primo

I added the last 4 gallons of Bleach last night around midnight then tested water around 1:30 am with test strips and the OTO test kit (phenoylred & yellow) OTO test results @ 1:30am: Chlorine over 5+ and PH between 7.4 -7.5 Test strip test results @ 1:30am: PH: between 7.2 - 7.5 Alk: 120 Free Chlor: 10+ Tot Chlor: 10+ Hardness: 120 I tested water this morning @ 9AM with test strips and OTO here are my results OTO test results @ 9 am: Chlorine 3.5 PH: between 7.2 - 7.4 strip test results @ 9am: ph: between 7 - 7.2 alk: 120 free chlorine: 3 tot chlorine: 3 I took a water sample over to my pool store and they tested it @ 9:45am and here are there results using BioGuards BioLab computerized water analysis: Current Ideal Temperature: 75 Saturation index: -0.6 ideal is -.3- +.3 TDS: 1400 ideal is <2500 CYA: 120 ideal is 30-200 tot Chlorine: 0.4 ideal is 1.5 - 3 free chlor: 0.4 ideal is 1.5 - 3 PH: 6.9 ideal is 7.4 - 7.6 tot alkal: 113 adj tot alkal: 77 ideal is 125 - 150 tot hardness: 325 ideal is 200 - 275 Notice what they are saying ideal ranges should be for adj tot alk 125 - 150 as Pool store water test printout is calling for the following: telling me to add 18.5 lbs of Balance Pak 100 saying tot alk is low. add 1 lb of balance pak 200 saying ph is too low. (the manager actually gave me a bottle of balance pak 200 at no charge when I questioned Borax! Manager agreed with EVERYTHING POOL and Spa Forum says! and told me not to worry about the tot alkalinity now but to just add the balance pak 200 after i questioned adj. tot alk and ph) What do you suggest now? Thanks for everyones help!

LOL!! Yes I just ordered the Taylor K-2006 test kit "FAS-DPD"!!! The Bleach is 6%. So, I just put in 8 gals bleach ... and waited 1 hr then i tested water with strips ( yeah the strips & my eyes!) and i get: Hardness: between 150 and 200 Tot Chlorine: 10+ Free Chlorine 10+ (finally!! i cant beleive these eyes!) Alk: looks to be around 120 PH 7.5 or lower I am gonna wait a bit then test.... add the last 4 gallons and test once more before bed Then in the morning i will test myself and have tested (to compare) whilst i wait patiently for the Taylor K-2006 test kit!

Thank you all for the help! I just picked up amonia test kit and tested the water for amonia...and there is no amonia present! some good news! Also, i tested the water myself with a simple test kit PH and Chlorine (phenol red and ortho-yellow) Using my wife's eyes the chlorine is 3.5 and the PH is 7.2....I purchased 12 gallons of liquid bleach today and want to know if it is ok to dump it all in the water tonite?

Ph is 7. Should I also add liquid bleach? Free chlorine is still 0.

Should I add the balance pak 100? Please advise. Thanks!

Thanks for your help Chem geek, I added the 8 gallons of liquid chlorine last night around 10 pm. I tested water this morning around 9 am. (ran filter all night). So, the test was NOT done right after adding the liquid chlorine. Hope this helps! I will test water for amonia and post results tomorrow. Should I be concerned with TOT ALK: 107 ADJ TOT. ALK: 69 ?? Pool company reccommends adding 16 lbs of Balance Pak 100. Won't do it unless PoolSpaForum.com says so! Please advise. Thanks for your reply

