Newbie with a TF-100 Kit...

Jump to latest Follow Reply
E

EvermoreUW

0
Silver Supporter
May 23, 2010
17
Gilbert, AZ
Hello all. We've had our pool for about 2 months now. It's SWG, so we've had the SWG on for about 3 weeks. Right now, the Chlorine/PH test registers orange when I test chlorine, so it's a bit high. I've been adjusting the % that the SWG spits out for a few days now to try to lower it. Pool builder set it at 50% for 8 hours. Our pool now runs for 7 hours each day, 3 hours of infloor cleaning, and 4 hours of filtering/SWG. Given the crazy level of chlorine, I've set the 4 hours of filtering to 20% and the cleaning to 0 in hopes of bringing it down, then will try to stabilize after that.

I bought the TF100 kit and did my first full test with it today. Here's what I got.

FC: 21
CC: 0
TC: 21
PH: 7.5
T/A: 120
CH: no reading
CYA: 55
Water Temp: 55

A few questions - in the instructions for the kit, there is nothing mentioned about the pH so I just used the blue dropper kit, is this correct? Also, I got to 50 drops on the CH and still no blue water, so I gave up. Not sure if anyone has any hints on this... I'm hoping my CH isn't over 500...

Other questions: would anyone be doing anything else differently? Running the filter longer/shorter, running the infloor cleaning longer/shorter? etc? Do I need to worry about any of my measurements? I'll try the CH again after I get some feedback on this board. I was reading that CYA should be higher for an SWG pool, so should I start to raise that up, or is it generally ok?

Thanks for the help everyone!
Joel
 
Hi, congrats on the new pool! Did you read the Extended test kit instructions thread? It gives more in-depth directions on how to conduct the tests.

You may want to bump your CYA to around 70, but there is no hurry to do so. In the summer you may notice that the SWG has a harder time maintaining FC in the summer if you leave it at 55, but in the winter it is no big deal. You may want to leave it as is for now and see how it performs during the summer.

You can turn the SWG down (or off) and let the FC drop to 3 which is the recommended level for your pool according to the pool calculator. During the winter it may take longer for the FC level to drop. Run your pump long enough to cycle the water through the filter each day. Depending on the speed and hp of the pump it could be as little as 4 hours. Experiment with your run times to see what works best for you.
 
Zea - Thanks for the tips. I'll read the other instructions and likely turn my SWG off in order to bring the chlorine down.

BK- I followed the instructions with the kit, 10ml, drops, etc. I'm not surprised it was that high given that for the drop test the color was bright orange instead of yellow...
 
Joel, welcome to TFP :wave:

Per further reading in pool school, if you suspect high CH (not unusual in AZ) then, "For the Calcium Hardness test you can use a 10 mL sample, 10 drops of R-0010, 3 drops of R-0011L, and each drop of R-0012 then counts as 25 ppm. This is handy if your hardness is somewhat high, plus it saves on reagents."

This is the one test it pays to have a magnetic stirrer. Make sure you swirl at least 5-10 seconds between drops.
 
What dman2b said.

I'd be amazed if your CH wasn't over 500, myself. And yes, you will be wishing you'd bought a speedstir when you ordered the kit. Sometimes when my CH test seems to be stalled in the purple phase, I'll just cycle the speedstir again without adding any drops. Sometimes that's all it takes to get it blue - more mixing.
 
You can manage high CH by keeping your TA lower (around 70) and keeping the pH around 7.2. This should prevent calcium scale from forming.

The problem with high CH in the fill water is that as water evaporates out of the pool, the CH remains so that over time as you replace the evaporated water, the CH will rise. Some people are able to have softer water trucked in to do a drain and refill on the pool. You may want to see if reverse osmosis treatment for pools is available in your area. Reverse osmosis can greatly reduce the amount of CH (and other things) in your pool water.
 
Hello all. Thanks to all the advice I was able to get a better reading. Used the 10ml water sample and mixed like a fiend between each drop. Water turned blue at 11 drops so I sit at about 275 CH which seems good. Hooray!

Again, thanks for the help!
Joel
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply