Need help raising my CH

[PeteMorris]

I am fairly new to this forum, and by following your simple rules I have really enjoyed the changes in my pool chemistry. (plus the fact that I am no longer counting on the "educated" pool store employee.

I am trying to get every thing in sync, so I can begin adding borates to my pool, but I am having a hard time getting the calcium hardness up to 300 ppm.

On 9/5/14 my readings were as follows:

T/A = 70
F/C = 3.6
C/C = 0.4
PH = 8.2
CH = 250
CYA = 50

I then went to the pool calculator, adjusted my F/C and PH, and further was instructed to add 100 oz. of Calcium Chloride to raise the CH to 300 ppm and to add 27 oz. of stabilizer to raise the CYA to 70

On 9/6/14 I added 80 oz. of calcium hardness and 24 oz. of stabilizer. Since then we have had several days of heavy rain and I'm sure that I had some run-off from the pool.

I took new readings today, 9/9/14 and now have the following:

T/A = 80
F/C = 9.8
C/C = 0.4
PH = 7.5
CH = 250
CYA = 55

I realize that I may not get a true reading on my CYA for another week or so, but shouldn't my CH have risen 30 or 35 ppm by now?

Am I missing something?

 

[ping]

I would not worry about raising the CH, the pool is fine at 250 ppm. I'm not sure why the increase is not showing up, it could be several things, most likely the run-off, and I would not worry about it for now.

I noticed that you are using 25ml of water for the FC test, use 10ml of water and count each drop as .5 ppm. You do not need the .2 ppm accuracy and it will save you on reagents.

 

[PeteMorris]

Thank you for the advice Ping. I've owned my pool for 5 years now, with the first three being a disaster. I then decided I needed to learn how to balance my own water, as every set of pool store readings were all over the map, and I felt like a whack-a-mole.

Since finding this site, everything just seemed to fall into place and the support is outstanding.

Can't wait to introduce borates.