Well...I added 4 of the one gallon bottles of the liquid chlorine last night and left filter running all night and had the water tested this morning. Here are the results: TDS: 1400 CYA: 120 Toal Chlorine: 4.7 FREE CHLORINE: STILL 0 PH: 7 Tot. Alk: 144 Adj. Alk: 108 Tot Hardness: 285 I justed added 2.5 lbs of PH increaser and filter is still running. I have 8 more one gallon bottles of liquid chlorine...SHOULD I ADD ALL 8 GALLONS TONIGHT? Eventually, I want to be able to put in my Nature 2 cartridge but free chlorine is still zero. Please advise. Thanks! Thanks for your reply Gavin The water was tested at pool store. I just put in 8 gallons of liquid chlorine in...and will check the water tomorrow morning. are you sure FC is 0? what test kit are you using. what is your CC? if you have CC then shock with what I suggest below. otherwise just add the 8 gallons of 6% bleach tonight and check FC in the morning. pour the gallons around the edge of the pool slowly. your CYA is pretty high but if FC is 0 I would add 15 gallons of 6% bleach. that would raise FC to around 39ppm ..give it a good shock and then you could let the FC come down to around 10 or more. you need to keep at least 10ppm of FC in your pool with a CYA of 120. I am getting very aggravated!! Last night I added the 8 gallons of liquid chlorine and I just had water tested this morning and the results are: Saturation Index -0.6 TDS: 1400 CYA: 128 Total Cholorine: 0.5 What the phuck! Free Chlorine: STILL PHUCKING 0 ZERO! WHAT THE PHUCK!! ph: 7 TOT ALK: 107 ADJ TOT. ALK: 69 TOT HARDNESS 335 SALT: N/A (I AM THINKING OF CONVERTING TO SALT AS I AM GETTING PHUCKING SICK OF THIS!) POOL PLACE IS TELLING ME TO ADD 16 LBS OF BALANCE PAK 100 AS ALKALINITY IS LOW (AGAIN?? WTF!!!???) I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING UNTIL I HERE FROM SOMEONE WHO CAN FINALLY HELP ME. I AM TIRED OF THE POOL PLACE TELLING ME EVERYONE IS HAVING SAME PROBLEMS! WTF! I CANT AFFORD TO DUMP MY WEEKLY PAYCHECK ON POOL CHEMICALS AND THEY ARE NOT DOING A DAMN THING! I AM READY TO CLOSE THE DAMN POOL AND FILL IT AND GROW MY LAWN BACK! PLEASE HELP! you need your own test kit. that is impossible to have 0 free chlorine after adding 8 gallons of bleach. my guess since you say your pool is clear is the pool place is not testing right. get a Taylor K2006 or even better a TFT test kit... http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html one other thought...are you sure your pool is 24,000 gallons? Thanks for your quick reply Gavin, Yes pool is 24,000 gallons. I agree it is impossible to have 0 free chlorine when i added 8 gallons of liquid chlorine (more potent than the bleach). I am terrible with test kits...confusing and i consider myself colorblind..HA! I never had a free chlorine problem last this long and i have had the pool for six years. Could there be a problem with the chlorine feeder??? I think it is working as the 3" tablets are going down and i am filling with more tablets...I even turned it all the way up. WTF!??

Well...I added 4 of the one gallon bottles of the liquid chlorine last night and left filter running all night and had the water tested this morning. Here are the results: TDS: 1400 CYA: 120 Toal Chlorine: 4.7 FREE CHLORINE: STILL 0 PH: 7 Tot. Alk: 144 Adj. Alk: 108 Tot Hardness: 285 I justed added 2.5 lbs of PH increaser and filter is still running. I have 8 more one gallon bottles of liquid chlorine...SHOULD I ADD ALL 8 GALLONS TONIGHT? Eventually, I want to be able to put in my Nature 2 cartridge but free chlorine is still zero. Please advise. Thanks! Thanks for your reply Gavin The water was tested at pool store. I just put in 8 gallons of liquid chlorine in...and will check the water tomorrow morning. are you sure FC is 0? what test kit are you using. what is your CC? if you have CC then shock with what I suggest below. otherwise just add the 8 gallons of 6% bleach tonight and check FC in the morning. pour the gallons around the edge of the pool slowly. your CYA is pretty high but if FC is 0 I would add 15 gallons of 6% bleach. that would raise FC to around 39ppm ..give it a good shock and then you could let the FC come down to around 10 or more. you need to keep at least 10ppm of FC in your pool with a CYA of 120. I am getting very aggravated!! Last night I added the 8 gallons of liquid chlorine and I just had water tested this morning and the results are: Saturation Index -0.6 TDS: 1400 CYA: 128 Total Cholorine: 0.5 What the phuck! Free Chlorine: STILL PHUCKING 0 ZERO! WHAT THE PHUCK!! ph: 7 TOT ALK: 107 ADJ TOT. ALK: 69 TOT HARDNESS 335 SALT: N/A (I AM THINKING OF CONVERTING TO SALT AS I AM GETTING PHUCKING SICK OF THIS!) POOL PLACE IS TELLING ME TO ADD 16 LBS OF BALANCE PAK 100 AS ALKALINITY IS LOW (AGAIN?? WTF!!!???) I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING UNTIL I HERE FROM SOMEONE WHO CAN FINALLY HELP ME. I AM TIRED OF THE POOL PLACE TELLING ME EVERYONE IS HAVING SAME PROBLEMS! WTF! I CANT AFFORD TO DUMP MY WEEKLY PAYCHECK ON POOL CHEMICALS AND THEY ARE NOT DOING A DAMN THING! I AM READY TO CLOSE THE DAMN POOL AND FILL IT AND GROW MY LAWN BACK! PLEASE HELP!

