Pool Chemistry 101 : Swimming Pool Tips with Blake

[@guylll3]

I just started working at a pool company and have been running tests on Bioguard's Alex program. It does a great job of analyzing and printing out what the customer needs to balance the water in their pool or spa. The frustration to me has been not being able to understand WHY the chemicals are being recommended. This gives me a great spring board of information to help our customers in plain english. Keep the videos coming..Thanks!

[@jayparra8574]

Finally a chemistry teacher that keeps me intrigued...

[@Mrworlwad]

Short, sweet, lots of info covered

[@kalebblakeingram1781]

Vthank you for the video I am taking care of a 33,000 gallon swimming pool, and I live in Florida. So far the chemicals have confused me, especially when it rains and they go crazy, but now this has helped me clear things up!

[@RJ67.]

You are 100% correct about a low PH being acidic / and a high PH "is alkaline. "Basic" However, it is a low PH below 6.0, "7.0 being neutral" that starts to damage soft metals such as copper, brass, etc, While a high PH "above 7.0 being neutral" is alkaline.which in turn, is what irritates people's eyes & irritates more sensitive skin.

[@calcobra2188]

So an acidic pool doesn’t irritate more sensitive skin and the eyes?

[@User_92020]

The more acidic your pool is is what irritats the eyes and skin, in other words that's really low PH like less than 7.4

[@soniaspotts6406]

Thank you for helping me understand a little pool chemistry. I bought a small Intex pool this summer and didn't realize it would require a chemical balancing act. Your video helped me understand the chemistry as a recipe. Of course every baker has to consider all the variables that go into the end result.

[@brockconlon5339]

Super helpful. Thanks for the explanation!

[@mikeonhisbikes]

Wow - I finally understand it! Many thanks for this. Very helpful!

[@drdrew3]

Phosphates are worth checking periodically. If really high they can cause hard to treat problems

[@gregorylawrence5032]

Blake. You make it look so easy. What's the best chemical tester?

[@chardhin9185]

Thanks this was very useful as a new pool owner.

[@joseedostie-kodja5711]

Hello, we just got our pool, we didn’t add any chemicals yet, what do you do to start with?

[@austing2139]

this guy is my spirit animal

[@MFLuder-ru2bl]

Which one should I fix first, cya or chlorine?

[@JoseHernandez-kn4gg]

Some people say not to add shock to skimmer but some say that is the way to do it... What’s best?

[@0ne-Two]

Depends on situation. I would only put small amounts in the skimmers. Grab a net and dump the shock in the net and drag it around the pool is probably the best method. Shock in the skimmer wont cloud up your water as bad so I only do that if customers are wanting to get in ASAP. Still have to wait a few hours but the water will be less cloudy

[@adela315]

I think I just found my "sweet spot" lol!! Jk great info......I just got a pool and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing lol.....thank you

[@poolsupplyworld]

Adela mayse bahaha! Glad you enjoyed the video! Let me know if you need any help! -Blake :)

[@isabelserranorosa5656]

Adela mayse

[@lisapate8854]

love your videos they are awesome. I'm in central Texas dealing with yellow (mustard) algae. followed your advice to rid my pools. my question: should I be adding a algaecide weekly? if so which one for this type algae? thanks.

[@royweldon2436]

Lisa, I'm sure you've found the answer to your question by now but in case you haven't, it's called Yellowtrine. It can be used as an occasional additive in case the mustard algae starts getting out of hand but a well balanced pool chemistry and brushing your pool routinely should keep that at bay. It's available at your local pool supply stores or even on Amazon.com. Happy swimming!

[@PoolandspaTv]

Great pool water chemistry information Blake. Well explained....

[@poolsupplyworld]

Thank you! :)

[@TheBoundBowman]

"Let's dive in..." I see what you did there. :)

[@osrsdaily4261]

A cya level of 80 is to high. I’d recommend 50 maximum

[@thadiusdub]

Are you a CPO or AFO? Just a couple notes... pH - the lower the pH, the better the ORP (better oxidation). 7.2 is a legal limit in most states, keep your pool at 7.3-7.4. The human tear while crying can be as low as 6.5. Low pH will not irate your eyes, Chloramines will. TA- high alkalinity does not always equate to high pH. 80-120 ppm stabilizes pH bounce,150+ makes it very stubborn to change pH. Sodium bicarb will raise pH. CH should be in the 300 range. The saturation index states that if you pool is 82 degrees, 7.4 pH, 100 TA, 300 CH it is perfectly balanced.

