Friday I wa called to help on a relative's pool that was way out of whack. Pool is about 27k gal ig vinyl with sand filter. Located in Nebraska. Had complaints of water burning eyes and someone got some kind of rash. I guess the doc said rash was from bacteria in the pool. Took my tf100 and started troubleshooting.
Water was perfectly clear but I knew the chlorine usage was all granular or pucks. No consistent testing of the pool either. Water probably hasn't been tested in a couple years. Just keeping pucks in skimmer and floater and dumping in a bag of dichlor after usage.Grabbed a sample of water and dipped my ph tester in. It read 1.3. No way not possible. I didn't have my ph drop test because I don't normally use it. Grabbed some test strips because I didn't believe the ph.

Ph pad turned bright yellow. No hint of red at all. Right strip is pool left is tap water.
Cya was way high. Did 50% diluted test and still over 100. So cya is 200 plus. FC was 0.5 so add 2 gall of 12.5 bleach while refilling.
Got about 9000 gallons water replaced with drain and refill. Couldn't convince owner to swap more water.
Started dumping in alka plus. Cheapest form of sodium carbonate I could find. Water starts turning blue. I wish I would have taken pictures. Could this be metals? I guess it now has "gray dust" settling on the bottom. I will looking at it and testing the water again tomorrow.
Cya is still way too high. Don't think I'm going to be able to convince further water replacement this summer. Plans in place to do so as part of the winterization and spring opening process.
Tested water on Saturday after the overnight refill. Ph still testing in the upper 5's. Added more soda.
FC was 1.5 dumped In two more gallons of 12.5 bleach. Told owner to put in 2 more gallons sunday
I will test again monday. I think this is going to turn into a swamp without dumping in 5 to 7 gallons of bleach daily with the high cya level. And just puzzled about the blue color change and the sediment.
There is an abandoned heater onsite that was disconnected a year or 2 ago because it started leaking. I'm guessing the ph had been low for a long time.
Is it possible there hasn't been any algae troubles the last year or so because of the low ph? Pickle juice won't grow algae or bacteria. That's about where this was at ph wise. Also think the rash may have been more of a chemical burn than a rash.
Loving my TFP pool!
Water was perfectly clear but I knew the chlorine usage was all granular or pucks. No consistent testing of the pool either. Water probably hasn't been tested in a couple years. Just keeping pucks in skimmer and floater and dumping in a bag of dichlor after usage.Grabbed a sample of water and dipped my ph tester in. It read 1.3. No way not possible. I didn't have my ph drop test because I don't normally use it. Grabbed some test strips because I didn't believe the ph.

Ph pad turned bright yellow. No hint of red at all. Right strip is pool left is tap water.
Cya was way high. Did 50% diluted test and still over 100. So cya is 200 plus. FC was 0.5 so add 2 gall of 12.5 bleach while refilling.
Got about 9000 gallons water replaced with drain and refill. Couldn't convince owner to swap more water.
Started dumping in alka plus. Cheapest form of sodium carbonate I could find. Water starts turning blue. I wish I would have taken pictures. Could this be metals? I guess it now has "gray dust" settling on the bottom. I will looking at it and testing the water again tomorrow.
Cya is still way too high. Don't think I'm going to be able to convince further water replacement this summer. Plans in place to do so as part of the winterization and spring opening process.
Tested water on Saturday after the overnight refill. Ph still testing in the upper 5's. Added more soda.
FC was 1.5 dumped In two more gallons of 12.5 bleach. Told owner to put in 2 more gallons sunday
I will test again monday. I think this is going to turn into a swamp without dumping in 5 to 7 gallons of bleach daily with the high cya level. And just puzzled about the blue color change and the sediment.
There is an abandoned heater onsite that was disconnected a year or 2 ago because it started leaking. I'm guessing the ph had been low for a long time.
Is it possible there hasn't been any algae troubles the last year or so because of the low ph? Pickle juice won't grow algae or bacteria. That's about where this was at ph wise. Also think the rash may have been more of a chemical burn than a rash.
Loving my TFP pool!