question about adding chemicals

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How high of a CYA were you shooting for? What was your level before you add 5 lbs? This is a critical number so you know how high to raise the FC for shocking. Hopefully you had a reason for adding 5 lbs ... that is the manta here ... only add what you KNOW your pool needs.

CH can not possibly be 0, but you do not need to deal with that right now.

pH needs to be brought down to the low-mid 7s before you start shocking (like now) as the pH reading is not accurate for FC > 10.

After the pH is adjusted, we need to figure out what CYA level you are going to end up at so we know what your shock level is.

If 80ppm (which is double what you want ... so maybe a 50% water change might be good before starting) your shock level is a FC of 21ppm.

Have you read these from Pool School yet:
pool-school/defeating_algae
pool-school/shocking_your_pool
 
I did that when I first started coming back to this site from the winter. It was one of the first things I read about and I decided I needed to take care of. Admittedly I didn't measure before because I knew I hadn't put any in last year so I assumed it was zero.

My mistake, it was only 3 pounds and I put that much in because the bottle said add 1 pond for every 4,000 gallon. I actually assumed that wouldn't be enough. Could it be reading that high because I just put it in 3 days ago? Please don't tell me I need to do a drain. Don't think I could take that!
 
I do not think it would read high ... usually it takes about a week to register at the full amount. CYA typically does not go away so you did not likely start at zero.

Was it liquid stabilizer or powder? Any details listed on the bottle?
I am trying to figure out how much 3 lbs would add ... does not seem like that much though. You may have only bumped it up by 10ppm.

Hopefully it will stay around 80-90ppm which is tolerable (although 30-50 need lower FC levels and is usually easier to handle).

You learned your lesson now right? Always test first and only add what the pool needs. :wink:

I would suggest dosing for a CYA level of 90ppm in a week or so if the level is still closer to 80 we can lower our target.

For 90ppm, your shock level is between 23 (poolcalculator) and 35 (pool school). Keeping it above 35 will be faster, but 23 is adequate. Have you used the poolcalculator yet? See my signature.
 
I put in a new liner last year do it was a fresh fill. I never added stabilizer because frankly I don't know what stabilizer was as it was my first year with a pool. This is really stressing me out. Is there no way I could start tomorrow? I've blocked off these 3 days just to work on this.
 
I really am not trying to go against what you're saying and I inderstand we need to know what my numbers look like. But ths stuff is really overwhelming me, and I'm afraid I'm gonna start losing my hair over this. I know that pool school says that begginer readings on cya are usually high, could that be what's going on. Apparently my CH is off too. ????
 
You're fine to start tomorrow. Can you post a photo of the "stabilizer" you added? I would suggest ONLY adding either liquid bleach, or liquid chlorine at this point however. You also may benefit from re-reading pool school and taking a deep breath before starting. It's gonna take a few days to weeks....but we're here for you! Add enough chlorine to reach a FC level of 21. Retest every hour and post your results here. Then add more bleach hourly to bump your FC levels back up to at least 21.

Deep breath....you'll be fine after 3 "shock cycles."
 
There is no reason you can not start shocking tomorrow ... we are just working out the details to give you a good plan. It is possible you are a little off on the CYA, maybe it is 70, maybe your read it well and it is 80, maybe the added stabilizer is not all in yet and it will rise to 90 ... the test is only good to +/- 10 anyway.

I was suggesting using the shock level for 90 so that you were covered ... you do not want to be too low. In reality, the shock level is not very different. CYA 70 = FC 20; CYA 90 = FC 23 ... not that different ... this is pool life ... not brain surgery ... its Magaritaville :mrgreen:
 

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gcates said:
Mostly 3 inch tablets. And I shocked it every week to two weeks. And as I'm typing that I'm remembering that I read earlier that tablets had cya in them!!!

Also sorry about the typos. I'm on my phone at choir practice.
Click to expand...


BINGO ... tablets have CYA in them ... that is why you are reading so high ... and also why you do NOT want to continue to use the tablets and stick to liquid chlorine/bleach.
 
gcates said:
So does that mean that as the summer goes on and my water gets used and I replace it, that as long as I'm using liquid chlorine that my cya will start coming down?

Can I start tomorrow?
Click to expand...

Yes and Yes.

OK Here is a plan:
1. Measure your pH and FC levels
2. Adjust your pH to 7.5 (use the poolcalculator to determine how much acid to add)
3. Wait and hour and confirm your pH is where you wanted (pH test not valid when FC>10)
4. Add bleach to reach a FC level of 23+ (based on poolcalculator)
5. Wait about an hour
6. Measure FC
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until you pass the 3 tests in the Pool School Shocking Article (this may take days or weeks)

Going over 23 is fine ... in fact to start you may want to go higher as the goal is to keep the FC level > 23
After a few hours, the FC should not drop as quickly (especially overnight) and you can extend the time between FC adjustments.

Notes about poolcalulator.com:
Be sure to enter your pool size at the top, and pick TroubleFreePool, Bleach, and Vinyl at the bottom.

And please add pictures of your progress :goodjob:
 
Well, I am not sure what make is "green" ... like are there other ingredient in it that we do not want in our pool? Or is the concentration just lower?

{EDIT ... I would not use it, looking at the labels I can not even find the concentration}

You do want muriatic acid and verify the concentration so you know how much to use based on the poolcalculator.

You can find it at HD / Lowes / pool store / etc. Sometimes HD has different concentrations in different locations in the store.

You NEVER want to mix the muriatic acid and chlorine together ... store them separately as well ... bad things happen.

When you add them to the pool, you just have to wait an hour or so between adding the acid and bleach.
 
That appears to be lesser strength acid so it'll take more of it. The msds lists hcl as the only ingredient at less than 25%. While you should never mix acid and bleach directly it's fine to use them in the pool with several minutes between additions.
 
Thanks for all the info!! Also, just got a text from my pool guy, and he said he added some shock to the pool today. I'm guessing granulars because of what he's recommended to me in the past, plus it looked like there were little small whit flakes floating.

Also to the guy. That asked me to take a pic of the stabilizer Im not ignoring you, but I wasn't at home when you asked. Don't know if it matters now, but I'll try to do that now.
 

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