Hello, our pool was just finished a little over a week ago and we are trying to balance our pool. I think we were getting some inaccurate readings at the pool store as one day the free chlorine levels were registering at a 20+ so we uncovered the pool and turned off the salt cell. The next day free chlorine was registering at .26... So I finally sat down and figured out the Taylor test kit yesterday. We have a 12,000 gallon, saltwater, fiberglass pool with an autocover and heater (Water temp at 84). Hayward omnilogic equipment with cell currently set to 0 as we were trying to lower the chlorine. We live in Northern KY and temps are in the 70s right now.
4/29
Free chlorine 9ppm
Combined chlorine .6ppm
pH 7.6
Alkalinity 140
Calcium hardness 210
Cya is lower than can read on test (I can still see the black dot)
Salt 3600
4/30
Free chlorine 5ppm
Combined chlorine .4ppm
pH 7.8
Alkalinity 140
Calcium hardness 190
CYA is lower than can read on test (I can still see the black dot)
Salt 3400
We added 3lbs of stabilizer on Sunday evening because that was showing a 5 at the pool store and that is what they said to add. I tested with the Taylor kit yesterday and today and CYA is still not showing up. I'm unsure of where to go from here. Do I need to wait a few days still for the CYA to register with what we added or should we go ahead and add more (but how much??)? I know I need to increase calcium. The Alkalinity is high but the article about decreasing alkalinity says "There are two reasons to lower your TA right away, because you want to slow down the rate that the pH rises, or if high TA is contributing to a high calcium CSI. You shouldn't lower TA just to reach a target number. Make sure you actually have one of the above issues before lowering your TA." We don't have one of those issues right now so do we just leave the TA alone??
4/29
Free chlorine 9ppm
Combined chlorine .6ppm
pH 7.6
Alkalinity 140
Calcium hardness 210
Cya is lower than can read on test (I can still see the black dot)
Salt 3600
4/30
Free chlorine 5ppm
Combined chlorine .4ppm
pH 7.8
Alkalinity 140
Calcium hardness 190
CYA is lower than can read on test (I can still see the black dot)
Salt 3400
We added 3lbs of stabilizer on Sunday evening because that was showing a 5 at the pool store and that is what they said to add. I tested with the Taylor kit yesterday and today and CYA is still not showing up. I'm unsure of where to go from here. Do I need to wait a few days still for the CYA to register with what we added or should we go ahead and add more (but how much??)? I know I need to increase calcium. The Alkalinity is high but the article about decreasing alkalinity says "There are two reasons to lower your TA right away, because you want to slow down the rate that the pH rises, or if high TA is contributing to a high calcium CSI. You shouldn't lower TA just to reach a target number. Make sure you actually have one of the above issues before lowering your TA." We don't have one of those issues right now so do we just leave the TA alone??