First Time I've Felt Pressured to Buy Pool Chemicals

[JBDudley2024]

Hello everyone - We built our second pool in 2016. We've only used Muriatic Acid, Baking Soda (Borax, rarely) and regular liquid chlorine to manage our pool. I've never had an issue balancing the water. It seems like around the same time that our ozonator stopped working, I've been having an issue with balancing the water. Today I kind of freaked out because when I tested the PH, the water turned neon yellow. It is normally bright pink and I use muriatic acid to bring the PH down. When I tested for alkalinity, it turned red right away on like 2 drops.

I went to Leslie's and they told me to add the entire 5 lb bucket into my pool, which I did. I'm supposed to add Instant Conditioner Plus in 4 hours.

Should I not have done this? I'm so worried and don't really know what to do as my numbers have never been like this. Please help

Thank you in advance!
Judith

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
Your signature shows a test kit. Post the numbers you get from your test kit.
I suspect they had you add baking soda. Hopefully it was not soda ash.

 

[JBDudley2024]

Ugh....It was Soda Ash. I cannot tell you what the numbers are on the test kit because the colors don't match my test kit. The lowest number on the ph is 7.0 and the color is a light orange. My color was very bright yellow. I included their test numbers above.

 

[mknauss]

Soda Ash will raise your pH and dramatically raise your TA. Be sure you have some acid on hand.

Use your test kit and post us your data.

 

[JBDudley2024]

OK, I will - thank you for your help.

 

[JBDudley2024]

OK, I have re-tested (I put the Soda Ash in 2.5 hours ago). The PH is now a bright pink/purple color and the alkalinity it at 40 ppm. What should I do now?

 

[mknauss]

Use your comparator block for the pH.

If the TA is only 40, it is not likely the pH is high.

 

[JBDudley2024]

Use your comparator block for the pH.

If the TA is only 40, it is not likely the pH is high.

I'm sorry - I don't know what a comparator block is? The picture I added above shows the colors so it would appear that the Ph is very high?

 

[mknauss]

It is hard to tell the colors with that background. I thought you were holding a vial next to the block. Sorry.

With a TA of 40, I would not worry about the pH right now. Test it after things balance out. High pH is not that big of a deal for a short time.

What about FC, CYA, etc? You do need a FAS DPD kit for more accurate FC testing.

 

[JBDudley2024]

I do have a DPD kit. Chlorine is at a 1. The CYA seemed to me to be at zero, but the pool store said it was at 19.

 

[mknauss]

OK -- add 30 ppm CYA worth of stabilizer using the sock method.
Add 5 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine.
What is the condition of the water? You need to order a FAS DPD test kit.

 

[JBDudley2024]

I will order the FAS DPD test kit. I have Leslie's "Instant Conditioner Plus". Can I use that for the CYA? What is the shock method? When I've added the Instant Conditioner Plus for the CYA before, I poured it right into the skimmer. (I'm sorry for all the questions - and thank you for all your help!)

 

[mknauss]

I suspect that is liquid stabilizer? We call it liquid gold.
The 'sock' method is what is used to dissolve dry stabilizer granules. You add the stabilizer to a sock and hang in front of return.
One gallon of the liquid stabilizer will add 26 ppm to your pool water. It is fine to pour that into the skimmer slowly. Be sure to aggressively shake the bottle and wash it out multiple times.

 

[JBDudley2024]

OK, I will add the stabilizer. How long after I add the stabilizer should I wait until I add the chlorine? Is it hours or a day?

 

[mknauss]

No wait needed. Add the chlorine at a pool return with pump running. Add it slowly. Brush the area if you wish.

 

[JBDudley2024]

Thank you! I will retest tomorrow and post my updated numbers to see what I need to attack next.

 

[mknauss]

How does your water look?

 

[JBDudley2024]

It looks great...you'd never know the numbers are so off...

 

[mknauss]

Great. Just work through things slowly.

You will likely need to add some baking soda later to get TA up to 60 or 70 ppm. And you will likely need to add some acid to lower the pH some. But no big moves.

Stay out of the pool stores. All the things you need you can get at Walmart, Home Depot, or Amazon.

Edit -- you also will need more CYA. I would target 50 ppm for your climate. Add that liquid chlorine every day.
You might look into a SaltWater Chlorine Generator. Many members in your area have installed them. Makes pool chemistry maintenance even easier.

 

[JBDudley2024]

Hello! I ordered the FAS-DPD kit. It will get here on Friday. I ran out of most of my chemicals in my current test kit... I was able to test the CYA. It is now at 45. The TA was at 40. I added 2 lbs of baking soda. The Chlorine was almost nothing. I added a gallon of Chlorine. Should I wait to retest tomorrow to add Muriatic acid? I tested the Ph again and it appeared very high. The color is pink (8.0) on my test kit and my color was hot pink/purple. I don't have any other chemicals to test additional items. (Did go to the pool store but they were closed.)