[@0ne-Two]

THANK YOU! I was about to type this just now HAHA

[@davidho2977]

Hi, What was CH?

[@Slamdick]

@@davidho2977 calcium hardness.

[@yeayeahchino8898]

What about the free chlorine bonding with nitrogen and forming chloramines? That is one way chlorine is consumed. Also the burning sensation is caused by these chloramines rather than the ph levels. if your TA is high then the ph becomes locked in because of the buffer effect you mention. it is important to mention that when TA levels exceed 120 then acid needs to be added in MUCH greater quantity to smash through the buffer. guess those are more topics for a 102.

[@jojack1273]

What about salt pools and low TA since salt pool they need m.acid more often than chlorine pools so the ta is always getting hit. Is alklianty up more regular of a service on salt pools than chlorine? Or is the ratio different for each 1? just like the cya is for salt n chlorine pools ? Ie chlorine 30pp salt 60pp on Cya.

[@jojack1273]

Is alklianty supposed to be lower in a salt generator pool than a chlorine? Do salt pools need thier alklianty raised more often than chlorine tab feeder?

[@0ne-Two]

@@jojack1273 Salt pools are JUST like regular pools but with salt. The only thing different is you have to add bags of salt occasionally and you can keep your chlorine levels slightly lower because the salt makes chlorine. Everything else is the exact same

[@shirleydavis2996]

Blake, I have a 30,000 gallon vinyl pool that I now have to maintain with loss of husband and having trouble maintaining chemical level. On ph & acid demand test reading matches add up 6.8. I have no idea what I need to do. I think add ph increaser but don't want to make matters worse. I am a Pool Supply World for a long time

[@onlyonemrxonlyonemry306]

(October - 13 - 2009) I Now understand how to clean my pool

[@BobbyBuhl]

great 101 for people. I have an off the wall question, I started as a pool tech about 6 months ago, was a chef for over 20 years, and just got burnt out, I enjoy working on pools for the time being, but...my hobby is playing guitar, and since working with pools, I actually rarely play much anymore because I have zero calases left on my fingers, actualy even my finger prints have been disolved quite a bit from the chems, and to play guitar hurts teribly now. I keep lotion in my truck as my hands are so dry, but any suggestions to protect my hands, any type of comfotable affective "Pool glove"...doesnt seem pratical to put on and take off gloves all day long servicing 20 plus pools a day, and filling my truck with chems..ect..thanks

[@austing2139]

rubber gloves are suggested PPE so maybe that? those ones that Brad Pitt used in Fight Club style ones, you know what im talking about ;)

[@0ne-Two]

Use the orange shock cups to put the chlorine tabs. Just avoid all chems with bare hands. I had this issue too, my hands were numb for like 4 months and I finally realized what I was doing :D

[@dannyc4419]

Blake what is the best tekscape for a new pool owner I'm going crazy looking at all the ones that are available

[@jlmfernandez1512]

Cya, can you use chorine without stabilizer to reduce the cya . Jim

[@Ltulrich]

Great explanation.

[@artmcnulty5764]

Why did my pool turn purple after I shocked it?

[@frankwiddifield7520]

Damn, Joe Rogan is everywhere!!

[@DirtySouthFlorida3]

FRANK Widdifield dead

[@dannyaranda3764]

FRANK Widdifield LOL he does kind of look like Joe Rogan from UFC.

[@michellelittles181]

How much acid do I need to lower my PH from 8.4 to the ideal range in my 24,000 gallon pool?

[@ramsesbanegas9733]

Michelle Littles you need at least 2 bottles of 1 gallon muriatic acid

[@0ne-Two]

You need your ALK reading FIRST!!!! You are going to bottom out your ALK and your pool is going to be cloudy as hell and VERY acidic. Buff your ALK to AT LEAST 150ppm BEFORE adding a boatload of acid to drop PH

[@Zoa9058]

Thank you 🙏

[@mapools777]

CYA Should be ideal at 70-80 ppm

[@MasterMayhem78]

Why would you taste metal, and vomit after swimming? This happened to me quite a few years ago. Was always curious about it.

[@0ne-Two]

Bad water balance, like nightmare levels bad

[@barronbarron1410]

What order should I be checking and adjusting?

