You still need chlorine. FC of 3 as you said your CYA is 30? You might want to add some CYA to get to 40.

Follow the FC/CYA chart in Pool School.

Take care.

Bleach -- and it does not raise the pH
 
Mweltz88 said:
And as far as chlorine goes? Wait until I get pH down? I have a lot of dichlor 1lb bags on hand, and a lot bleach. Both of those would raise the pH I assume? Didn't know if I need to take it one battle at a time or go ahead with the chlorine too
Click to expand...
You can alternate acid and dichlor. Dichlor will raise FC and CYA, but lower pH and TA. Check out Effects of Adding Chemicals at the bottom of poolmath. The pH change won't calculate right except in very narrow parameters, but I've found it right on for the rest. Bleach will momentarily raise pH, but as it breaks down it ends up neutral.
 
I ran the dichlor in the additional chemicals, pH will drop a few tenths and CYA will go up 4ppm so that should help. I don't mean to waste people's time asking stuff I can use the calculator for, I just didn't know if there is any negative effects of adding different chemicals in a close time proximity of each other. I've always followed pool store advice which I've come to learn isn't very good lol. I just didn't want to jack up the pool by dumping in a bunch of stuff all at once. I'll add some dichlor in a few minutes and retest in the AM and post results.
Again thank you for the advice, it's already saved me a ton of time, money, and effort.
 
2 question, does CYA evaporate with the water or does the evaporation of my pool water only concentrate it up more? Next, I've noticed this summer I've started tondevelope a few, very small wrinkles or folds in the liner, liner was redone in 2009, just curious if this is normal or anything to worry about? It's on the slope going to the deep end.
 
CYA does NOT evaporate. Under warm, sunny conditions it will degrade by 3-5 ppm per month.
 
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