Hi all. I'm new here and just got our new pool about 3 weeks ago. I've been reading a lot of things on this site.
We are in the process of having retaining walls put in and they should be done by the middle of next week. So I have had the solar blanket on the pool the last several days while they are working around the pool. I thought just in case someone got to close and dropped a tool or something in there at least it should stay on the cover instead of dropping and putting a hole in my liner.
I did order the Taylor kit as described in my signature. It is supposed to arrive later today. Until then, I've been testing with the strips. As near as I can tell using those, my readings are as follows.
My pH is 7.8. (I've been fighting to get this down. It was reading 8.4 since the water was first in. Used lots of pH minus then muriatic acid.)
The Alkalinity has been 240. I think it is just starting to start heading to the next lower color. (Water used from tap is high pH and alkalinity)
The CYA has been between 30-50 color.
FC took a while to get up. It was mid 90's here. I have the Aqua Smarte system they installed that I see no one here likes.
I first put in 2 gallon of Liquid chlorine. brought the level up some but didn't last. Last week I put two more gallons of it in. Then the color registered in the highest range of 10ppm. It took a few days for the chlorine to come back down to 5ppm. I set the aqua smarte to zero a couple days ago. Yesterday the strips showed 3ppm. Today it is back closer to 5ppm. It is going up even with the aqua smart set at zero.
We haven't been in it much and the solar cover has been on so not much activity or evaporation. Just can't figure out why the FC is rising? Once the test kit arrives, I'll see if I can figure out how to use it and get more accurate readings. Any ideas as to why the level is rising? The pool store said with the Aqua Smarte the FC should be between .5 and 1 ppm. I'm between 3 and 5. Is it okay to swim at 5ppm?
We are in the process of having retaining walls put in and they should be done by the middle of next week. So I have had the solar blanket on the pool the last several days while they are working around the pool. I thought just in case someone got to close and dropped a tool or something in there at least it should stay on the cover instead of dropping and putting a hole in my liner.
I did order the Taylor kit as described in my signature. It is supposed to arrive later today. Until then, I've been testing with the strips. As near as I can tell using those, my readings are as follows.
My pH is 7.8. (I've been fighting to get this down. It was reading 8.4 since the water was first in. Used lots of pH minus then muriatic acid.)
The Alkalinity has been 240. I think it is just starting to start heading to the next lower color. (Water used from tap is high pH and alkalinity)
The CYA has been between 30-50 color.
FC took a while to get up. It was mid 90's here. I have the Aqua Smarte system they installed that I see no one here likes.
I first put in 2 gallon of Liquid chlorine. brought the level up some but didn't last. Last week I put two more gallons of it in. Then the color registered in the highest range of 10ppm. It took a few days for the chlorine to come back down to 5ppm. I set the aqua smarte to zero a couple days ago. Yesterday the strips showed 3ppm. Today it is back closer to 5ppm. It is going up even with the aqua smart set at zero.We haven't been in it much and the solar cover has been on so not much activity or evaporation. Just can't figure out why the FC is rising? Once the test kit arrives, I'll see if I can figure out how to use it and get more accurate readings. Any ideas as to why the level is rising? The pool store said with the Aqua Smarte the FC should be between .5 and 1 ppm. I'm between 3 and 5. Is it okay to swim at 5ppm?
