Question about balancing pH in new plaster

[Cindypantz]

Hello everyone!
I'm so grateful for having found this community because I am struggling. My Taylor 2006c kit came in a couple days ago and I have been trying to get my pH and chlorine under control with no real success. I think I'm going to have to do that thing where you bring the pH down to 7.2 and keep it there a few days (can't remember the acronym) but I have a question. The Pool Math app is telling me to add 40oz of MA. How quickly can I do that? The Pool Store has always told me to only add 11oz at a time, wait 4 hours, then add more and wait etc.

The Pebbletec is only a month old but the people I hired to redo the deck and pool messed up the balancing because a week after they added the chemicals, the deck people sealed up the pool for almost 2 weeks and told me not to run my pump because it would tear down the plastic. Well, the wind tore it down anyway and then all that concrete and dust and paint sat in my pool for 5 days before they cleaned it out.

This morning my tests showed:
FC: 2.5
CC: 0.5
pH: 8 or higher maybe
It took 3 drops of reagent for the acid demand test
ALK: 100ppm
CYA: looks just over 40ppm
CH: 250ppm

I added 18oz of MA before I went to work, came home just now and pH is still reading 8. I do have a waterfall feature that was running with the pump. Should I turn that off? Do I need to SLAM? What are the next best steps to take?

Thank you all in advance!
Edit: added 18oz of MA this morning not 180oz. Also, it appears the control for the waterfall is stuck so I can't disable that feature right now

 

[ajw22]

8 oz of 31% Ma will reduce your 6700 gallon pool pH by 0.3

You should not make pH changes of more then 0.3 at one time.

Add 8 oz of MA, stir in with your pool pole. and then retest after 15 minutes. Repeat the cycle until you test the pH in the 7's.

For CYA 40 your FC should be 5-7. Add liquid chlorine.

What is the pH and TA of your fill water?

You may have been thinking of ...

Lower Total Alkalinity

A lower Total Alkalinity level can help a pool owner stabalize their pH increase. We'll explain how to lower TA with a little help from muriatic acid.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Cindypantz]

8 oz of 31% Ma will reduce your 6700 gallon pool pH by 0.3

You should not make pH changes of more then 0.3 at one time.

Add 8 oz of MA, stir in with your pool pole. and then retest after 15 minutes. Repeat the cycle until you test the pH in the 7's.

For CYA 40 your FC should be 5-7. Add liquid chlorine.

What is the pH and TA of your fill water?

You may have been thinking of ...

Lower Total Alkalinity

A lower Total Alkalinity level can help a pool owner stabalize their pH increase. We'll explain how to lower TA with a little help from muriatic acid.

www.troublefreepool.com

I just tested, and my fill water TA is 140 and pH is solidly an 8.
Should I focus on chlorine before pH?

 

[ajw22]

I just tested, and my fill water TA is 140 and pH is solidly an 8.

That is going to make it difficult to keep your TA lower.

All you can do is add MA as necessary and take whatever TA you get.

Should I focus on chlorine before pH?

Add the dose of chlorine to raise your FC.

Then 15 minutes later you can work on the cycles of lowering your pH.

 

[Cindypantz]

That is going to make it difficult to keep your TA lower.

All you can do is add MA as necessary and take whatever TA you get.



Add the dose of chlorine to raise your FC.

Then 15 minutes later you can work on the cycles of lowering your pH.

Is it possible something is wrong with my test kit or I'm doing something wrong? Because I added 10oz of HA, tested 30 minutes later, and the pH is still matching with 8. But, if I dunk one of those cheap test strips in that I still have, the pH looks more like 7.6ish.

Thing is, I have added now 30oz of HA to the pool today and still not getting a reduction in pH.

I fill the tube with 40mL of pool water, add 5 drops of reagent, cap and turn over to mix, and then hold the sample up to natural light. I'm holding the bottle vertical, not squeezing too much... is this a technique thing maybe?

 

[ajw22]

Trash your test strips and don't let them confuse you.

You don't know how high your pH really is.

Just keep the cycle up and your pH will eventually come down into the 7's where youc an read it.

Your high TA is keeping your pH up. Check your TA every fourth cycle or so.

 

[an1vrsy]

What is the date on your Taylor R-004?

 

[Cindypantz]

What is the date on your Taylor R-004?

It's a brand new kit. The "best by" date is 08/23

 

[Cindypantz]

Trash your test strips and don't let them confuse you.

You don't know how high your pH really is.

Just keep the cycle up and your pH will eventually come down into the 7's where youc an read it.

Your high TA is keeping your pH up. Check your TA every fourth cycle or so.

Thank you so much for your advice and help! It took a lot of HA but I finally have the pH down to 7.6!

 

[ajw22]

Thank you so much for your advice and help! It took a lot of HA but I finally have the pH down to 7.6!