Priority

[jimwt]

Like to request some help on setting priorities for treating my pool. Have several items to work on.

Chem. pH-8.2+, TA-200, FC-2(at the moment), CC-<0.5, CH-480(Was 600, but lowered by partial drain), CYA-44(was about 100, but lowered with partial drain). Temp-80-83 deg F. Water is clear and there is no scale problems. Do have some staining, but that's for another day.

1. Need to shock-losing 50% + overnight of CL.
2. Lower TA to 60-70 along with the pH. Probably will be long process due to lack of aeration. Do have 5 returns plus pool sweep connection. Plan to shop for cheap fountain device today.
3. Lower CH. Was much lower, around 300, but I used cal/hypo to shock and CH jumped to 600. After partial drain, dropped it to 480. Do I need to lower it further?

Which of the above should I work on first is my question.

Thanks in advance,
Jimwt

 

[reebok]

your ph is way too high and you need to lower it immediately. then start shocking if you're losing more than 1ppm of fc at night, which it sounds like you are. ch is manageable, keep your ph in check, never let it go above 7.8 if you can help it. I like the homemade pvc aerators. I imagine they work much faster, though I didn't have a fountain to test with.
i-don-t-have-eyeballs-on-my-returns-t12154.html
my-aerator-t7799.html?hilit=aerator

 

[PaulR]

Elaborating a little on what reebok said,
1) pH down below 7.5. With your high TA and CH you have scaling potential when combined with high pH.
2) shock to take care of your overnight FC loss, after pH is down; you can't rely on pH readings when the FC is at shock levels.
3) after the shock process is over, then you can go back and look at everything else.
--paulr

 

[Guest]

Which of the above should I work on first is my question.

CH of 480, while a bit high is livable. IF you think you want to bring this down more (I would if possible) and your fill water is lower in CH then I would do the drains and refills before anything else since that will change all your other water parameter. After you get the CH in line you would need to retest and repost in this thread and we can take it from there.

If not then bring the pH down as stated and then start shocking. When you have solved the chlorine loss problem then you can worry about lowering the TA to a more acceptable level. It is certainly something that needs to be addressed!

Hope this helps.

 

[jimwt]

Thanks to all who offered solutions. Going to give thought to partial drain to lower CH first vs. starting to lower pH then shocking.
Will repost results.

Jimwt

 

[jimwt]

Puzzled: Did a partial drain and lowerd CH from 480 to about 410.
Chem. after refill: FC-Tr., pH-8.2(+,I think), TA-190, CH-410, CYA-36, Temp-87 deg. F
Added 3 qt. HCl(20 Baume) at 3:00-3:10 p.m., At 5:00, pH-8.0, TA-170. At 7:45 p.m., pH-8.2. Whoa! What's going on here? Should I keep adding acid? Added 96 oz. of HCl which is almost twice what I calculated using Pool Calculator. Guess I'll keep on with the acid and see what happens.
Jimwt

 

[JasonLion]

Keep adding acid till the PH comes down, and again any time it goes up again.

There are two things that cause PH to rise rapidly, high TA and fresh plaster. Your TA is high. If your plaster is less than one year old, that will also cause the PH to rise.

 

[jimwt]

Thanks, will keep pouring the acid to it.
Jimwt

 

[jimwt]

Well folks, after 4 3/4 gal acid, finally got the pH down to 7.0 and TA to 90.(lost some time over the weekend. I was gone.)

This a.m., 6/30, pH-7.2, and TA-90. Now plan to shock to 15 ppm CL(CYA is about 36). Plan to use Dichlor to start and switch to bleach after getting CL up.
Have some Leslie's Chlor-Brite which claims to be 99% dichlor, but not any CYA indicated. That's my plan unless someone has a better idea.

Thanks for all the help.

Jimwt

 

[JasonLion]

Chlor-Brite is indeed dichlor. It adds 9 ppm of CYA for every 10 ppm of chlorine.

 

[jimwt]

Thanks for the info. You'd think Leslie's would indicate the presence of CYA in their chemical ingredient list. Can stand a little increase in CYA anyway-now 38. I rechecked the pH & TA after adding 2 cups of Dichlor. pH is still at 7.2 & CL just at 0.5, but TA is up to 110. Don't really know why? Should I go back to adding acid? Or is 110 which seems to be in the upper preferred range of TA. Is it OK to add acid and continue with the shock program at the same time?

Note: Instructions on the Dichlor bucket give treating amounts in oz. I assume they mean dry weight oz. Not having a scale, I wonder how a cup of dry dichlor in volume would equate in oz.? Can someone shed some light on that?

Thanks,
Jimwt

 

[JasonLion]

The conversion between weight oz and volume oz varies a little bit between different manufacturers, but you can get a fairly good estimate from my Pool Calculator, see the link in my signature.

 

[PaulR]

Thanks for the info. You'd think Leslie's would indicate the presence of CYA in their chemical ingredient list.

Technically it's not CYA until the stuff dissolves and the chlorine separates from the rest of it. You just have to know that dichlor and trichlor have this secondary effect. Sometimes it is advertised as "stabilized chlorine" meaning it's chemically combined with stabilizer; but that doesn't really tell you that the stabilizer never goes away.
--paulr

 

[jimwt]

Update: Things are going reasonably well with my pool now. I am using primarily bleach and acid to maintain FC and pH: however I'm using some trichlor tabs at the moment to keep FC up and to raise the CYA somewhat in hopes that I won't have to use so much bleach later.

Analysis: pH-7.8, TA-100, FC-2.5, CC-Tr, CH-300, CYA-25 to 30
Have some problems keeping pH down; after adding acid, it tends to walk
back up pretty rapidly. Adding acid is all I know to do.

Also have what appear to be metal stains according to Vit. C tabs, but will postpone remedying that situation until cooler weather which is what I noted as a recommendation in some other posts.

Appreciate all the help.

Jimwt

 

[PaulR]

Adding acid is basically all you need to do. Over time it will lower TA as well, which should help reduce the rate of pH rise.

Trichlor will also help, as it is acidic as well as adding FC and CYA. Pool Calc says you'll get about 1.5ppm CYA for each 8-oz tab. Given you're in West Texas, you can pretty well tolerate CYA up toward the 50-60 range, I would guess. That would be on the order of 15-20 tabs total (not all at once!).
--paulr

 

[jimwt]

Thanks for your comments. Will followup on recommendations.
jimwt