Morning All -
First, I want to thank everyone here for the free advice. I've learned a lot over the past couple of weeks wrestling with my pool and coming to this forum.
We have a brand new house with a brand new pool out in the country south of Houston and we have well water. I recently fired my pool guy and decided to start doing my own chemistry and maintenance. I fired the pool guy because his answer to everything was "ADD MORE SHOCK!" and I knew that wasn't a good idea. I also turned off the chlorinator because I couldn't trust how effectively it was working.
Long story short, a couple of weeks ago I made the mistake of doing a partial drain and refill and as soon as I turned on the pump the well water hit the chlorinator and turned the pool a deep orange brown color. So, based on what I learned here, I set up a couple of bucket polyfil filters with my 2" trash pump and it mostly cleared up in about 4-5 days. I eventually switched over to an "Aquabag-FE" and that got rid of the final little bit of green. Now we are a nice pretty blue color.
Once we got to the blue color, I started trying to balance the water. The Pool Math app is awesome and has been very helpful.
Everything was good and within range but CYA was only 30, so I added some dry CYA and PH Up yesterday and immediately started having cloudiness issues. Ran the filter all night along with the aquabags and the water is no longer milky and the bottom is starting to be visible. I suspect in 24 hours my water will be finally clear blue. As soon as we can see the bottom of the deep end, I think it will be safe to swim.
My question now is around TA - which is really high - and CH - which is really low.
Here are my current readings:
pH: 7.8
FC: 12.5
TA: 200
CYA: 40
CH: 120
CSI: 0.23
My problem is with those two extreme readings. My understanding is that they kind of balance each other out, but I'm nervous with both being so far out of range. I am also worried that if I add any hardener it will cause the clouding to come back, but it's low and I don't want to damage the finish, either.
The chlorine is also kind of high, but it's below the shock level of the CYA so the app says it's OK for now. I am going to wait for it to naturally come down over the next few days/weeks.
Should I be worried or should I just monitor one or the other or both and make changes.... when?
Thank you in advance for the advice.
First, I want to thank everyone here for the free advice. I've learned a lot over the past couple of weeks wrestling with my pool and coming to this forum.
We have a brand new house with a brand new pool out in the country south of Houston and we have well water. I recently fired my pool guy and decided to start doing my own chemistry and maintenance. I fired the pool guy because his answer to everything was "ADD MORE SHOCK!" and I knew that wasn't a good idea. I also turned off the chlorinator because I couldn't trust how effectively it was working.
Long story short, a couple of weeks ago I made the mistake of doing a partial drain and refill and as soon as I turned on the pump the well water hit the chlorinator and turned the pool a deep orange brown color. So, based on what I learned here, I set up a couple of bucket polyfil filters with my 2" trash pump and it mostly cleared up in about 4-5 days. I eventually switched over to an "Aquabag-FE" and that got rid of the final little bit of green. Now we are a nice pretty blue color.
Once we got to the blue color, I started trying to balance the water. The Pool Math app is awesome and has been very helpful.
Everything was good and within range but CYA was only 30, so I added some dry CYA and PH Up yesterday and immediately started having cloudiness issues. Ran the filter all night along with the aquabags and the water is no longer milky and the bottom is starting to be visible. I suspect in 24 hours my water will be finally clear blue. As soon as we can see the bottom of the deep end, I think it will be safe to swim.
My question now is around TA - which is really high - and CH - which is really low.
Here are my current readings:
pH: 7.8
FC: 12.5
TA: 200
CYA: 40
CH: 120
CSI: 0.23
My problem is with those two extreme readings. My understanding is that they kind of balance each other out, but I'm nervous with both being so far out of range. I am also worried that if I add any hardener it will cause the clouding to come back, but it's low and I don't want to damage the finish, either.
The chlorine is also kind of high, but it's below the shock level of the CYA so the app says it's OK for now. I am going to wait for it to naturally come down over the next few days/weeks.
Should I be worried or should I just monitor one or the other or both and make changes.... when?
Thank you in advance for the advice.
