cloudy water

[poolmompa]

We took the mesh safety cover off of our pool Memorial Day weekend, only to find that the pump died. Finally had a new pump installed this past Monday & have been running the filter 24/7 since. Started with very dark green water. Since Monday, I've added 5 gallons of liquid chlorine twice & also superchlorinated with dichlor granular once, as well as having trichlor tabs in a floating container. It's been raining often for the past few days but I've also been brushing as often as I can. Right now, I have cloudy water that's mostly blue.

I do not have a Taylor 2006 (yet). I've been using a Taylor Deluxe DPD kit which I can use to test for chlorine, pH, & TA. I tested the water at 5:30p yesterday & here were the #s:

FC 0.5 / TC 1
pH around 7.0 (color seemed between 6.8 & 7.2)
TA 60

I did bring a water sample to the local pool store this afternoon so I could get a Stabilizer #. The reading they gave me for FC & pH seemed similar to mine from last night, which was nice to see since I've read on here that pool store reading are usually way off. This is a small local store & so far, I've received decent advice without trying to sell me add'l chemicals, so I'm hopeful. Here are the #s I got:

FC 0.0 / TC 0.3
pH 7.0
TA 85
Calcium Hardness 50 (although I have a vinyl liner & no heater so n/a)
Stabilizer 105
Phosphate 600

I got another 5 gallons of liquid chlorine & put it in as soon as I got home. That was the 2nd 5 gallon dose this week.

My questions are: 1) Is the Stabilizer level high? 2) Based on the Stabilizer level, how high do I need to get the chlorine?

I have an IG 18' x 36' vinyl liner pool. DE filter, 1 HP Hayward single speed Super Pump.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

[PoolDoc]

Your chlorine levels need to be set from the cl-cya page => http://pool9.net/cl-cya

[Watermom]

Your pH is also low. Use some 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle at Walmart) to bump it some.

[poolmompa]

Thank you PoolDoc & Watermom. I did pick up Borax this morning but I am a little confused. I've also read to use washing soda to raise pH so when do you use Borax & when is washing soda used? Is one used exclusively, meaning once you use Borax, you always use Borax?

Also, is 105 too high for CYA for my size pool? Should I discontinue using trichlor tabs? (I'm still shocking the water; today I used cal hypo)

[PoolDoc]

Borax raises pH without increasing your carbonate alkalinity. With your current readings, that's not a problem, so you can use washing soda (soda ash, pH UP) if you like

We tend to recommend bleach and borax, until we are really sure about a pool, since we don't have to worry about unwanted side effects with those two products.

[Watermom]

105 is a pretty high CYA reading but whether to stop trichlor or not depends on a few things:
-- How many tabs do you have left?
-- Are they wrapped or unwrapped tabs?

Read this: http://pool9.net/chem/store/