Your Advice Fixed the Cloudy Pool But now not sure if...

[Melzi]

Hi Your advice was great - I shocked our 20gallon underground pool twice and now have a crystal clear blue water pool. It has never been so algae free ever. I noticed that even between the tiles on the steps, it is clean.
My question is that I did a test, and the PH seems really high - 8.2 and the chlorine level is 3.0 or more. I test with PH phenol red drops and OTO chlorine test/bromine test. It is a plastic tester with different CL/BR and PH levels.

Do I carry on now putting the regular amount of chlorine everyday, or do i have to get that PH down first?

thanks for your help

Melzy

[chem geek]

You should really get a better test kit, either the Taylor K-2006 you can get at a good online price here or the TF100 kit from tftestkits.net here with the latter kit having 36% more volume of reagents so is less expensive per test.

You need to maintain a Free Chlorine (FC) level that has a target minimum of 7.5% of the Cyanuric Acid (CYA) level and never ever let it drop below 5% of the CYA level. That's how you can keep algae from growing without having to use a supplemental algaecide or phosphate remover (at extra cost).

Assuming that your chlorine and pH readings are accurate, then you need to lower the pH by using Muriatic Acid or possibly dry acid. Note that Muriatic Acid is strong and fuming. You can get the half-strength version (15%) that fumes less. Use The Pool Calculator to figure approximate dosing, but I'd add half the recommended amount and remeasure after an hour to see where you are at. Be sure to add acid VERY slowly over a return flow in the deep end with the pump running. For extra safety, lightly brush the side and bottom of the pool where you add the acid.

Richard