New to TFP - need to balance my pool chemistry

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cassiemooney

New member
May 29, 2023
4
San Diego, CA
Good morning! Recently a friend told me about how he has been using your site to keep his pool well balanced and maintained - so I have been trying to learn how to get my pool chemicals adjusted using the method described here. We have had a few issues with our pool - first of all I live in Mexico and we had our pool built a year ago by a company that we have since heard from others is not that reputable. We also let the pool go without keeping the chemicals up while building the surrounding patio - so that was definitely our fault - and we had a lot of algae. We have since had the pool serviced and up to this point we were using the Tri-Chlor chlorine - as well as shock. But I bought the Taylor 2600 test kit and just ran the numbers for the first time. We are past due for adding chlorine - but I wanted to see what else I need to adjust before adding chlorine. Thanks for your help and understanding - I am a complete newbee to pool care, but really want to learn how to take care of it ourselves. Here are my readings:

Pool size: 12.500 gallons
Free chlorine - 1 ppm
PH: 8.0
Acid demand - I need help with this one - it took 6 drops to bring the PH down to 7.4 - so according to table E in the booklet we should add 1.72 quarts + 2.2 fl ounces of muriatic acid.
Alkalinity: 150 ppm
Calcium Hardness: This came out super high - it took 32 drops to change the color to blue so that means it is 320
CYA: 100

We use well water in our pool - and we are in a rural environment (24 acre property) with organic matter getting into the pool (seeds blowing in) - and dirt blowing in. We are going to landscape more around the pool to try to cut back what blows in, but meanwhile we are using the net to skim the pool twice a day, and running our filter 6 hours per day.

We have seen a lot staining just recently - and when we had the pool serviced, the service man said he couldn't get it off with our brush - which is mostly plastic with some steel bristles. I just ordered a totally steel brush to try to get that off. I'm attaching a photo of the stains.

So my questions are: How to balance the chemicals in the pool? What do we do about the calcium hardness? Do we need to drain? Is there a way to get rid of the stains? Any other counsel? Thank you so much!IMG_2014.jpg
 
Welcome to the forum!
Your location indicates San Diego. Is the pool in San Diego?
The stains appear to be metals. See Stains in Your Pool
Only way to reduce calcium hardness is to drain the pool and replace with water with less calcium hardness. Those of us in high CH water areas use softened water for our pools.
Use PoolMath for chemical additions.
You need chlorine. Alot. See Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship Explained
Do a dilution of your CYA for test. 1:1 pool water and tap water. Mix well. Use that for your test. Double the result.
I suggest you read through Pool Care Basics - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool
 
mknauss said:
Welcome to the forum!
Your location indicates San Diego. Is the pool in San Diego?
The stains appear to be metals. See Stains in Your Pool
Only way to reduce calcium hardness is to drain the pool and replace with water with less calcium hardness. Those of us in high CH water areas use softened water for our pools.
Use PoolMath for chemical additions.
You need chlorine. Alot. See Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship Explained
Do a dilution of your CYA for test. 1:1 pool water and tap water. Mix well. Use that for your test. Double the result.
I suggest you read through Pool Care Basics - Trouble Free Pool and even look at a few of our videos TFP-TV - Trouble Free Pool
Click to expand...
Hi - thank you so much for the help! The pool is in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico - 1 hour south of San Diego. But I often use San Diego as my location because I go several times a month and can get supplies there. Thanks for the advice - I need to go through the classes for sure, and I'll do the diluted CYA test. We were using shock also which is how we probably got such a high level of CYA. Meanwhile I'm thinking to lower the PH with muriatic acid first - then add the chlorine. (Clorox) And then after diluted test we can drain and refill the pool. We use well water - and since we had such great rain last year, we can refill without an issue (well levels are high). Thanks!
 
cassiemooney said:
Hi - thank you so much for the help! The pool is in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico - 1 hour south of San Diego. But I often use San Diego as my location because I go several times a month and can get supplies there. Thanks for the advice - I need to go through the classes for sure, and I'll do the diluted CYA test. We were using shock also which is how we probably got such a high level of CYA. Meanwhile I'm thinking to lower the PH with muriatic acid first - then add the chlorine. (Clorox) And then after diluted test we can drain and refill the pool. We use well water - and since we had such great rain last year, we can refill without an issue (well levels are high). Thanks!
Click to expand...
Not totally drain - of course - just as much as needed
 
Just to be sure, you did a 25 ml sample when doing the CH test. Right?

How do you plan to chlorinate going forward?
 
cassiemooney said:
Yes I did the 25 ml - and going forward we want to use the TFP method with Clorox bleach. I'm not sure if it is there is a less expensive way to get the chlorine without the stabilizers?
Click to expand...
You can use the 10 ml test volume for CH. No need for that kind of accuracy. Surprised it is so low.

Cheapest chlorine is a SaltWater Chlorine Generator. Depending on if you have a VS pump (you show a SS = depending on electricity cost), and are willing to manage the chemistry.
 
Welcome! I am a somewhat newbie to owning a pool (2 years) so take what I say with that understanding. Our pool is an aggregate plaster finish, and anytime I have observed what appeared to be very stubborn staining (would not disappear with brushing or with direct acid application), once I was able to sustain chlorine at appropriate levels (3ppm or so), all the staining disappeared without requiring any brushing or any other treatment. I do also use GLB Sequa-Sol at recommended levels periodically to help prevent metal staining as well. Taking into account any of your other issues, if you feel the need to drain some of your pool, I would wait to add expensive chemicals like chlorine until after you refill the pool. We use a circupool core-35 SWG and it was super easy to maintain proper chlorine levels all last summer, so I too recommend a SWG, even with the high up front cost. Plus the water is much more comfortable without the chlorine smell and feel on the skin.
 
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