First Test...before I take over from the Pool Guy...

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FlyAU98

FlyAU98

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LifeTime Supporter
Jul 6, 2014
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Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Using the TF100 for the first time. Pool has been maintained by the same pool guy for years...house/pool is new to me. The pool is at least 11 years old (based on what I can see in Google Earth). I haven't seen him put chemicals in, so I don't know exactly what he is using, and I haven't been around for his last few visits to ask. I have seem him use test strips as his testing method. To my knowledge, he checks on the pool once per week. I think he probably was last here 2-3 days ago.

K1000 Chlorine=5ppm
K1000 Ph=7.5

Chlorine Drop Test=6ppm
CC=0.5
CH=325ppm
TA=70
CYA=50

Water is clear, although I got a little cloudy early last week (about 10 days ago). I rinsed the (month old) filter and a fair amount of greenish water came out of it. I called the pool guy and he came by the next day and took care of it. When I got home a few days later it was clear like normal.

I intend to take over the pool maintenance in the next week or two...
 
Everything looks good to me. No more stabilized chlorine. Liquid chlorine is the way to go or SWG. Your CYA level is good right where it is.
For that CYA level I would target 8 and never let it fall below 4.
Congrats on taking control of it yourself ! ?
 
There are no pucks anywhere....no floating chlorine dispenser and there aren't any in the skimmer (T5 is plugged into it anyways) nor do I believe there are any in the pump basket (there weren't last time I opened it).

Target 9, not below 5, referring to the Chlorine level?

My son has pretty sensitive eyes...and that seems like a high chlorine level from what I've read in Pool School, but maybe I didn't understand it. This was also my first time doing the CYA test, for whatever that's worth.

Once I take over, I'd like to add the Borates and perhaps some salt. I've read through all the borates stuff, where do I figure out how much salt to add (for feel) for a non-SWG pool?

Thanks for the help! :D
 
Yes the FC level. Your CYA is the buffer for your chlorine. It takes the harshness out of it. You can safely swim in FC levels up to SLAM level for your CYA level.
The reason I suggested targeting 8 is that gives you wiggle room for chlorine burn off form the sun, bathers so you don't fall below your min FC level of 4. Typically you'll lose 2-3 ppm of FC a day. The target of 9 just gives you some more room, if ya know what I mean. FC/CYA Chart
Burning eyes is usually PH that is out of range.
I'd wait on doing the borate or salt thing till you get a good handle on maintaining your present levels. Some people see no difference with borates. ?
 
2nd week of testing and a trip to the pool store....

Second Round of testing...Pool guy is still on the books, but I've been testing and tweaked the chlorine mid-week with some bleach I picked up on sale at Publix (8.25%, 121oz @ $2.10).

(last week's numbers in parantheses)
FC=3 (6)
CC=0.5 (0.5)
TC=3.5 (6.5)
pH=~7.65 (7.5)
TA=65 (70)
CYA=42 (50)
CH=225 (325)

Water is clear.

I added some bleach (from the Pool Calc) to bring the Chlorine up to a little over 5, per the Chlorine/CYA chart...I haven't re-tested it yet.

Anything else I'm missing?

I decided to put some salt in for feel...took a water sample to the pool store to see what the salt levels were currently. Pool store said all the tests were good, except calcium was low and said something of the sort of them wanting at 2000 or something, but he didn't say what the number was.

Since all I asked about was the salt test, that was the only firm number he gave me, 1700ppm (later confirmed by another pool store). We recently bought the house, neither the seller, nor my current pool guy (who I'm training with ya'll to take over from) ever mentioned salt, even when I asked the pool guy about installing a SWG. Could it get to that level just from the chlorine over the years? Perhaps the test was just done wrong...
-----------------------------------
Morning update:

FC=5 (maybe a tiny bit more, K1000 topped out at 5)
pH=very close to 7.8 (a little darker than yesterday)

Seems like it may also be time to bring the pH down a little...agree?
 