[@0ne-Two]

Check FC, PH, ALK . If you don't have any chlorine present also check your CYA level. IF your CYA level is low you will have a hard time holding chlorine in the pool. The 2 most important are FC and PH. These extremely high or low can damage equipment and plaster/pebbletech etc. Just check once or twice a week and go from there. If your PH is an 8 and your ALK is like an 80, you would want to add Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) to raise ALK and PH and then a few hours or days later use muriatic acid to drop them both. The amounts you put into your pool depend on how many gallons your pool has, there are plenty of cheap apps you can get that will let you plug in all the information from readings and it will automatically tell you what to add and how much. I hope this helped a lil, feel free to tag me in a comment if you ever have a specific question. I don't mind helping people with pools

[@derek3200]

Do you need CYA for an indoor pool? 165,000 gal. pool has large windows that take up the the whole wall on one side for sunlight.

[@0ne-Two]

yes

[@yournamehere5461]

I'm dealing with high ph levels in my pool. my alkalinity levels are low. do I raise the ta levels first or lower the ph first

[@0ne-Two]

Sorry this is late but raise Alk first! If your ALK is like a 60 it's "bottomed out" Add sodium bicarb (baking soda) to raise the ALK, it will raise the PH a little as well but that not an issue because after a day or so you're going to pour acid into the pool which will take the PH and ALK down together. Try to keep PH between 7.4-7.8 and ALK between 80-120. Always raise your ALK before trying to lower PH if it's at an 8 or higher. IF it's a 7.8 and 130-140 you can still add some acid and drop it to ideal range instead of raising PH too

[@jackbquick123]

@@0ne-Two what if alk and pH is very low together? Thank you

[@jacksonandersen3085]

What is a good tester to find these levels

[@nelsonenaccion4x424]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice my freind i just starter new job cleaning pools so i have so saturade on chemicals and details about it but i going true

[@chengkhang2804]

Become CPO certified if you want to become a serious professional

[@butterslovelogic4581]

Thank you for the video, it was helpful. We have been having a hard time keeping our free chlorine levels consistent, they are usually low. We had the water tested today and they said the FC was 0.3, total chlorine was 3.2, pH was 7.6, TA was 102 and CYA was 68. The CYA seems high so I was wondering if this could be causing the problem with the free chlorine? Thank you for any help!

[@saffel2297]

Couple things there with that reading: TA and pH are fine. Although if you want to go that extra step then I would shoot for 7.3, that's where your FC is going to be he most effective in the molecular battle royal against bacteria and other microorganisms. All of your Chlorine levels are connected, so having a relatively low FC of .3 and a TC of 3.2 is telling you that you've got quite large amount of CC or Combined Chlorine. This CC forms when FC runs into nitrogen and ammonia in the water (piss, sweat, and general human dirty-ness among other things). Another good way to tell if CC is a problem is if your pool is giving off a strong smell or stinging eyes/skin during a swim. To get rid of it you'll want to backwash the filter and get some fresh water in and/or shock the pool to reach your breakpoint chlorination to kill the chloramines. As far as CYA, and I'm going to assume you are not on a salt system purely for the sake of this answer, 68 is high. You don't want it above 50. The CYA is wonderful about adding carbon and other bits to the water to help protect your FC from baking out in the sun, but too much of the stuff will stifle your FC and render it near-impossible to do it's job. Just backwash it out and dilute your water.

[@nms1508]

blake, what causes my CYA to increase? example we did a 50% drainage few days ago, leslies pools said it was then normal, pools been green for a week or so , and as of today its back at 100!! and its greener .lol....I have a vinyl 9K gallon pool set up last summer, all winter crystal clear in Central, CA as soon as it warmed up, BAM! light green then darker etc.. I have no idea what to do, leslies just keeps telling to add clorine! $200 later, pool is greener than ever!!!

[@1Daniram]

CYA only increases if you actually add CYA to your pool. If you are using Stabilized Chlorine tablets, then that would be a source of CYA. As Blake mentioned, too high a level of CYA would render your chlorine ineffective, hence, no fighting the algae.

[@45windsor]

Any produces that have stabilizer in it unfortunatly the only way to get rid of stabilizer is dilution

[@axnbjsbdudbydvydubu9355]

I newly acquired a house with a pool. how do I get rid from cosmetics film ( oil) used by women ... I don't understand why do they need cosmetics and sun screen in a home pool. thanks for any help

[@0ne-Two]

Get some "Pool Perfect" it will break it down.