Well...I added 4 of the one gallon bottles of the liquid chlorine last night and left filter running all night and had the water tested this morning. Here are the results: TDS: 1400 CYA: 120 Toal Chlorine: 4.7 FREE CHLORINE: STILL 0 PH: 7 Tot. Alk: 144 Adj. Alk: 108 Tot Hardness: 285 I justed added 2.5 lbs of PH increaser and filter is still running. I have 8 more one gallon bottles of liquid chlorine...SHOULD I ADD ALL 8 GALLONS TONIGHT? Eventually, I want to be able to put in my Nature 2 cartridge but free chlorine is still zero. Please advise. Thanks! Thanks for your reply Gavin The water was tested at pool store. I just put in 8 gallons of liquid chlorine in...and will check the water tomorrow morning. are you sure FC is 0? what test kit are you using. what is your CC? if you have CC then shock with what I suggest below. otherwise just add the 8 gallons of 6% bleach tonight and check FC in the morning. pour the gallons around the edge of the pool slowly. your CYA is pretty high but if FC is 0 I would add 15 gallons of 6% bleach. that would raise FC to around 39ppm ..give it a good shock and then you could let the FC come down to around 10 or more. you need to keep at least 10ppm of FC in your pool with a CYA of 120.

Well...I added 4 of the one gallon bottles of the liquid chlorine last night and left filter running all night and had the water tested this morning. Here are the results: TDS: 1400 CYA: 120 Toal Chlorine: 4.7 FREE CHLORINE: STILL 0 PH: 7 Tot. Alk: 144 Adj. Alk: 108 Tot Hardness: 285 I justed added 2.5 lbs of PH increaser and filter is still running. I have 8 more one gallon bottles of liquid chlorine...SHOULD I ADD ALL 8 GALLONS TONIGHT? Eventually, I want to be able to put in my Nature 2 cartridge but free chlorine is still zero. Please advise. Thanks!

Thanks again Paul... Do you reccommend putting in all 4 gallons of the liquid chlorine at once?

Good Morning everyone! Just wanted to follow up on my pool water. I only added the liquid bleach last night (I put in 3 of the 60 ounze bottles of regular clorox bleach). I just tested the water now and the readings are as follows: Temperature is 78, Saturation index -0.1, TDS 1200, CYA 76, Tot Chlorine 2.9, Free Chlorine still 0, PH 7.3, Tot Alkalinity 136, Adj. Total Alk 113, Tot Hardness 236 Free chlorine is still zero The water looks excellent is clear and sparkling blue I have a case of liquid chlorine(4- 1 gallon bottles)that I can put in the pool if you say so. Also, I want to be able to eventually use my Nature 2 cartridge when the chlorine level is ok. I have been using Nature 2 the last several seasons and it is really great! The chlorine levels can be kept lower by using the Nature 2. What do you suggest? Thanks for all your help!

The water looks great! Sparkling blue! We are getting rain today So I will add the bottle of bleach tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks polyvue but I already added 10 lbs of Balance Pak 100. I also added 4 lbs of the super soluble. What do you suggest now? Thanks again.

