You want me to add how much?!

[Ripley716]

I opened my pool for the first time since closing in fall 2018. We had construction done and didn't know to add a few floaters so it's been 2 years with no chlorine.

I was able to clean it from black to sparkling blue in 3 days thanks to my previous knowledge of this pool ... and 16 gallons of shock. I have been maintaining my free chlorine and testing with test strips....until today when my TF-100 finally arrived - I went full nerd with the magnetic stirrer too.

FC = 4
TA = 20
CYA = 0
pH = 6.8
CH = 100

The pool looks beautiful! Not cloudy, not a bit of algae! But the chemistry says differently.

Here's the amount of chemical that I supposedly need to add and I'm scared!

6 lbs of Borax
22 lbs of baking soda
1 gallon 2 quarts 2 cups of Liquid Stabilizer

Should I blindly trust the app and just add that much chemical or add half and retest?

 

[Leebo]

You should never blindly trust anything. Always look for the reasoning behind the scenes. That said, I’m glad your attention was caught, as your numbers are possibly damaging equipment.

For starters I’ve gotta ask, how have you been chlorinating the water?

 

[Richard320]

I see more like 15 lbs of baking soda. If you get it in 5 lb bags, buy 3. If it's 4 lb bags, throw in 4. It doesn't have to be exact. It will raise TA and probably raise pH some too. Give it half an hour to mix, at least, with some brushing, before rechecking pH and TA and moving forward from there.

You want to do TA first because when it's real low, overdosing just a little on the pH adjustment can send it way over the target. And then when you try to lower it, it may go way under. Just wild swings. So fix TA first.

If the pH still needs adjusting, aim low. It's easy to add more, but you don't want to go too far over or you'll just be adding acid right away.

CYA: use the granular. Much cheaper. 8.5 lbs. Use the sock method described in Recommended Pool Chemicals - Trouble Free Pool

 

[Ripley716]

You should never blindly trust anything. Always look for the reasoning behind the scenes. That said, I’m glad your attention was caught, as your numbers are possibly damaging equipment.

For starters I’ve gotta ask, how have you been chlorinating the water?

I used 16 gallons of shock over 2 weeks - at one point my strip showed zero chlorine.
since 5/11 I have pucks in 2 floaters and 1 gallon of chlorine.

 

[Leebo]

Have you frequently used pucks, granular chlorine or anything like that in the last? I ask as the pH and TA are kinda weird for a pool with such low CYA?

 

[Newdude]

25k gallons is alot and will need more additives. Blindly trusting anything is never a good idea, but with a simple double check, It’s probably right. Mine is 35k gallons and I opened to a swamp the other day. I dumped over half of it to get a good head start on fixing the rest. But when it came time to balance all that fill water and treat the rest that was diluted from off season rain............ Eeeeek......... 24 lbs of baking soda, 4 lbs of borax, 15 lbs of CYA (only 5 lbs in, it takes time), 440 lbs of salt.