I'm trying to help my dad out with his pool. I got some strips a few weeks ago, and tried to test it myself. It didn't seem to have any chlorine whatsoever in it. I took a sample to Leslie's. The high-school kid behind the counter told me the chlorine levels were so high, it bleached out the rest of the test. As the pool was green, that didn't seem right, so I took it to another Leslie's who did a more *thorough* test, meaning he swished some water around, punched in some numbers, and tried to get me to buy the largest bucket of product du jour. He claimed that my TDS were too high, so I needed to drain it in the off season, and also that my TA levels were wrong, but my chlorine and pH was fine. So, I've been lurking here while I waited for my T-100 to come in. In the mean time, I bought 6 192-oz bottles of chlorox and 26 lbs of baking soda. I estimated the pool at around 50k, and added about 17 lbs of baking soda. I also poured 2 bottles of bleach into the skimmer after dark. I told my sister to check using a strip in the morning, and if she didn't get any discernible chlorine levels, to add two more, and then 2 more in the afternoon. They all got used the next day. Even after adding, them, the test strips showed no chlorine. I was over there a little later, looking at the pool plumbing system, and spotted something I didn't recognize. It was a PVC-looking thing with "turbo cell" on it. Come to find out, it was Dad's SWG. Makes you wonder why the pool guy has been throwing pucks in the floater. Anyway, after poking around the manual, I turned the SWG on. It read salts of 3800. A couple days later, I went back, and it had turned itself off because salts were low: around 1400. My wife thinks I'm crazy for trying to take this project on, but I'd like to help him out so the grandkids (especially my little ones) can so swimming. I hope you guys can help.
Here were my test results from this evening:
FC (FAS-DPD): Not sure about the test results. It never went pink, just cloudy. It never cleared up.
CC: Ditto.
FC (OTO) Between 0.5 and 1.0
pH: 7.8
CYA: 0. The liquid I put into the viewtube was clear, and I never had any trouble seeing the dot.
Salt: 1440
Where should I start? Should I buy stock in The Clorox Company?
Here were my test results from this evening:
FC (FAS-DPD): Not sure about the test results. It never went pink, just cloudy. It never cleared up.
CC: Ditto.
FC (OTO) Between 0.5 and 1.0
pH: 7.8
CYA: 0. The liquid I put into the viewtube was clear, and I never had any trouble seeing the dot.
Salt: 1440
Where should I start? Should I buy stock in The Clorox Company?