Greetings, I've been trying to educate myself in the complexity of balancing our less than a year old SWG pool. This is our first pool and I'm just glad that we survived the summer months here in Arizona without any major issues other than the scaling in the water line. The start-up guy's instructions was just to watch the ph and chlorine level which I followed. When I started noticing the scaling a couple of months ago, I research the problem and found this website. After reading the pool school many times and the forum section, it seems there is more to it than the ph and chlorine levels. I exhausted the free pool test kit that the start-up guy provided so I purchase the TF100 last week and it arrived yesterday. We have a 17000 gals peeble sheen pool with a cartridge filter, UV ozonator and 1HP 2-speed pump. No spa or boulders but with lion scuppers that I will use for aeration. I also ran the pump 4 hrs hi and 4 hrs low during the summer months in the early morning. Here are my readings:
PH 8.2+ (I think it's off the chart because it's darker than the max)
TA 200 (no mention from start-up guy)
FC 2.2
CYA 20 (no mention from start-up guy)
CH 500 (no mention from start-up guy)
TEMP 78
I've been battling to control the ph ever since the beginning and I could never get it right. I can lower it by adding moriatic acid but comes back up after a week. With the new test kit, I now know my TA is too high. From what I read so far, this is what I intend to do next weekend:
-Lower the ph by adding more moriatice acid to lower it to about 7.0. I'm aware that 7.3 is ideal but from my understanding here is that since my TA is high I can aerate the pool to lower the TA to around 100. I have to experiment with 7.0 ph since aeration increses the ph as well.
-I really have no problems with keeping the FC at 2.2 since making the adjustment is as simple as pressing buttons in the controller.
-I read in the pool school that CYA should be around 70 -80 but from what I read in the forums the majority is around 30-40 (the MFG sugestion is 100 ppm). Either way, my reading is still low so I purchase a gal of liquid stabilizer which cost $40 from Leslie. The stabilizer instruction tells me that I need more than a gal but I'm still in the experimental stage so I'm not willing to spend that much yet. Is it true that di-chloe or tri-chlor pucks works as well but affects the ph reading? My question about this is should I even bother with the stabilizer since I have the SWG and UV ozonator that constantly controls the Chlorine, although the ozonator is only good for about 10 mins in the pool but kills the bacteria just as well (that's what I was lead to believe anyway)?
-As for the CH, I'll have to empty 1/4 of the pool and replace it with water softner.
Any suggestions in my approach to balance our pool is appreciated.
PH 8.2+ (I think it's off the chart because it's darker than the max)
TA 200 (no mention from start-up guy)
FC 2.2
CYA 20 (no mention from start-up guy)
CH 500 (no mention from start-up guy)
TEMP 78
I've been battling to control the ph ever since the beginning and I could never get it right. I can lower it by adding moriatic acid but comes back up after a week. With the new test kit, I now know my TA is too high. From what I read so far, this is what I intend to do next weekend:
-Lower the ph by adding more moriatice acid to lower it to about 7.0. I'm aware that 7.3 is ideal but from my understanding here is that since my TA is high I can aerate the pool to lower the TA to around 100. I have to experiment with 7.0 ph since aeration increses the ph as well.
-I really have no problems with keeping the FC at 2.2 since making the adjustment is as simple as pressing buttons in the controller.
-I read in the pool school that CYA should be around 70 -80 but from what I read in the forums the majority is around 30-40 (the MFG sugestion is 100 ppm). Either way, my reading is still low so I purchase a gal of liquid stabilizer which cost $40 from Leslie. The stabilizer instruction tells me that I need more than a gal but I'm still in the experimental stage so I'm not willing to spend that much yet. Is it true that di-chloe or tri-chlor pucks works as well but affects the ph reading? My question about this is should I even bother with the stabilizer since I have the SWG and UV ozonator that constantly controls the Chlorine, although the ozonator is only good for about 10 mins in the pool but kills the bacteria just as well (that's what I was lead to believe anyway)?
-As for the CH, I'll have to empty 1/4 of the pool and replace it with water softner.
Any suggestions in my approach to balance our pool is appreciated.