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In an attempt to verify the 1700ppm salt content, I had the water tested at a different pool store. Tester seemed competent, but a few numbers were pretty different from mine.

My K1000 chlorine test before I sampled the water for the store was around 5.

Store results:
FC=2
CC=
TC=
pH=7.6
TA=70
CYA=80 (I tested 42)
CH=170 (I tested 225)

Total Dissolved Solids=2400
Phosphates=300

CYA and CH were significantly different than my test.

My son found some sort of chlorine puck in the mouth of the skimmer today. I never noticed them there before, but I hadn't even looked closely in that area. I have to assume the pool guy has been using them to keep the chlorine levels up between visits.

For what its worth, the water tester recommended Alkalinity Up (6 lbs 8 oz), Hardness Plus (15 lbs 8 oz), and PHOSFree (17 fl oz). I didn't buy anything...
 

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Depending on the tablet (puck) being trichlor or ?? it's likely adding CYA at the same time. That's bad as you do need the FC as that gets used up daily but the CYA just continues to rise. If the CYA gets too high you'll need to drain water out of the pool and dilute with fill water to lower the level.

If you are at 1700 for salt you only need to add about 40 lbs to get it up to 2000. 2K ppm is the recommended level for a non SWG pool.

Adding borax is more of a chore and you might want to wait on that. 12 boxes of 20 mule team borax (913oz) a little over 3 gallons (435oz) of 31% muriatic acid. You might want to make sure what the present level is before you do the addition.

Do you have your own FAS-DPD test kit now ?? The borax is the one test that actually does use test strips, they can be ordered here :lookhere: http://tftestkits.net/Borates-Test-Strips-p29.html
That is also the place to get a great test kit, the TF-100 ;)
 

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I do have the TF100 kit, and borate strips. I only tested the borates once, but they didn't register on the strip.

Pool store CYA wasn't done outside and I just watched the youtube video on testing it...I think I did it right. I'm going to try and do it again tomorrow now that I realize I can reuse the test water to try it a few times.

So here is where I stand now for questions:
-TA seems to be low by everyone's test, mine is 65-70, Pool store says 70.
-I think I need to redo my CA test. I tested 325 and 225, pool store says 170. Lots of variation here, even among my tests so far.
-From reading here it seems I can ignore the "high" phosphate number...

I had a mask on in the pool today, though the water has looked nice and clear from above, looking through it from one end to the other, it was a little cloudy. The masked wasn't fogged up. But the lawn men came today...

I've got some 'stains' that I got a good look at for the first time underwater today...kinda brownish, and it appears some of the cement may have been eaten away where they are. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow.
 
Edited to correct. (Thanks jblizzle, I was at work and going off memory)

TA is fine. Calcium test- As soon as it goes from pink to blue- you've hit your point.

kissafrog- looks like the same old Teledyne-Laars pool heater I just got rid of. I put in a Raypak and I'm back to having a 85 degree pool!
 
zimm said:
TA is fine. Calcium test- drop it very slowly (wipe the dropper tip with a wet rag as per the instruction card). As soon as it goes from green to blue- you've hit your point.
Click to expand...
This is not right. I agree the TA is fine. But, no need to wipe the tip for the CH test (that is for the TA) test. Also the CH test goes from pink/red to blue. The TA test goes from green to pink/red.

All the tests are done until the last drop causes no further color change and that drop does not count.
 
Why do we wipe the tip? I do it because the instructions say to. It's very tedious with a high TA. My daughter likes to help count the drops and sometimes we skip around 8, 21, 13 and etc.
I have a couple of theories, but I won't say them so as to prevent a possible contamination of the truth.
Nice tip on not counting the last drop when there is no more color change. I've dropping until first hint of color change to pinkish. I must have missed this part in the instructions.
 
In VERY fresh TA reagent, there is a static charge build-up that makes the drops seem to jump off the tip and are smaller than they should be ... thus resulting in a higher TA reading than reality. This goes away after a few weeks. If the drops are well formed and seem to hang on the tip before falling, then you no longer need to wipe the tip.
 
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