I am most likely the problem

[Screaminz2002]

Bought the house in 1993 and I believe the pool was installed in 1988. Had it re plastered in 2009. I paid three different companies to do the maintenance over the years. 1 said they were no longer servicing the area and 2 flat out quit. Every year in late August or early September the algae starts. Pool cleaning companies couldn't stop it. It seemed they would show up once a week and drop chemicals in. Clean it and that was it. I thought the re plaster would help but it didn't. So I became a bad pool owner. Drain it to half in the winter and let it fester until April when I drain, clean, and refill. Make it through the summer and lose it at the end. I have dealt with green, yellow, and black over the years. Black was by far the worst. Yellow is almost as bad and that typically is what takes it at the end of the year.

I'm tired of cleaning the thing. The plaster is pitted and stained again. I'm going to shell out the money to have it re plastered again at the end of this year. One thing I realized is I am most likely the problem. I wanted to learn what I was going and why so I began my google search and wound up here. Began reading and watching videos. A lot has changed since I first researched this in 1993. Mostly the CYA to FC ratio. I went on Amazon and bought the k-2006C test kit. The strips now reside at the dump. Did my initial test this morning.

Date	Time	Weather	PH	FC	CC	TA	CYA
5/2/2018	9:33	OC mist	8.000	0.800	0.800	150.000	38.000

Added

Acid	Soda	Chlorine	CYA	Algaecide	Notes
1/3 gal		1/2 gal			12.5% sod Hypo 31.45% Baum

Results

Time	Weather	PH	FC	CC	TA	CYA
4:30pm	sun	7.600	4.600	0.200	150.000

Added another 1/2 gal of acid and 1/4 gal chlorine.

Am I on the right track here? I want to get the TA down a lot more as I am having PH swings. I started at well over 250. I dropped the PH to 7.2 and aerate using a tube in the jet overnight. Typically see 7.8 the next morning. I also didn't do the hardness test. Every year with a clean fill I am between 500-550. Nothing I can do about the fresh water. It's been this way since we moved in.

 

[kabutotx]

FC: You need to round up your CYA to 40. So on the chart you NEVER want to go below 5. If you check in the morning you need to be at 7 or higher. That allows about ~2FC drop during the day for sun.
How is the water right now? You might want to do an OCLT to make sure you have no algae. If you do have some, you need to SLAM.
TA: Keep doing what you ware doing. It takes a little while to come down. You can test your fill water to see if it higher and keeping it high.

 

[zea3]

You will want to keep the pH around 7.2 and lower the TA to 70ppm. Continue with the acid and aeration until the TA is where you want it. Some of the staining and pitting you see now could be scale formation on the plaster. If so it will dissolve over time once the pH and TA are lowered.

 

[Screaminz2002]

Awesome replies, appreciate it. I was using the calculator to add the acid for the PH drop to 7.2. Unfortunately it isnt getting me anywhere close. Not sure what I am messing up on the calc. Anyway here are the numbers for this morning. I did not aerate last night.
PH 7.7 FC 5.6 TA140
I'm going to add 1 gallon of acid and see where I land. This is the worst part of balancing the pool. Is there any alternative besides the liquid? The fumes are horrible when trying to go slow and not splash. I do a 1/4 at a time in a 1 gallon bucket.

Also bought the Sun2Solar heating blanket to see how it works. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[pooldv]

A solar cover works great to keep in heat overnight. The number one cause for pool temp droppi g is evaporation and a solar cover cuts that way down.

 

[Mr Bruce]

A gallon of acid in a 16k pool sounds like an awful lot to me. I would go in stages, at least a 3rd at a time. Don't worry about an intermediate bucket, just pour it straight for the original jug.

The bubble blankets do a better job of keeping your heat in at night than allowing a solar process to "heat" your water. Also good at keeping junk out of the pool if you have that problem.

 

[Screaminz2002]

I believe that is where I have been failing is keeping the fc too low. Once it starts it's almost impossible to kill. Hot late summer in Texas makes it a pain to keep up.

Water looks better then it has in a long while. I couldn't check the fc with strips but I kept it off the chart for about 4 days right after the initial fill. I also added yellow algae preventive with the chlorine. I will check it tonight and see how much it drops to in the morning before the sun hits it. Better safe then sorry.

