How often to test ph??! CLOUDY WATER!

[NwTnMom]

I went through the SLAM process and had my water sparkling clear and all my numbers were right except for cya of 20. After a day of very heavy rain, we got in to swim and noticed that we kicked up enough gunk to cloud the water. I tried to filter it for a couple of days and finally sucked it up and bought some clarifier and carefully followed directions. Vacuuming seemed to kick up a lot so it's still floating around and I have 2 pantyhouse that are filtering the water both before and after the pump. I can see the bottom however noticed that on the walls and the ladder, i have some algae growth now... or so it appears as it's greenish. Come to find out, my ph is now 8.2 so all the chlorine that I have been using hasn't done much good as I read that with ph that high, chlorine isn't as effective. I was maintaining a FC level of 5 religiously but had no idea how or why my ph shifted like that. Can rain do that?? Should I now slam it again? I guess i'm off to town to buy muriatic acid, something i've never had to do in the 7 yrs of pool ownership.

As of this morning when I woke, my readings were this:

FC 1.5 (i thought i was raising it back up to 5 before bed...guess not)
CC 0
CYA 30
PH 8.2
TA 110

 

[mknauss]

You need to SLAM Process.

Chlorine effectiveness is marginally effected by pH. But not significantly at the levels we deal with in a pool.

Lower your pH to 7.2 prior to adding LC to SLAM.

Take care.

 

[NwTnMom]

How long does it take to lower the ph? Of course this is happening when we have heat index of 110! Guess i'm buying a lot more bleach along with the acid now.

 

[mknauss]

Use PoolMath. Enter 8.2 in Now column for pH. Put 7.2 in Target. Be sure your current TA is input into the Now column for it. It will tell you how much acid to use. Be sure you have selected what strength acid you will be using.

Then add the acid. Circulate for 30 minutes. Test your pH. If in the low 7's, SLAM.