Drained and Filled, now what

A CYA of 17 is pretty tough to measure with normal black dot test. Does it match what you have added since the refill? You will need to get CYA to 50 for a normally chlorinated pool in the desert.

Otherwise - use Pool Math to come up with your adds. You will use Acid to drop your pH to 7.2 and that will start your drop of the TA. Your pH will slow down on its rapid rise once your TA gets in the 50 to 70 range.

Good Luck!
 
I'm struggling to buy the right muriatic acid for lowering the pH, but I'll bring it down.

I've had my stabilizer amount in a sock to slowly disperse, and I keep adding liquid chlorine so that is keeping the FC at an acceptable level.

I'll update with next major measurings, and I'll continue to use the calculator.
 
If you are new to MA please read the posts about best practices and read safety sheet from manufacturer to protect your pebble tech and yourself. Bottom line - pour super super super slow, brush pool bottom after adding, don't pour right up against the wall, if wind is blowing fumes in your face, take a break and wait for favorable air flow away from you, hose/pool water on deck if MA gets on it. Do not store with bleach. Don't store near important metal. Keep it well labeled so people don't play with it. Yada yada.
 
thanks for the safety heads up about the MA. I could tell when I was working with it that it was no-joke. I measured the pH and CL today and it's at 7.6 and 3. If I can get my silly vacuum working then I'll really be a happy pool-man!
 
Feel free to share any issues/photos/what's not happening about the vac. We've seen just about everything. Weak suction/no suction/clogging/air bubbles/motor makes loud noise/stucks to floor/don't know how to hook it up/goes good but gets weak/let us know
 
Good news about the vacuum- I took it into a local pool store and they replaced a couple things, and now it's zipping around my pool cleaning!

I'm still fighting the pH levels. Recently I've gotten my CYA to about 45, and my TA is up at 200, and my pH keeps soaring up to 8.0... even after I've added some MA.

Will I need to just keep adding MA, until the TA and pH drop to regular levels? I'm worried that I'm doing something wrong?

thanks for any suggestions
 
mknauss is exactly right and you can follow that page to achieve a lower TA without hurting your plaster if you don't deviate and pour VERY SLOWLY and brush right after you finish pouring to stir up and mix any of the heavy acid that sank to the bottom plaster. ASK US any and all questions you have before you start. If you want help with PoolMath, we're here. We can double check your calculated MA addition before you pour if you like. Just to recap - read, poolmath, remove any robots, with pump running slow pour MA, brush, keep pump running, retest PH and TA in 15-30 depending on how awesome your circulation is. If your PH isn't 7.2, you can recalculate using Poolmath and add more to get it there, but no lower. Follow same slow pour, brush, keep running 15-30 procedure. Once you achieve 7.2, no more acid until some time later in day-to-several days from now when your ph reaches 7.8-8 and then drop it again until your TA is in the desired, maybe 90-120 range and see how that goes before dropping more.
 
Clouds up above and clouds in the pool?!?

I've tested my water yesterday and today, and all my levels are on point. I've got good FC, pH, CYA; the numbers are giving me two thumbs up.

If you look at the pool it looks pretty murky, and I brushed it yesterday and this morning and I've got my vacuum and pump running currently, but the water looks "pond-ish".

What should I be adjusting or checking next- could it be my sand filter (I did a backwash maybe 3-4 days ago), or maybe the weather is just becoming too hot?
 

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Typically a 'murky' pool indicates algae.

Can you post a complete set of current test results?

Take care.
 
And to confirm, your FC should be at 20 (assuming CYA of 50 still), and tested/brought back up to 20 several (or whatever you can) times per day. At least morning and night! If you have cloudy/hazy/murky water after several days of FC 20, we really really need a full set of test results asap.
 
