Frustrated With Pool Chemicals
by Jane
(Conroe TX)
I have a 24'x 24'round pool that holds 13,000 gallons of water above ground. Well, I am totally confused on what I am doing wrong.
I have 2 floating canisters of 3" in each 3" tabs floating around in pool. I have shocked then added muriatic acid then I get reading of chlorine too high and pH too high.
When I try to lower the pH with the acid then I lose my chlorine so I am playing this game over and over wasting so much chemicals. What am I doing wrong? Please help.
Also my total alkaline reads high also as in the highest number on a test strip and the pH is always up 8.2 and when chlorine is high it reads 5 10. I am so confused on this. It is making swimming to me a nightmare.
Thanks for the question Jane
Swimming is fun and taking chemicals is even fun (I've done it thousands of times) but we need to start from the beginning. First, I'd like to have the rest of your chemical readings: CYA (cyanuric acid/stabilizer), Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, Metals (iron and copper), Total Dissolved Solids. It makes troubleshooting much easier and the process of clearing up your pool will go much faster. You can get this done at your local pool store. Without these numbers I'm just guessing at what the problem is.
Next, you need to get a good test kit and lose the strips. Yes, they're more convenient, but you want accuracy. I'd advise you to get a Taylor FAS-DPD K-2006 pool test kit.
What I have in terms of readings is the chlorine is between 5 - 10ppm and the pH
is 8.2ppm. The reason that you're losing your chlorine may not have anything to do with adding acid. This is where the stabilizer (CYA) comes in. It might be too high or too low. A good range is between 30 - 50ppm.
You can have it high, but the chlorine must increase in proportion to the CYA. You wan't to keep the pool chlorine at 7.5% of your CYA level. Your CYA might be at 100ppm, but the chlorine is at 5ppm. This isn't a good fit. You can have the CYA at 100, but the FC needs to be increased to 7 - 8ppm. You can decrease the pH using acid. Broadcast it around the perimeter of the deep end with the pump on.
Allow for 1 full turnover of the water (normally about 8 hours) then retest and make another adjustment.
16oz. of acid will reduce the pH .2ppm per every 10,000 gallons of water.
Reducing the pH is the only thing that I'm comfortable telling you to do right now, until I have the other readings. If you're using granular chlorine, I'd tell you to stop, for two reasons. One, granular chlorine normally has a pH of 12, which means that the more you use the higher the pH will automatically go.
2nd, you probably have hard water in Texas. Granular has calcium and you don't want to add any more hardness to the pool. Use liquid chlorine or bleach. Get back to me with the other readings and we can go from there. We'll get your pool back to crystal clear perfection in no time.
Take a water sample to your local pool store for immediate results.
Robert