New filter, new pump, can't get pool to not be cloudy blue.

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tim5055 said:
No, as much of that is opinion it is hard to set it down in stone. Are there good pool stores out there, yes! But, most of them are in the "sun" states where a family can own a small store and operate it 12 months a year, give good service and make a profit.

In the rest of the country you mainly have a high school/college kid who has about an hour training testing your water and telling you what to buy to add to your water. I guess that's like going into a carpet store and asking if you need to buy new carpet.

Unfortunately the pool industry has evolved into sales by scare tactics, misdirection, misinformation and marketing hype. Go in to the store and tell them your TA is low and they are going to sell you baking soda in a fancy package at four times the cost of WalMart. Do they have a right to make a profit, yes - but lets be reasonable. Heck, even their definition of "low" can many times put you on a pH roller coaster that's hard to get off of. Is that lack of knowledge or a sales technique to sell you more chemicals to control your pH????

What the industry does not understand is that the internet is changing the industry. My favorite story is about my pool light. When I bought the house with the pool along with high CYA my pool light was not working. I could get a new bulb from Amazon for $19, but heck I'm part of that immediate gratification society as much as the next guy. I went down to the local pool store and there was the same bulb, $39. I talked with the manager. I didn't want them to match the price, they have to keep the lights on - just be a little more reasonable. The manager gave me two choices, take it or leave it.

OK, I'm off my soapbox and will stop derailing your thread.
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yeah i faced a similar issue when my pump died. I could buy it online for $969 (cheapest price) and find someone to install it for $250 or I could go through local shops. One guy was like "well it is $3k retail price plus installation" and so i let him go on and prompted him "ok....but your price is...." and he goes "$1900 installed. I am like "so does it cost about $1k of labor to install it? and he is like "no this is an expensive pump"

I told him "I can get the pump for under $1k" and he goes "no you can't" and im like "im looking at itright now" and he then has the nerve to say "dont even tell me that I-word (internet) ....i am not the internet" and i said "i get it, and im willing to pay a premium for someone locally who not only supplies the item and installs it, but not that much"

basically i hung up on him at some point

however, some of these mfg are making it a pain to get the warranty unless you pay more through 'store locations'. buy it on your own, even if you install it through a licensed electrician/plumber and now ur 3 yr warranty is 60 days.

i buy my baking soda at costco when its got the $3 coupon.
 
I still dont understand how someone reads through Pool School and still dumps bags of Pool Store stuff in their pool?. Sorry, but if you truly read through, you would be in a lot better place with your pool...
 
Buy the TFP full test kit... It has save me thousands (yes thousands) of dollars since I switched from Pool Store advice and treatments. The first 1.5 years (now been here over 6 years) as a new pool owner, the pool store suckered us for 2-3 THOUSAND DOLLARS PER YEAR with poor results! After following the TFP pool school to the dot, we now spend $200 (two hundred) or less per swim season.
 
I started reading through these instructions, but it seems like I may need to really pay attention to run these tests. I thought maybe it would be like a "put one drop of this in here, one drop in there" but it seems a little more involved.

I think I'm going to need a few hours tonight to do this properly for the first time.

PS: Should I run through all the tests on the box, notably:
  1. Free and Combined Chlorine Test
  2. pH Test
  3. Total Alkalinity Test
  4. Calcium Hardness Test
  5. Cyanuric Acid Test
  6. Sodium Chloride (Salt) Test


Side note: my FC and Total chlorine were "10.2ppm" according to the pool store yesterday and CYA was about 60. They told me that I should ideally be waiting for the chlorine to go down to 2-4, maybe 5ppm before anyone goes in it. Regardless of the accuracy of their test, is 2-4ppm the desired range for free and total chlorine?

Will test in about 3 hours with my new kit when I am done with work, but not sure if I will do it right :p
 
just love some pool store advice from 50 years ago :) for the love of your pool please stop listening to them :)

You can swim in your pool up to SLAM level for your CYA level...

When you do your tests use the 10 ml level, you will use less reagents... After a week you wont even need to look at the directions to do the tests :)
 
cowboycasey said:
just love some pool store advice from 50 years ago :) for the love of your pool please stop listening to them :)

You can swim in your pool up to SLAM level for your CYA level...

When you do your tests use the 10 ml level, you will use less reagents... After a week you wont even need to look at the directions to do the tests :)
Click to expand...

is "slam level" equivalent to "shock FC" on the chart here:
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

- - - Updated - - -

btw, the CYA test in this taylor k-2006 kit seems a bit "vague" with respect to how you measure it. I am supposed to put some drops in and measure when I Can't see a black dot? isn't that a bit arbitrary as to whether I can see it or not or if it is cloudy?

How come there cant be something more scientific for CYA?
 