Thanks Paul...I am adding Balance Pak 100 because total akalinity is low. In fact I just had water tested again this morning and need to add 10 lbs more of Balance Pak 100 ( added 8 lbs Balance Pak 100 yesterday) as the tot akalinity today is 123, Adj. Tot Alk is 78, CYA is 151, Tot Cholorine is 1.4, FREE Chlorine is still 0, PH is 7.3 I was told to add 4 lbs of BioGuard's Super Soluble (FAST Dissolving Di-Chloro Granules ( 97% active ingredients!)Was told that this is better and will take care of the free chlorine. I have been using the Bioguard Pool Magnet (upon pool opening)for the past six years. Was reccommended because I have large boulder waterfall as part of the pool (this helps take out the metals in the water and has been very effective). If your CYA is significantly over 80 PPM it's usually advisable to drain some of the pool water. Dichlor will add to your already over-abundant CYA and make it nearly impossible to effectively shock the water. The Total Alkalinity (TA) is high enough and would not recommend additional dosing with Balance Pak (sodium bicarbonate). Clearly you DO need to shock, because you have no FC but you do have elevated CC. I'm in total agreement with Paul.

Thanks Paul...I am adding Balance Pak 100 because total akalinity is low. In fact I just had water tested again this morning and need to add 10 lbs more of Balance Pak 100 ( added 8 lbs Balance Pak 100 yesterday) as the tot akalinity today is 123, Adj. Tot Alk is 78, CYA is 151, Tot Cholorine is 1.4, FREE Chlorine is still 0, PH is 7.3 I was told to add 4 lbs of BioGuard's Super Soluble (FAST Dissolving Di-Chloro Granules ( 97% active ingredients!)Was told that this is better and will take care of the free chlorine. I have been using the Bioguard Pool Magnet (upon pool opening)for the past six years. Was reccommended because I have large boulder waterfall as part of the pool (this helps take out the metals in the water and has been very effective). If your CYA is significantly over 80 PPM it's usually advisable to drain some of the pool water. Dichlor will add to your already over-abundant CYA and make it nearly impossible to effectively shock the water. The Total Alkalinity (TA) is high enough and would not recommend additional dosing with Balance Pak (sodium bicarbonate). Clearly you DO need to shock, because you have no FC but you do have elevated CC. I'm in total agreement with Paul.

Thanks Paul...I am adding Balance Pak 100 because total akalinity is low. In fact I just had water tested again this morning and need to add 10 lbs more of Balance Pak 100 ( added 8 lbs Balance Pak 100 yesterday) as the tot akalinity today is 123, Adj. Tot Alk is 78, CYA is 151, Tot Cholorine is 1.4, FREE Chlorine is still 0, PH is 7.3 I was told to add 4 lbs of BioGuard's Super Soluble (FAST Dissolving Di-Chloro Granules ( 97% active ingredients!)Was told that this is better and will take care of the free chlorine. I have been using the Bioguard Pool Magnet (upon pool opening)for the past six years. Was reccommended because I have large boulder waterfall as part of the pool (this helps take out the metals in the water and has been very effective).

I am new to this forum. I opened my 6 year old hydrazzo finish, DE filter, 24,000 gallon pool on may 26, 2010 Removed solid cover & water was little cloudy and slight green with some leaves on bottom (alot of trees around property. I cleaned pool and put in the usual pool magnet 2 bottles...waited two days then had water tested by my pool builder..readings were CYA 93, Total chlorine 1.3, free chlorine 0, ph 8, tot alk 192, adj tot alk 164, tot hardness 215. They had me add 5.75 lbs of Lo n slo, wait 30 minutes then add 3 bags of Burn-out extreme at night and initial dose of 32oz of algaecide all-60. Had water tested on June 7, 2010 by pool builder...readings were CYA 98, tot chlorine 1.5, free chlorine 0, ph 7.8 tot alk 127, adj tot alk 98 tot hardness 230. They had me add 10.5 lbs of balance pak 100...wait 30 minutes then add 4 bags of burn-out extreme at night and the weekly dose of 10-12 oz of the all-60 algaecide. Had the water tested today, June 10, 2010 and the readings were: CYA 86, tot chlorine 3.6, FREE CHLORINE 0, ph 7.4, tot alk 94,adj tot alk 68, tot hardness 247. Pool company told me to add 8 lbs of Balance Pak 100 and have the water tested again on Sunday, June 13th and to NOT SHOCK until tested. Pool Company said that everybody is having problems with free chlorine this season probably due to the extreme weather changes we have been getting the past month (cold than very hot, then cold then very hot). Any suggestions? Is it safe for kids to swim in the meantime?? Thanks for your help! P.S. I have been running the filter 24 hours a day 7 days a week since pool was opened on May 26th.