New Pool Levels - Questions

[bacevedo]

Our new pool was finished a few weeks ago and started up about 1.5 weeks ago by the PB. I have been measuring the levels and finally got my TF100 kit in to test. I also took my water into Leslies to see what their test results would be. Below are my results and some questions for each level.

Pool + Spa is about 16150 gallons in the AZ sun. Pebble Plus finish.

Basic Test kit
Cl - 3 (The TF100 basic test kit is useless for finding your actual Cl level. They all look pretty much the same)
pH - 7.8 (Added 24 oz acid last night. Tested this morning and it was still at 7.8. Might be because I added CYA a few hours later last night as well, though)

TF100
CYA - 20-30 (Added 1 gallon of liquid last night. Tested again this morning and it was between 40 and 50. Should I add another gallon?)
TA - 120 (tested again this morning and it was 110)
CH - 380 (this was more like a violet color that seemed like lots of little violet dots in clear water. Should it be a completely solid color as opposed to floating particles of color?)
Salt - 2500 per the aquacheck test strips. Salt Cell reports 3000 and is making chlorine ok.

Leslies (using an electronic disk on some of the tests)
FAC - 3.17
TAC - 3.24
Salt - 3000 (same as my cell)
CH - 422 (seems to jive with my test being high and hard to do)
CYA - 34
TA - 84 (much lower than my test)
pH - 7.9
Copper - 0
Iron - .4 - They seemed concerned with this, but I didn't take any of their advice on it until I could check here. They said they normally see .1. Is this something I should do something about?
Phosphates - 100 - they said this was OK. But I know they want to sell you the stuff to lower it. I know better from reading here.

Questions:
On the CYA test, are you adding liquid until you can't see the dot at all? I have pretty good vision, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't over doing it on adding the liquid. When I stopped adding the liquid, I couldn't see the bottom at all, even the dot. Just wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly. Should I add another gallon of the liquid CYA?

My pH seems to always hover at 7.8. Will this stabilize later on or will I be adding acid every day?

The test strips are reporting about 500ppm lower on the salt level than the cell. Do I count only lines where the line is a solid white or can I count lines that are tapering up like a pyramid towards the line? The cell seems to be happy and is making chlorine just fine. Should I add more salt? If so, why? What's the benefit for adding salt and what's the concern for leaving it at the current level?

 

[jblizzle]

Ignore the pool store tests ... trust the TF100.

What was you water source? If a well, then the iron could be a concern.

For the CYA you should not see the dot at all. Just pour the solution back and forth a few times and see if you consistently get the same reading (you are outside with your back to the sun right?) You likely still need to add some more if you are not up around 80ppm (assuming you have a lot of sun).

If the pH is happy at 7.8, leave it. But I would be surprised that it is not rising since you have a SWG and your TA is a little high.

The salt level will lower as you replace water due to splash out / backwashing. What levels do the SWG recommend? I would suggest raising it a bit.

 

[duraleigh]

The TF100 basic test kit is useless for finding your actual Cl level. They all look pretty much the same

It is not intended to measure your chlorine precisely.....from the directions in your kit...

Match the colors of the solution to the colors printed on the test block. Do not record....this is simply a frequent "reassurance" test

It is intended to help you check quickly for the presence of chlorine....not the exact amount. It seems like we need to make the directions spelled out a little clearer

 

[bacevedo]

The TF100 basic test kit is useless for finding your actual Cl level. They all look pretty much the same

It is not intended to measure your chlorine precisely.....from the directions in your kit...[quote:ylzb1b57] Match the colors of the solution to the colors printed on the test block. Do not record....this is simply a frequent "reassurance" test

It is intended to help you check quickly for the presence of chlorine....not the exact amount. It seems like we need to make the directions spelled out a little clearer[/quote:ylzb1b57]

No, I understood that from the directions. I just didn't know that before I bought the kit. I was surprised that my brand new, highly recommended $70 kit had different values listed with the color pretty much the same. It seems that you could remove the numbers all together and just say, if it turns this yellow color, you have chlorine. That might be more clear?

My Stanley basic test kit (that the pool builder gave me) has different colors for each level, but I have never seen any other color other than the bright yellow. So they may be misleading me as well!

I trust the TF100, I just don't trust that I am using it correctly yet. I just wanted some confirmation on some of the numbers I was seeing.

No well water, so the iron came from something. I had 9 queen palm trees planted right behind the pool, so it's possible some dirt got kicked in from that. Should I worry about removing the iron at the current level?

And thanks for the tip on the CYA. So I can pour the water in and out a few times without affecting the test? That would make it much easier if I could try it at different levels and see what the dot looks like.

 

[jblizzle]

Once the CYA reagents are mixed, it should be good for a while (I think I have waited 5-10 minutes before) to test back and forth ... you could try it in different light to confirm just how much that affects the result as well.

Have you seen the extended test instructions:
extended-test-kit-directions-t25081.html

Or the tftestkits You Tube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tf100testki ... sults_main

 

[bacevedo]

Here are results from this morning after following some of the suggestions posted here.

TF100 (chlorine using the accurate test)
pH - 7.5
FC - 7
CC - .5
TC - 7.5
CH - 350
CYA - 60-70
TA - 120

It looks like I need to lower my salt cell to 40% instead of 50%. However, should I be concerned about CC at .5? We had a get together last night and I had about 10-11 kids and a few adults in my pool for a few hours. Could that be why it's at that level?

The pH seemed to stay at 7.5 after adjusting down to that yesterday. For the past several days I have had to keep adding acid to lower from 7.8.

Doing the CYA test outside with my back to the sun seemed to have made my levels higher than when I was doing the test inside. I assume that you recommend doing the test outside so that your pupils get shrunk making it harder to see the dot and the test is calibrated to that kind of light. It was still hard to tell if I was at 60 or 70, but I am leaning more towards 60 at this point.

I am thinking of bringing up my CYA about 10 by adding about 55 oz of liquid CYA. This way, if I really am at 70, I won't go over 80. And if I am at 60-65, that will still put me right in the range I want to be at.

For the iron, should I worry about removing it at .4? I can't test it, so I would have to go back to Leslie's to have it tested again. Is that worth it?

 

[jblizzle]

The CC could be due to that ... it is not uncommon to add a few ppm of FC using bleach before and/or after heavy usage.

The CYA test is meant to be done in a lot of light like that. Adding 10ppm is not a bad idea.

If you have metals , then the use of a sequestrant would help prevent staining:
pool-school/metal%20stains

 

[bacevedo]

Also, I wanted to add what my filter schedule was set to if that makes a difference on my chlorine levels.

Chlorinator at 50%
3:30am - 4am - spa at 100% (no heater, just wanted to filter some water using the suction drain in the spa, may not be necessary)
4am - 7am filter at 100%
7am - 7pm filter at 40%

There is a return into the spa that is used when the pool is filtering, so it may not be needed to run the spa filter for 30 minutes. I just wanted to have water actually draining from the spa and run through the filter as opposed to always spilling over into the pool. That way some of the stuff on the bottom of the spa might be more likely to get sucked into the drain.

 

[bacevedo]

If you have metals , then the use of a sequestrant would help prevent staining:
pool-school/metal%20stains

But is .4 a high enough level to worry about? If it just got in the pool one time due to some dirt or something getting in the pool, won't it get diluted due to splash out, etc. over time?

My pool finish is a darker blue/grey pebble. The plaster mixture is a bluish grey and it has pebbles, glass beads, and abolone shell. What would a metal stain look like on this pool surface?

Is staining the only concern with iron? Anything else?

I'll watch my CC levels. If they are still .5 or higher tomorrow, then I'll hit it was some bleach. I think the chlorinator at 7ppm right now should be high enough to keep under control. It hadn't run all night until this morning and will run all day. It will hold those levels all day so I think I will be good.

 

[jblizzle]

Likely you are running the pump much more than you need to:
pool-school/pump_run_time

If you shorten the run, you may need to bump up the SWG setting (BTW you have a SWG, not what we call a chlorinator (which is for pucks)).

I am not sure what a high metal level is actually But the only concern is staining.

 

[bacevedo]

I checked my levels this evening.

FC was at 6 and CC was at 0. So it looks like everything cleared up nicely today after the party last night.
pH was still at 7.5

I also added about 48 oz of liquid CYA, so I'll check that tomorrow to see if I am in the 70-80 range. I'll probably also add a 40lb bag of salt to bring my salt levels up from 2500. I am just concerned that my salt cell (which is currently reading at 3000) won't like too much more salt and might shut down.