Help Me Understand these Test results Please!

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Frogpool

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Jun 28, 2012
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Hi,
This is Hobokenkitchen logged in under DH's account.

Well we got back from the hospital and are now proud parents of a baby girl!!! :whoot: :cheers: :cheers:

Needless to say the pool got neglected again for a few days there, but DH is back on top of it. We've been vacuuming up the crud on waste and have atemporary sand filter plugging away as it was too much for the DE filter with how dirty it was. The pool is starting to look great. The water is clear and you can see the bottom clearly even in the deep end. No more frogs! :-D

There are some stains on the bottom, but the debris is all out.

We just reran the tests and got the following results. Sorry I know we should be spending more time in the pool school, but with a brand new baby we're having trouble dedicating the time.

If anyone can help us to understand these levels until we get more of a gripon what everything means, that would be great.

We added a gallon a day of liquid Sodium Hypochlorite for the past 6 days and we've added 2 lbs of powder Calcium Hypochlorite yesterday.

Results:

FC: 3 ppm
CC: 0.5 ppm
TC: 3.5 ppm

TA: 100

CYA: 0

PH: 7.2

We measured the chlorine yesterday and it was definitely higher, so we've lost a fair amountover night, but it did rain last night and we vacuumed yesterday and today so are adding a lot of fresh water to keep water levels high, so maybe that's why?

DH is just adding a gallon of liquid Hypochlorite now and he's done with vacuuming, so maybe it will settle back down (we were maintaining steady chlorine levels before we went into the hospital).

What about that CYA reading? That's not good right?
 
You want to increase CYA to around 30 right away, and then raise it more later. With CYA near zero you lose all of your chlorine to sunlight quite quickly. Getting some CYA in the water will make it much easier to get rid of the last if the algae, though you might have done that already.

Your other readings look reasonable.
 
Before:

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Now:

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Congrats on your new baby girl and your clearing pool.

Are you or h planning to shock for a few days now or are you going to do the overnight chlorine test first? If you're doing the test, be sure to measure your free chlorine and cc after sunset and before sunrise. If you have lost more than 1 ppm FC or have more than .5 cc, you need to shock.
The cya will not show up on your tests right away, so make sure you use the pool calculator to see how much to add to get to 40 or 50 (not more).
You beef the cya to help make sure you can maintain your FC, or your shock level.
Eg, your range to target for everyday sanitation will likely be 4 min. Ppm, 7 high end. You will want to start the day with about 7, because you will loose 2 -3 ppm just from sun and us each day even when your cya is up to level.

If you don't pass the overnight test, you will instead want to shock and maintain the high end of the shock range consistently until you pass the overnight test and your water is crystal. Then you let it drop back down to the daily range and keep it above the min. At all times to ensure it's sanitized effectively.

For shocking, once you've added the cya, you will likely need to target 16 or 20 ppm, depending on how much cya you add. Here's the link to determine pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock

One more note -- it's way more expensive, but I used the instant liquid stabilizer (cya) from the pool store because the powder was taking too long to dissolve -- but my water was really cold, and I was being a bit impatient aboutwanting to read the cya. If you used the powder cya, don't even bother reading it for a week, just assume its there and maintain shock or daily FC accordingly.

Let us know if you run into trouble but I suspect you're real close now!
Cheers! And enjoy your time with the wee ne. Before you know it shell be off to college and bring people home fr late night swims ;) (trust NE on this one ;)
 
Hi again - cross posted. You use the pool calculator to determine how much cya/stabilizer you heed, then either hang it in a sock near a return ad periodically squeeze the sock to help it dissolve faster, OR some people mix it with water and pour it into the skimmer (many prefer sock method because that way you're sure not to clog the skimmer with it.)
 
Ok, doing the after sunset test now.

Will try and do the before sunrise test, but depends on how the baby sleeps!!

FC: 9ppm
CC: very slight tint of pink = 0? 1 drop made it totally clear again so either 0 or 0.5?
TC: 9 or 9.5
 
I figured with a newborn there was a good chance you'd be up anyway ;) that way the sun isn't eating the chlorine and giving you false results!
You're getting so close. Once you get that cya n the water and maintain shock level for a day or two I'll bet you're there!
Keep plugging. You'll "own" that pool in short order - and what a lovely pool it is. Those frogs must be SOOOO sad ;)

A day
 

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Update.

The pool looks so great! :party:

We do still have a couple of frogs who insist on coming back and don't seem bothered by the chlorine for some reason.

We also have some stains on the bottom of the pool which don't come off with a scrubbing brush so I hate to say we may end up having to drain the pool in a year or two anyway to tidy it up. :( Still it looks 100% better than I ever thought it would based on how it started out, so we're very happy!! :-D


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Here are the stains which are pretty much all in the deep end. Any suggestions??

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Slightly off topic -- two very good books to read on raising babies. "The Baby Whisperer" and "Bringing Up Bebe". Our daughter read them with her first baby, now almost 7 months old, and they helped her to understand how to find the baby's rhythm's and turn that into a predictable schedule of eating and sleeping. Slightly different, but with a core idea that is the same. Those, combined with "Baby Signs" (American sign language for young children) seems to have produced a very easy going kid who eats anything offered and sleeps easily in his own bed at naps and at night. So cool to notice him rub his eyes and to say to him, with words and signs, "close your eyes, go to sleep" and have him do it, snuggled against my shoulder, no fuss, no bother.
 
Wow, looks awesome.
Not sure what those stains are. If they're tanin stains from the leaves sitting there, I am told that a summer of sun and regular chlorine levels will eventually remove them ;) So here's hoping! Kudos on your lovely oasis!
 
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