[@newmanskitchenandstuff9738]

should acid and buffer be added one after the other or wait till next day to do one

[@drdrew3]

Adjust buffer (alkalinity) first. Run pump several a few hours. Then adjust pH

[@josephastrahan6403]

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see what the free chlorine should be based on the CYA levels? Can you tell me how that plays into it?

[@chengkhang2804]

CYA levels will determine how much killing power chlorine has.

[@drdrew3]

FC should be maintained at 7.5% of the CYA level for effective sanitization

[@robertabbott2083]

"Just a question about the before & after shower when swiming in the pool " ? thank's [BOB]

[@mapools777]

Robert Abbott always have swimmers shower before entering a pool. Very important

[@jacolubbe9364]

My pool is quite milky, unable to see the botom of the pool PH 7.6 Free Chlorine = 0.5, battled to get the alkalinity test to give me a reading. I suspect the alkalinity is way low. Pool does have a chlorine floater with chlorine in it. To bad I dont have a test kit that can test more than the above. Could anyone please advise?

[@0ne-Two]

How many gallons? You need to add a shitload of Sodium Bicarb or baking soda.

[@brockhebert9955]

So, I was watching a video earlier and they mentioned if I need to lower my ph then use liquid chlorine instead of granular, like shock. Ph was high all last year, it that correct?

[@saffel2297]

Your best bet is going to be adding muriatic acid/hydrochloric acid to lower your pH. Most types of chlorine, and especially shock, are going to have the opposite effect and raise your pH levels.

[@natashaeverson8754]

i have an intex above ground pooland just filled it last saturday. i have shocked it and added chlorine tablets but the water is still cloudy. my chlorine level is 0, ph is 7.8, ta is 240, total hardness is 800, and cya is 100. what should i do next?

[@juniorjr9011]

Chlorine tablets are used to stabilize the already chlorine available in the pool. You need to add liquid chlorine

[@Flistered]

shock is unnecessary. clean your filter, add 5 gallons of liquid chlorine per 10,000 gallons, higher acidity water will help while youre treating the water and you can always buffer your ph. skim out any plant matter/trash/biological contaminants. it should take about a week or two for your water chemistry to naturally balance should you not balance it yourself. im not really familiar with above ground pools, but water chemistry is all the same maybe excluding acidity content and calcium hardness. make sure to do a total chemistry once a week or bi weekly if you must.

[@JuanMorales-ks4ll]

8.00 is to acid so red or 7.0 yellow when is high or low my ph and what to do thanks

[@chengkhang2804]

if you see red or yellow add soda ash for quick adjustment sodium bicarb for slower adjustment.

[@MrJimboalogo]

Blake your wrong wrong wrong about NOT requiring CALCIUM in a vinyl pool.

[@1Daniram]

calcium would actually prevent corrosion of metals in your equipment - pump, filter. So yes, even in a vinyl pool needs calcium hardness.

[@brianjohnson8883]

Daniram Sudarsan you should elaborate your claim to support it, why?

[@iamme294]

What about HOW? Explain the full balancing act please. There are lessons of balance to be learned here. Maybe, just maybe, these lessons can go beyond the pool. Nothing is good when the environment is bad.

[@0ne-Two]

That would be like a 5-8 hour video

[@tonelives1023]

awesome video

[@transolve9726]

How do remove/neutralize all the chlorine in water?

[@chengkhang2804]

Add chlorine neutralizer or just allow the chlorine to dissipate on its own

[@mapools777]

Sodium thiosulfate will reduce chlorine. Or let it lower on its own

[@spliff2k]

Waiting for the chemistry, found none. Typical pool shop lack of understanding

[@danielanderson635]

Pool chemistry with Joe Rogan

[@0ne-Two]

70-90? Try 80-120

[@jeremiegrund]

I was going to ask this, my research has found wildly different recommendations regarding TA levels, this video says 70-90, I've seen 80-120 and I've also seen a recommendation of 125. When is TA too high?

[@dcdc9348]

my wife put stabilizer in and it won't dissolve

[@saffel2297]

This is a year late, but, the stabilizer powder you throw in (most often) is more of the vehicle for transportation. The CYA has dissolved and done it's job, you're just left to deal with it's old car.

[@mapools777]

dc dc add to skimmer and let it run to filter to dissolve. If you need to add more than 2 lbs, put cya in a skimmer sock and place in skimmer to dissolve