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cowboycasey said:
That is exactly what it is, so once you do your CYA test we can go from there.. do all the tests first then once you start the SLAM only test FC and CC

SLAM is Shock Level and Maintain
Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain
Click to expand...

since my chlorine levels will presumably be ok and because my water is crystal clear at the moment, my hope is that i get baseline info now, have you guys verify i am "good" and then understand how to "SLAM" - how much liquid chlorine to put in, how frequently, etc to maintain appropriate levels

will report back in 2-3 hrs with initial tests
 
I'm very new to all this just been about 30 days using tfp. After about a week it'll be easy it's really not as difficult as it might seem at the moment even that first run of test probably won't take more than 30 minutes even if you have to do a few of them over again
 
Ok ladies and gentlemen, i just did my first set of testing. I took it nice and slow. Everything seemed to go by the book, but the FC/CC test i am confused by.

CYA: I took a picture because I don't know how to judge when the black dot is not visible. It seemed "not visible" anywhere between 55 to 70. The picture here is at 70:
View attachment 49894

pH: 7.6 - maybe a tad higher or lower, i would have to see a 7.8 or 7.4 to know:
View attachment 49895

Chlorine: ok this is the part that confuses me. it took 20 drops at 0.5ppm to get the switchover of color, which means 10ppm of FC.
It then says "add 5 drops" to get the color pink (i think). when i added 5 drops (all at 180 degrees) it didnt really change it much. so when i then added one drop of R0871 it was kind of already clear again. by 2 drops it was definitely clear, that would indicate a CC of 1ppm or maybe even less?

How can I have FC of 10ppm and CC of 1ppm, that doesn't make sense, does it?

Alkalinity: 120ppm
Calcium Hardness: 80ppm (this is low right?)

Pool water: crystal clear, brushing shows minor 'fine dusting' on floor in some areas.

Ok, so lay it on me! What did I do wrong, how am i looking, etc?
 
pooldv said:
Here is what the CYA test should look like, https://www.taylortechnologies.com/ChemistryTopicsCM.ASP?ContentID=36

CH is ok for a vinyl liner pool.

Sounds like CC is 0.5. Yes, it is definitely possible to have FC 10 and CC of 1. Why not?
Here are some more detailed directions, Pool School - FAS-DPD Chlorine Test
Click to expand...

I read the post on here about the whole CH debate and whether it really was corrosive or not. Seems somewhat inconclusive, but overall it seems like only warranty items would matter relative to it and that it really doesnt matter. All the pool stores have told me the same "you need to raise your hardness if you want to prolong the life of your liner" i'd love to see more science or proof about it. i worry that if i ignore it, my liner will start cracking or something and become too rigid, but it seems like that isn't true?

I do have a heater so I feel like maybe I should raise the hardness to 100ppm as per some previous recommendations?

anyway, with the CC, the way it sounds for someone like me is "combined chlorine" would have to be AT LEAST FC + something else. So when I saw combined chlorine being less than FC, it seemed wrong?

so assuming a summarized score of:

CYA: 60
pH: 7.6
FC: 10
CC: 0.5 maybe 1.0
Alkalinity: 120ppm
Calcium Hardness: 80ppm

Do you feel there is anything I need to do other than let the sun hit the pool to lower the FC to 6 or 7?
 
do an OCLT (below) and see if anything is still in the pool.. test before the sun hits the pool in the morning, if you're at the same exact levels you are good... :)
 
cowboycasey said:
do an OCLT (below) and see if anything is still in the pool.. test before the sun hits the pool in the morning, if you're at the same exact levels you are good... :)
Click to expand...

thanks.... i got a dr appt at 9am, so ill have to run the test at 10am (im not a morning person)...but the sun should still be relatively low at that point.

assuming I have less than 1ppm drop, that means the water is ok? or is the FC still too high and potentially going to sting my 6yo and 2yo's eyes?

- - - Updated - - -

pooldv said:
It won't hurt anything to raise your CH to 150 or even 250.
Click to expand...

other than my wallet? i was also worried about it making the water cloudy again. pool store said the giant 50lb bag costs like $50+ or something
 
ionizer said:
thanks.... i got a dr appt at 9am, so ill have to run the test at 10am (im not a morning person)...but the sun should still be relatively low at that point.

assuming I have less than 1ppm drop, that means the water is ok? or is the FC still too high and potentially going to sting my 6yo and 2yo's eyes?

- - - Updated - - -



other than my wallet? i was also worried about it making the water cloudy again. pool store said the giant 50lb bag costs like $50+ or something
Click to expand...

With a CYA of 60 you and your kids can swim up to SLAM level of 24FC

from today on you want to target 7 FC and never go below 5 FC

:)
 

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