Results from my new TF100 test kit

Currently I have no known issues with the water other than trying to get my FC up slightly. My water is crystal clear and chlorine usage is normal thus far.

FC - 4
CC - .5
TA - 140
CYA - 52-ish
PH - 7.5

My CYA was 25 or less yesterday so we added some to the pool via a sock with what the pool calculator suggested to get it into the mid-40 range. I tested it today just to see how it was doing after letting the pump run all day and night. I'll check it again next week. At this point I'm not loosing any FC overnight however I don't really like the trichlor tablets the wife bought at the pool store prior to us finding this site as they don't seem to maintain FC as well as I'd like them too however we will use them until they're gone and go with liquid bleach from here on out. Here is the PH getting tested this morning.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1437324756.762657.jpg
 
Your numbers look great but you are missing a point. Take the trichlor tabs out NOW.

They are adding CYA to your pool and it will continue to build until your pool becomes unmanageable.

Your CYA is fine where it is.......do not let it get any higher with those pucks.

The pucks will store virtually forever but put them up this season.
 
save the pucks for when they might actually be useful for you. They might be useful next spring, or if you go on vacation or something like that. But if you use them now, you will just drive up your CYA and the FC will not be enough to keep up with it.
 
The tablets where part of a "synergy clear" package my wife came home with when we filled the pool and opened a few weeks ago. I'm curious if they add chlorine and CYA to the pool why could our initial numbers been FC -2 or less and CYA - 22-25. We've been using about 12 of the small tablets in a floating dispenser for the last few weeks and the tablets last about 3-5 days and then are completely used up. Water has been clear from the get go.
 
There is a relationship of FC to CYA. If you keep the FC between 7.5 and 11.5 % of the CYA level, then everything is fine.
with FC of 2 and CYA of 20-25, then you are well inside that range. No problem.

But for every 10 ppm pf FC a puck adds, it also adds 6ppm of CYA. CYA buffers FC, meaning it weakens its effectiveness. CYA does not evaporate or go away, except with replacement of the water.
But the chlorine does deplete, so more pucks are added to get chlorine in the pool. After a while, all of those 6ppms of CYA add up and the chlorine proivded by the puck is no longer able to get to the proper range to be effective. Thats when the pool turns first cloudy, and then green.

The higher the CYA is, the higher the FC has to be in order to be effective. Here is the FC/CYA chart from pool school.
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

And if you are a scientific person, here is the data which chemically and scientifically proves the FC/CYA relationship which is what the above chart is based on.
Pool Water Chemistry
 
Synergy Schmenergy! Take those pucks out of your pool. It doesn't matter what name they attach.

It's trichlor and you are headed for an issue if you don't stop building your CYA like they do.

It's your pool and you manage it any way you want but don't disbelieve what Divin Dave and I are telling you.
 
Hello Brian. I thought you might to have this quote handy from our resident expert "Chem geek":
Just splash-out, rain overflow, backwashing and other methods of dilution reduce CYA. Evaporation does not reduce any chemicals in the pool as only water evaporates, concentrating the chemicals, and then fresh fill water just brings them back to their original concentration. If there is lots of evaporation, then whatever is in fill water gets added to the pool, so fill water high in TA or CH will increase those parameters.

The only other way is draining or partial drains. :( Time do start doing lots of cannonballs!
 

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We've been having to add water to the pool about once a week due to evaporation because our pool gets full sun from about 9:00 AM until sunset so we can slowly reduce the cya if we need to that way and I don't mind draining some of it to achieve ideal numbers.

Nope, you cannot reduce CYA by evaporation/refill. You must remove water and replace that water. This can be done by backwashing, splash out replacement, and partial drain/refill.

Sorry Pat! Did not see your post!
 
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We had friends over today and lots of splashing from the kids happened so with rain coming this week I'll end up having to drain part of the water out anyway. After everyone left FC Had dropped to 2.5 which is not unusual. I bumped it back up to 6 and will check everything again at sundown to see where stuff is at and if it stays overnight again.
 
If you expect a good size swimming bunch, it is a good idea to get ahead of the depletion and add 2-3 ppm BEFORE the party. The depletion will take you back to normal. A really big crowd will turn your pool cloudy.
 
Might check FC one more time to make sure it is holding in an hour or two. Sometimes there is still bather waste in the water consuming chlorine and it can drop a little more a couple hours later.
 
With CYA of 50 your target FC is 6, so it should be 6 or higher at all times. So, staying at 6.5 is definitely fine. Just if you test later and it is down 5 or something then add some more.
 
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