Hello. I live in Thailand and I'm afraid I don't have any fancy testing kit, just your basic one. I have been neglecting my pool for many years and only just put chlorine in when it needs it, and it is always a nice blue color with no adverse effects when swimming. I have a tile pool with grout which I think is a cement base grout. It has been slowly eroding away and when you rub it, it comes away in a fine powder. When I use the little tester kit for PH it doesn't even show on the scale, so I bought a little electronic ph tester and when I tested it, it was 3.75!!! I went out and got a bag of soda ash and so far I have put in 5 lbs of it over the past several days. Needless to say it is very cloudy and has been that way for several days now. When I tested the water just now, it has come up to 4.39 so it is slowly coming up. Should I keep dumping in the soda ash? I put in 2 lbs at a time and wait a day and do it again. It is not coming up much and have no idea what the other readings are. When the tester for chlorine shows no yellow in the test kit I add a bunch of chlorine and it comes up. I'm not sure I can find a fancy water testing kit here in Thailand so not sure what I should do. Any suggestions? Thanks so much
My pool has a VERY low PH of 3.75!
- Thread starter bcallinv
- Start date
find a way to order a good test kit, without it you can not use TFP method to maintain pool. otherwise yeah dump soda ash and chlorine until you get desired results. PH will not balance and stabilize until you've adjusted it enough to bring the TA into proper range. Chlorine wont stabilize without proper CYA levels. What kind of chlorine are you using? liquid chlorine/bleach is recommended because it does not contain stabilizer. You add stabilizer(CYA) separately to obtain desired results(again you need a good test kit) If you use any kind of pucks they contain stabilizer and eventually the levels will get out of hand. Basically anything anyone here using TFP method can't really help you without a full set of test results from a good kit.
Unfortunately I have NO idea what my TA is, as I don't have a proper kit to test this. I will be going to the USA in June and I will buy a proper kit then.
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The chlorine I use is a granular type Chlorine, that I get here in Thailand. There is no information on the tub it comes in. I will find a good test kit soon. In the meantime I will keep dumping in Soda Ash but pool does not get clear at all only cloudy all the time ever since I starting putting in Soda Ash. So frustrating.
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The chlorine I use is a granular type Chlorine, that I get here in Thailand. There is no information on the tub it comes in. I will find a good test kit soon. In the meantime I will keep dumping in Soda Ash but pool does not get clear at all only cloudy all the time ever since I starting putting in Soda Ash. So frustrating.
Sodium bicarbonate=baking soda? I hope I can find some here in Thailand. If all I can find are those little "arm and hammer" boxes, how much should I put in at a time?
Without a good test kit, you're just guessing about what to add.
If you're confident about the ph, add 10 lbs baking soda per addition and then retest ph the next day.
You really need to know TA, Calcium and cyanuric acid in addition to chlorine and ph.
If you're confident about the ph, add 10 lbs baking soda per addition and then retest ph the next day.
You really need to know TA, Calcium and cyanuric acid in addition to chlorine and ph.