 

[Philo]

A gallon of ACID? Reminds me of "Breaking Bad". Breaking bad acid scene - YouTube.

I hope it's not the 31% strength!!!

 

[Screaminz2002]

A gallon of acid in a 16k pool sounds like an awful lot to me. I would go in stages, at least a 3rd at a time. Don't worry about an intermediate bucket, just pour it straight for the original jug.

The bubble blankets do a better job of keeping your heat in at night than allowing a solar process to "heat" your water. Also good at keeping junk out of the pool if you have that problem.

Didn't expect replies so quick! I will check it again in a couple hours and see where the PH is at. I added 3/4 of a gallon yesterday in two increments. It only dropped .3

- - - Updated - - -

A gallon of ACID? Reminds me of the "Breaking Bad" scene.

I hope it's not the 31% strength.

It says it is, should I be concerned? I diluted with water and dropped it in the 4 corners of the kidney with the pump running.

 

[kabutotx]

It says it is, should I be concerned? I diluted with water and dropped it in the 4 corners of the kidney with the pump running.

To much work. Just turn on a pump and rest the bottom of the Acid jug in the water, tip and pour enough to get smooth stream. The pump should have it mixed in about 15 minutes. Just make sure wind blowing away from you.

 

[Screaminz2002]

To much work. Just turn on a pump and rest the bottom of the Acid jug in the water, tip and pour enough to get smooth stream. The pump should have it mixed in about 15 minutes. Just make sure wind blowing away from you.

A gallon of acid in a 16k pool sounds like an awful lot to me. I would go in stages, at least a 3rd at a time. Don't worry about an intermediate bucket, just pour it straight for the original jug.

The bubble blankets do a better job of keeping your heat in at night than allowing a solar process to "heat" your water. Also good at keeping junk out of the pool if you have that problem.

I had always read to dilute the acid in water first but I am all for the easier method!!! It really sucked doing it this way as there was no way to move away from the bucket. Fumes were atrocious.

PH fell below 7 already. Started my aerator and may put my air compressor to work as well. Should have waited for a response. My bad.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

... I also added yellow algae preventive with the chlorine....

What product exactly?? You have to be very careful with some of these mustard algae treatments as a few of them contain sodium bromide. Adding sodium bromide to a chlorine pool is a recipe for disaster as the bromide uses up chlorine to form bromine but the bromine can not be stabilized against UV loss. So the bromide will act as an additional source of rapid chlorine loss. Once in the water, bromide does not go away - you have to drain and refill to get rid of it.

 

[Screaminz2002]

What product exactly?? You have to be very careful with some of these mustard algae treatments as a few of them contain sodium bromide. Adding sodium bromide to a chlorine pool is a recipe for disaster as the bromide uses up chlorine to form bromine but the bromine can not be stabilized against UV loss. So the bromide will act as an additional source of rapid chlorine loss. Once in the water, bromide does not go away - you have to drain and refill to get rid of it.

Leslies Algae Control poly oxyethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene dichloride I had this was one of the better preventives to yellow algae.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Leslies Algae Control poly oxyethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene dichloride I had this was one of the better preventives to yellow algae.

That’s Polyquat-60. It’s not really specific for any form of algae. It’s more like algae insurance if your FC gets a little low but, if you lose control of the sanitation and don’t get the FC back up, it won’t really stop algae. The upside of using it is that it’s fairly innocuous stuff that doesn’t leave anything behind in the water that will cause you trouble later on.

At least it’s not bromide based...

 

[Screaminz2002]

So the PH is reading about dead on 7.0. The TA dropped to 90? I did the test 3 times just to make sure. I wonder if I didn't goof the one this morning somehow? 50 ppm seems like a lot to lose in 1 gallon of acid. Anything that would throw this reading off? I put 1/4 gal of chlorine in and hopefully there will still be enough light left in an hour to check it. I lost about 2ppm over the course of the day. The inline chlorination is out of tabs so it is just what I am adding.

 

[Screaminz2002]

So I believe I am looking good. TA is at 90 and PH is slowly rising at 7.4. Lost 2ppm FC yesterday in which we had rain all day. I still need to do the overnight test to make sure I don't need to slam it but everything seems like I am on the right track. I appreciate the forum and it's members on the advice I received. I look forward to not having a swamp at the end of the year!!