Hello TFP community, new to the group but have been surfing the forum for the past few weeks. I bought a home 2 yrs ago which already had a pool/spa and it is covered by screened in pool cage, so it remains virtually debris free. Never was a pool owner or had any knowledge of such until I acquired this pool. Over the past year, I researched and became familiar with my equipment, but stayed away of the chemistry and hired that part out (and have been through several bad experiences). I've stayed away from Leslies for the most part and buy parts and what not online and have had success. My pool education has all been online which is how I came across this awesome forum, and I've always been impressed as many times my google results often lead me here where I've followed trails of sound advice.
Wanting to get a better understanding of the chemistry, about a month ago I bought a Taylor K2006 - I also wanted to keep my pool tech honest. I read the pool school details and absorbed as much as I could in the area. I've had my current pool tech for about a year and they pretty much have done not much weekly except fill up my two puck floaters (they insisted on two, one in pool and one in spa) with about 4 pucks each week. Every now and then they would add acid or some shock, but they didn't leave much on those details on the weekly report. I really didn't pay much attn to all of that because my pool has been blue and that is what I was paying for, right?
So, in my search to keep my pool person honest, I pulled the weekly reports for the last 2 months. After reviewing, I noticed the CYA crept up from 60 to 100 (assuming the tech was accurate on their readings). My understanding is high CYA is due to the puck usage, and after reading this forum, it seems most here are fans of liquid chlorine once your CYA is balanced around 40. So last week I took my first reading:
My Results:
FC - pink never turned clear - thought I was doing something wrong
CC - without FC, could not get this
ph-7.4
TA - turned yellow
CH - 260
CYA - over 100
Pool Tech Last Results
CL - 5 - They call it chlorine on their report, but I assume it is FC.
ph 7.4
TA 100
CYA 100
CH 230
Since I couldn't get FC, I ran the test again. Thought I had bad reagent or wasn't doing the test right. Went to Leslies to have them test because I thought I was doing something wrong, and that is when I learned about bleaching out, and how high FC can skew all of your results. Advice of Leslies was to drain to get CYA down and then start rebalancing. His other recommendation was to pull the puck dispensers, wait for FC to come down and then start treating with liquid chlorine and after a while, the CYA will eventually come down. He also recommended to test every other day to keep an eye on the FC levels.
So I came home and pulled pulled the floaters out and wanted to figure out how to get accurate FC and CYA measurements. Came to TFPC and understood that I can use the dilution method, so I did, but just for CYA and FC.
CYA - for this test, I diluted using equal parts tap water and pool water (didn't have distilled) and found my CYA to be 144.
FC - used distilled water (finally got some), and the equal parts still never would have the water go clear up to 30 drops of 0871; so I diluted with 2 parts of distilled and 1 part of pool water and I finally had success. It took 19 drops at the 10ml line, which if I did my math properly is 19 * .5 * 3 =28.5. So I assume I have FC of 28.5 or around there..is that right?
So I guess after all of this, I'm looking for some advice on what ya'll would do here. Pool tech is slated to come out here on Tue, and I plan firing them on the spot b/c I cannot believe it could raise (assuming their numbers were reasonably accurate) from 60 to 144 in 2 months, and they haven't even bothered to tell me anything about it. It was only because I tested that I found this out.
Thanks for the help and advice.
Wanting to get a better understanding of the chemistry, about a month ago I bought a Taylor K2006 - I also wanted to keep my pool tech honest. I read the pool school details and absorbed as much as I could in the area. I've had my current pool tech for about a year and they pretty much have done not much weekly except fill up my two puck floaters (they insisted on two, one in pool and one in spa) with about 4 pucks each week. Every now and then they would add acid or some shock, but they didn't leave much on those details on the weekly report. I really didn't pay much attn to all of that because my pool has been blue and that is what I was paying for, right?
So, in my search to keep my pool person honest, I pulled the weekly reports for the last 2 months. After reviewing, I noticed the CYA crept up from 60 to 100 (assuming the tech was accurate on their readings). My understanding is high CYA is due to the puck usage, and after reading this forum, it seems most here are fans of liquid chlorine once your CYA is balanced around 40. So last week I took my first reading:
My Results:
FC - pink never turned clear - thought I was doing something wrong
CC - without FC, could not get this
ph-7.4
TA - turned yellow
CH - 260
CYA - over 100
Pool Tech Last Results
CL - 5 - They call it chlorine on their report, but I assume it is FC.
ph 7.4
TA 100
CYA 100
CH 230
Since I couldn't get FC, I ran the test again. Thought I had bad reagent or wasn't doing the test right. Went to Leslies to have them test because I thought I was doing something wrong, and that is when I learned about bleaching out, and how high FC can skew all of your results. Advice of Leslies was to drain to get CYA down and then start rebalancing. His other recommendation was to pull the puck dispensers, wait for FC to come down and then start treating with liquid chlorine and after a while, the CYA will eventually come down. He also recommended to test every other day to keep an eye on the FC levels.
So I came home and pulled pulled the floaters out and wanted to figure out how to get accurate FC and CYA measurements. Came to TFPC and understood that I can use the dilution method, so I did, but just for CYA and FC.
CYA - for this test, I diluted using equal parts tap water and pool water (didn't have distilled) and found my CYA to be 144.
FC - used distilled water (finally got some), and the equal parts still never would have the water go clear up to 30 drops of 0871; so I diluted with 2 parts of distilled and 1 part of pool water and I finally had success. It took 19 drops at the 10ml line, which if I did my math properly is 19 * .5 * 3 =28.5. So I assume I have FC of 28.5 or around there..is that right?
So I guess after all of this, I'm looking for some advice on what ya'll would do here. Pool tech is slated to come out here on Tue, and I plan firing them on the spot b/c I cannot believe it could raise (assuming their numbers were reasonably accurate) from 60 to 144 in 2 months, and they haven't even bothered to tell me anything about it. It was only because I tested that I found this out.
Thanks for the help and advice.
