Screwed it up, HELP

[Cisco6]

Hi everyone, new pool owner here. I had EVERYTHING perfect in the pool, all my numbers were spot on.
I started using dry (Clorox) acid about 2 weeks ago and I one night I accidentally poured a whole bag of stabilizer (Clorox), mixed it and poured it in the pool. I realized my screw up because the bags look exactly the same.
Fast forward to today. I’m not sure exactly how much water I’ve drained (27k pool) but it was a good 20 hours on a 1/3 submersible in the deep end while pumping fresh water on the shallow end. Before all this cya was 66, now I can’t get PH to stay down, my chlorine is high, there’s no pucks in the in line because I didn’t want more cya in the pool. Chlorine isn’t going down and starting to see some algae. Here’s my readings, using TFpro and Leslie’s (I know I know). Speak to me in small words, pool is 3 months old and I’m new to all this . In ground plaster pool, 6’ deep. These are my tfpro readings as of 10/21/22:

Cya 80
Fc 11
Ph 8.2
No CC
Alkalinity 120
CH 375

 

[Jimrahbe]

6,

A whole bag of stabilizer does not tell us much. Was it a 4 lb bag or a 500 lb bag?

Looking at your pool store numbers, I don't see the issue???

Why would you go to Leslies, who probably sold you the dry acid, in the first place.

What do the readings from your TF-Pro show??

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Cisco6]

6,

A whole bag of stabilizer does not tell us much. Was it a 4 lb bag or a 500 lb bag?

Looking at your pool store numbers, I don't see the issue???

Why would you go to Leslies, who probably sold you the dry acid, in the first place.

What do the readings from your TF-Pro show??

Thanks,

Jim R.

It was a 4lb bag, I’ve always used liquid acid but my neighbor loves the dry and I got some from Amazon. Not a fan so I now switched back to liquid. I went to Leslie’s to basically get a 2nd reading on my numbers from the TF Pro and they’re pretty spot, my cya was about 70 on TF. Biggest problem I’m having now is the chlorine levels are still very high on my TF test, extremely yellow. PH is 8 still. I just dropped 96ozs of liquid Muriatic last night, got down to 7.2 and now it’s shot back to 8. Can’t keep it down

 

[ajw22]

my neighbor loves the dry

Share with your neighbor that dry acid is sodium bisulfate. After dissociation of the acid salt, it leaves behind the sulfate ion.

Problems sulfates can cause include:

• Sulfates can damage concrete & plaster
• Excess sulfates in water increases the likelihood of corrosion on metal parts
• Excess sulfates in splash out water leads to degradation of any concrete surfaces
• Sulfates degrade the coatings on SWG plates
• At high enough concentrations, sulfates can react with calcium to form spindly, needle-like crystals of calcium sulfate (gypsum)
• While sulfates in vinyl pools is typically not as problematic as in plaster pools, scaling of gypsum crystals can increase the risk of liner puncture.

Sulfates can only be removed by draining water.

Acid - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[aussieta]

please only list the tfpro results and place the leslies results in the bin
if your cya is 80 (73 rounded up) you should be targeting at least 10 on the fc
the quick chlorine color test is not for this purpose, follow the full free chlorine test and list the number
be aware ph reads false high when free chlorine is above 10
i dont know how your ph got so high as that much stabilizer would have dropped ph by 0.5

 

[Cisco6]

please only list the tfpro results and place the leslies results in the bin
if your cya is 80 (73 rounded up) you should be targeting at least 10 on the fc
the quick chlorine color test is not for this purpose, follow the full free chlorine test and list the number
be aware ph reads false high when free chlorine is above 10
i dont know how your ph got so high as that much stabilizer would have dropped ph by 0.5

Sorry again, new to all this. These are the numbers from my tfpro right now:
Cya 80
Fc 11
Ph 8.2
No CC
Alkalinity 120
CH 375

 

[Jimrahbe]

6,

About a year ago, like an idiot, I added a lb. of CYA to my standalone spa, instead of oz. like I should have. My pH went so low it was yellow..

I too do not understand why your pH has gone up, instead of down.

I think you have a test issue, or we don't know the whole story. Are you sure that you added CYA? What else did you add?? Some kind of Pool Store 'magic" maybe???

How are you measuring your pH?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Cisco6]

6,

About a year ago, like an idiot, I added a lb. of CYA to my standalone spa, instead of oz. like I should have. My pH went so low it was yellow..

