Checked my calcium hardness, I had to add 50 drops for it to turn blue!! Is that crazy and what should I do?
Ruth

A CH level of 500 is high, but it doesn't need to be a major problem. You should post a full set of test results. The various numbers interact with each other. We need a full set to give you good advice.

FC 5
CC .5
PH 7.5
TA 160
CH 500
CYA 25

Since your TA is a little high, the CH level could be a problem. So I would just keep monitoring the PH and follow these instructions:


This should help you manage the high CH level without issues popping up like scaling.

Water looks great!

With both TA and CH fairly high you are at some risk for calcium scaling if you allow the PH to go up very much.

The simplest thing to do is to start working on lowering TA, which mostly means keeping the PH fairly low. If you get the TA down to around 70 you should be fine with that CH level for quite some time. Alternatively, you could replace some water to get CH down.

The pros and cons of both approaches somewhat depend on what the TA and CH levels of your fill water are.

I was thinking that maybe I did the CH test wrong, so I checked it again and it shows the same, 50 drops x 10 = the 500. It is interesting that the CH is high, whenever we tested it last season at the pool store they said it was low and would give me calcium to put in both the pool and spa.
I will lower the PH to 7 and how soon after that can I test the TA again?
Also would you like to move this part of this thread since it is focused on chemistry now?

Doesn't aeration lower the TA also? I put in the muriatic acid to lower the PH to 7 and turned the eyeball up to aerate. Let me know it that is not correct.

The addition of acid is what lowered the TA as well as the pH. The aeration just raises the pH with no change in TA thereby letting you do another cycle with acid, if you wanted the TA even lower.

Jason, thanks for moving the thread and all your help.
I feel like I have a whole new family of friends! Thanks to everyone!!

It is amazing when testing chlorine now, the K1000 or another kit like that makes me second guess exactly what color it is, so I go back and use the T100 and feel that the chlorine measurement is more accurate that way. Does anyone else do this?Is there a test in the T100 (other than in the K1000 box)? It just seems that the drop tests are more accurate than trying to distinguish tiny differences in color, and I am not color blind!
Anyway, it looks like after adding muriatic acid and making sure not to aerate (after reading chem geek's post) that the PH is actually higher, I tested it with two different test kits I have, this morning's results are:
FC 3
CC .5
TC 3.5
PH 7.8
TA 150
How often should I test calcium?
I will test CYA after 5-7 days.
Is there anything else I sould I be testing for?
I will add muriactic acid to lower PH to 7 to try and bring TA down further.
Let me know if there is anything else I should be doing. Thanks a million to everyone.

I added acid to bring the PH down. How long will it take before I can check it again?
Also with the chlorine being at the low end, should I bump it up to 5?

OK, three hours later I have checked the levels of PH and TA
PH 7.2
TA 140
Should I keep on lowering the PH to lower the TA? It is slowly going down. I checked the CSI on the pool calcuator and it is now showing .02 when it was .06.
Am I getting the hang of this?

You are doing very well

For most chemicals, you need to wait about an hour with the pump running after adding chemicals before testing the water again. Muriatic acid is a little faster, perhaps 1/2 hour, and CYA is way longer, perhaps a week.

There are two schools of thought on testing CH, either weekly or monthly. The best thing to do is to test CH weekly, and if it tends to be the same every week, switch to testing monthly.

There are two chlorine tests in the TF100, the one in the blue box and the one in the main kit. There is only one PH test, which is in the inner blue box. No one makes a good PH test that works by counting drops, so you are stuck with a color comparison for measuring PH.

Thanks Jason!

I can't read the yellow OTO test levels between 2-5. So I rarely use it... sticking with the FAS-DPD!

The colors are just so close!!

This evening
FC 4
CC .5
TC 4.5
PH 7.2
TA 120
Looks like the TA is coming down nicely. I will get some more Muriatic Acid tomorrow to try and lower it even more, unless you all tell me otherwise.

Jason originally suggesting shooting for 70. If you can get that far with reasonable effort, yes keep going. If the pH stops going up so fast, then it might be time to stop; post your numbers at that point and we'll see.
--paulr

New test results
Finally got to the store to buy muriatic acid to lower the PH. About an hour after adding here are a full set of results
FC 4
CC .5
TC 4.5
PH 6.8
TA 80
CYA 40
CH 500 and holding

Ok, you overshot a little bit with the MA. It happens... don't worry.

Now you'll just need to aerate, and if that doesn't raise the PH back up use some Borax to boost the PH back up.