roaree

We purchased the HTH kit and it helped a lot thanks. We were able to finally get an accurate pH reading. Unfortunately the CYA test did not shed any light because it never turned cloudy, which is integral to performing the test. My guess is that the level is over 100, the highest value on the cylinder, and that's why it didn't work at all. I saw an empty bottle of cell saver (for the SWG) in my mom's pool stuff and asked her about it. She forgot that she had added it. I looked to see if that's where the CYA could have come from, but it didn't show any ingredients on the bottle. I did see that it calls for using 16 oz in a 10,000 gallon pool, but my mom used all 32 oz. in a 4,400 gallon pool, so whatever is in it got added to the pool at 4x the correct amount. The pH came down to 7.2 so we are aerating now, but the alkalinity is still showing high, over 400 ppm. Added more acid overnight but the levels are still the same. The algae is getting bad, so we are going to move on to shocking it before it gets worse. I never knew fixing a pool would be so complicated, but this definitely drives the point home that an accurate test kit is going to save a lot of time and money. At least I am glad we got the pH to lower and knew which products to use to not make certain situations worse. Should be interesting to see how much chlorinating liquid it takes to bring it to a shock level, not knowing for sure what the CYA level is.

I completely agree and if it were my pool, I would wait and get the kit first. However my mom had a bottle of the super shock in hand this afternoon (Cal-Hypo I think) and was intending to use it if I didn't get started. So far I've added 80 oz of muriatic acid with no effects apparent on the test strips after 2 hours. I added about 80 oz more and turned off the pump for the night. (I was confused about whether the pump should run to circulate the acid or be off to not aerate during the first step of lowering TA) Will recheck in the morning. Is there an acceptable kit that I can buy at Lowes or Walmart or OSH? I don't think my mom is going to put up with waiting for anything to come by mail, she is worried that the algae will get worse.

Really strange, we tested the well water and it shows the same reading for the CYA, so we decided not to do a partial drain/refill since it seems pointless. I'm going to try to balance the pH and chlorinate/shock based on the high CYA level. It may be closer to 100, hard to tell with these strips and their subtle colors. I'd like to get a better test kit, will check out the Taylor. My mom really wants to get going on this though before the algae gets worse, so I'm going to do the best I can with what I know.

Thanks chem geek! So very helpful!!! I'm not sure what to use for the aeration but I will search this forum to find out. I will test the well water for TA and CH, my hunch is that they will both be high. Is high CH a problem long term? Are there ways to lower the CH too?

Greetings, I have been reading the forum for about an hour looking for a solution to the problem in my mom's above ground, easy set pool. It's going crazy with algae and she wants to shock it but the chemistry is all out of norm. I think I have a plan, but would like to double check and get some advice. Here's the lowdown: Pool Type Intex easyset pool: 15'x4' 4440 gallons (though not quite full, maybe around 4000 gallons) SWG- intex brand (I think, it's from Walmart) Levels CYA 150 TA >240 PH >8.4 FC 0 Hardness 1000 Salt 8.0- 6140ppm (I'm transcribing exactly how my mom sent the values, not sure what the two different values mean here, but it seems high nonetheless) edit: tested with HTH 6 in 1 test kit strips. Misc info She has the SWG running from 8pm-11pm nightly like the book recommends. We have very hard well water with high pH (our area has a lot of limestone) My mom runs a water softening unit that also uses salt and the water that filled the pool went through this first. edit: she has never added anything to it except for the initial salt as instructed by the SWG booklet. Tentative Plan- please advise 1. Lower the CYA level by draining part of the water and refilling (but what if the well water is high in CYA? Maybe I should test it?) Also how much to drain? 1/2? 2. Add an acid to bring down the alkalinity. Which product is best for very alkaline/high pH well-water? 3. Add an acid to bring down the pH. Isn't this redundant? Use same product? 4. Brush the pool. Seems self-explanatory. 5. Shock the pool. Which product do you advise for use with SWG? 6. Vacuum the pool. Advice on a vacuum for an AGP would be appreciated, we don't have one. Thanks in advance!