I too do not understand why your pH has gone up, instead of down.

I think you have a test issue, or we don't know the whole story. Are you sure that you added CYA? What else did you add?? Some kind of Pool Store 'magic" maybe???

How are you measuring your pH?

Thanks,

Jim R.

No, like stated before. I was using tabs for my chlorine and everything was perfect. It’s a brand new pool so the tabs wouldn’t have driven the cya high yet. I only added Shock/liquid acid, EVERYTHING was 100 perfect perfect and had it down to only adding a little acid a couple times a week, shock once a week. There’s literally nothing else to the story. I have done test on my tfpro MULTIPLE times and it’s always the same. Everything got screwed up when I added the cya stuff my accident.

 

[Flying Tivo]

Most probably your FC was higher and ph test reads false high. You can wait to test again when fc is below 10 and test ph again.

 

[aussieta]

the alkalinity at 120 will be causing a constant ph rise
as your fc is above 10, dont worry about ph for now
only add enough acid to bring ph down to 7.8
going forward, target ph to 7.8, add acid when ph over 8.0
ph rises quickly the lower you take it
ie from 7.2 to 7.5 will be very quick
7.7 to 8.0 nowhere near as quick

 

[Cisco6]

Share with your neighbor that dry acid is sodium bisulfate. After dissociation of the acid salt, it leaves behind the sulfate ion.

Problems sulfates can cause include:

• Sulfates can damage concrete & plaster
• Excess sulfates in water increases the likelihood of corrosion on metal parts
• Excess sulfates in splash out water leads to degradation of any concrete surfaces
• Sulfates degrade the coatings on SWG plates
• At high enough concentrations, sulfates can react with calcium to form spindly, needle-like crystals of calcium sulfate (gypsum)
• While sulfates in vinyl pools is typically not as problematic as in plaster pools, scaling of gypsum crystals can increase the risk of liner puncture.

Sulfates can only be removed by draining water.

Acid - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Thank you! Shared it with him. Good thing I stopped using it and sticking to the liquid

 

[Mdragger88]

As others have mentioned- your fc isn’t high for your current cya level - it’s actually about target range FC/CYA Levels
Anywhere between minimum & slam level for your cya is fine.
If you have visible algae as you mentioned you should do the SLAM Process with liquid chlorine. It is easier to do at lower cya levels so you will have to decide if you want to exchange some more water to lower cya or proceed with your current level.
The Fc will fall if you don’t add any more & probably quite quickly if you have visible algae. When it gets below 10ppm recheck & adjust ph. Then begin the slam process with liquid chlorine.
Pucks aren’t recommended for daily chlorination because they add cya that doesn’t leave, before the accidental addition of cya you were already at the top of the recommended range for cya.
It was time to discontinue use of the pucks & switch to liquid chlorine anyway.
Not sure what “shock” you had been using but it either adds cya (trichlor/dichlor) or calcium (cal hypo) - neither of which your pool needs.
Here’s what every 8oz puck does in your pool volume

 

[PoolStored]

I too do not understand why your pH has gone up, instead of down.

I just dropped 96ozs of liquid Muriatic last night, got down to 7.2 and now it’s shot back to 8.

I think we can save you some aggravation and further problems if you slow down your actions just a hair.

Your pool is not in crisis. There is no need to do anything until you know exactly what you are doing, and why.

Do not add any more muriatic acid. When your FC is above about 10, the pH will read high. The test has chemicals to neutralize FC in the water up to about 10. If you have more than 10 FC the test is INVALID. It is likely that you didn't need to add any muriatic and your pH may, in fact be low.

Sorry again, new to all this. These are the numbers from my tfpro right now:
Cya 80
Fc 11
Ph 8.2
No CC
Alkalinity 120
CH 375

@Mdragger88 is spot on. Let your FC drop below 10. Then, and only then, test and adjust your pH. This is your first task.

I would recommend your second task is to exchange another 25% of your pool water. This will reduce your CYA to 60. You can slam with CYA of 80, but it will take a fair amount of additional bleach vs. a CYA of 60...and you may just be unsuccesful. Unless your water rates are really high, exchanging the water is the better route.

After your get your CYA down to 60, then you will follow this process to get rid of the algae. CLICK THIS LINK, print it out and read it three times and come back with any questions --> SLAM Process