CC over .5 = fighting off algae = need to SLAM (might be a fast one since you seem to have caught it early)
before you slam, do another dose of MA or any phdown chem that you can find to drop ph to 7.2 (careful, slow pour, brush) wait 20 mins and retest to confirm ph 7.2
then, after your ph is 7.2: slam
CYA of 45 rounds up to 50, so get FC to 20 and keep it there until your pool is mindblowingly clear and you pass the three SLAM end criteria

I threw it all in poolmath to check your CSI, so here are your calcs:
PH 7.5 to 7.2 is 23oz of 31.45% MA (if that's what you have)
so slow add, then retest to confirm, can sneak up on it to be extra careful if you wish, but I think you're good since you've been battling ph rise.

after ph 7.2 established...
add 207oz of 8.25% aka 1.7x121oz jugs again pour slowly and i'd brush too since you've got algae clinging desperately to the walls and bottom

- - - Updated - - -

*and yes, this is why it is cloudy, needs SLAM* great credit to you for noticing the haze - and great credit to your test kit for getting the 1 CC confirmation you're fighting stuff
 
My latest numbers:

Cl) 4
ph) 7.2
FC) 3.5
CC) 1.0
TC) 4.5

CH)400
TA) 130
CYA) 50

I've been brushing daily and I'm about to add more chlorine. Pool is looking better, but it's not bind-blowingly clear yet.

One of the three criteria for a successful SLAM is crystal clear water. You do not have that. Another is CC < 0.5, you do not have that.
Why did you end your SLAM?

Appears you need to go back to shock level and finish your SLAM.

Take care.
 
The CC of 1.0 suggests that the haze is indeed being caused by organics, and that keeping FC at shock for your current CYA (FC 20 if still CYA 50) and you could only be a few days away from CC 0 and clearing water. You two have done so great and now you just need to SLAM it into clarity.
 
I wanted to provide a quick update:

Cl) 1.0
pH) 8.0
FC) 2.0
CC) 0.5
TC) 2.5
CH) 350
TA) 120
CYA) 50

These numbers are from first thing this morning, so I'll be bringing the pH down, and then after a while I'll add in some chlorine. While I was testing I thought the CC was ZERO, but upon a closer look it's barely touching at 0.5.
Also I'd been keeping a sock of stabilizer in my skimmer, and am curious- could my CYA get too high from that? My CYA hasn't seemed to give me much problems.
 
"stabilizer" is usually 90-100% CYA - so if your CYA is already 50, and adding stabilizer (CYA) increases CYA. I see you are in AZ, but even in AZ, CYA up to 60 is cool, but really we don't suggest going over 60 ... except in case-by-case basis, and only for people who have their sanitation bulletproof, since the higher your CYA, the more painful the punishment if you let FC drop below min.

Once CYA is in the pool, it DOES NOT break down or wear out in our life time. It does leave the pool in backwashes and splashout, but these are small losses, and small re-adds. You will only add CYA a couple times a year, not daily. Good job connecting the sock of stabilizer to CYA, yes exactly correct. Only solid forms of chlorine (except cal-hypo) and stabilizer add CYA. Bleach does not.

Let's look at your #s
CL - what test is this?
pH -- yes, high, you got it, drop into 7s using MA or dry acid, brush after adding either, 20 mins, retest, more if needed
FC - WAY WAY WAY to low, but you know that, after you get your PH confirmed right, push this up to at least the high end of your target range, anywhere up to shock would be great
CC .5 is fine, it is almost as good as zero, since the sun helps burn off CC, any testing done in the night or early am can show .5 in some pools
TC - this is just FC+CC so you can skip posting this and it isn't a number we base anything off
CH - this is great - but DO NOT use any cal-hypo which would drive it up, which you don't intentionally want to do right now
TA - this TA is fine - UNLESS - your PH is constantly above 7.8 - in which case, we should lower TA so your PH rises slower and you don't need to spend as much time & money lowering it
CYA - again, 50 is great for AZ, but higher would need to be an informed decision, so no more stabilizer, trichlor pucks, dichlor, etc. Just bleach.
 

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