Always getting low FC

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dannieboiz

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2015
286
San Jose, CA
My pool is crystal clear, been testing my water weekly and it always seems that my FC is very low

My reading today is as follow

Temp 61 degrees
FC = 0 or maybe .5 ish the color of the test is very faint so it's hard to tell
PH. = 8.2
TA = 100
CYA = 40

All appears to be in range but my FC. Since we won't start using the pool for at least another 6 weeks and even during the winter, should we be concern if FC is low?

2 or 3 weeks, when I shock the pool FC should rise right?
 
Yes, you need to maintain FC based on cya chart or higher, I keep mine at 10ish during winter. Temps are rising algae will start to grow if you do not maintain FC. Clear water is good, but algae can get hold while water is clear and by the time it gets cloudy you are already in trouble. No shocking needed if you keep it under control. I have never shocked my pool, coming up on season four. And ph needs to be lower.
 
JasonLion said:
Get the PH back into range before worrying to much about the FC level.

Also, if CC is well above 0 and FC is down around 0 there might be something more complex going on.
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As the matter of fact, my PH has not been in range since I cleared the pool last month from algae.

Would doing a 50% water change at this point be too extreme before trying more chemicals?

3 weeks ago when my Ph was in check my chlorine was only at 1.
 
Forgive my ignorance, but I'm a little confused about how you're getting your chlorine into the water. Do you have a salt water generator, or do you manually add chlorine (eg. Liquid chlorine)? Do you mean its being used up faster than you're adding it?/Faster than what's "normal" for your pool?

I'm unclear why you'd want to do a water change instead of just adding more chlorine to avoid getting algae and keeping the water sanitized an pathogen-free. (Isn't SF having water supply troubles?) Your comment about "before adding more chemicals" is what's puzzling...if you change the water you'd still have to chlorinate it, and constantly, to maintain it. So balancing your water/sanitizing with chlorine is not really characterized as an unnecessary use of chemicals...its maintenance ;)

Have you read through "Pool School" to get the gist of maintaining your water the TFP way? That would assist you, I believe. If you have an swg and its not keeping up, a SLAM may be in order if your water/weather is warmer. Either way, riding such a low FC is kind of asking for trouble if the water's warm enough for algae, which clearly it is since you had algae last month.
 
First, like Jason said, get the pH in line with some acid.

Second, what test kit are you using? Color match leaves me to believe you are using an OTO test. Because of the difficulty of matching colors I just use the FAS-DPD test.

I see nothing in your numbers that would sugges that you should exchange some of that precious CA water, unless the CH is through the roof.
 
I don't see anything that would warrant water replacement.

PH can be lowered fairly easily with acid. You should be testing and adjusting the PH weekly (unless the water is very cold, then monthly). Try to keep the PH so it never goes above 8.0.
 
Sorry guys, I was reading/watching about CYA levels and somewhere someone said you can't lower CYA with chemicals and the only way to do it is with a water change and I put CYA + FC kind of goes hand and hand and ended up with TMI then brain farted. LOL

I'll go pick up some Muratic Acid today and dump it in the pool.

So my first goal now is to bring PH down to 7.2? How soon after I dump the MA in before I can test water again.
 

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30 min stir and then re-test.
Yes liquid bleach. There is stronger liquid bleach that's 12.5% that can be had at some pool stores or big box stores. I get mine at Fleet Farm but that's kind of local.
It says shock but it's just strong liquid bleach, no CYA added.
 

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dannieboiz said:
The only thing that are available near by me are these two...

View attachment 34830View attachment 34831

Reviews aren't very good on those anyone use them?
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The muriatic acid is half strength stuff, that's probably why it had bad reviews. The kemtek bleach says 10-11% on the msds. Nothing wrong with that. Depends on price and age. The bad reviews may have been due to old product. You can find full strength acid at hardware stores for $6-8 a gallon usually.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You don't necessarily need "full strength" stuff. What you want (or at least I do) is cheapest per oz.

If half strength is less than half cost it's cheaper and it's what I'd buy it. With bleach there is just too much to figure out so I use the calculator : http://poncatechsquad.com/Dan/Chlorine/
It will tell me what I'm actually paying per oz for the bleach and takes into account the strength, volume and price. That way you can do apples to apples no matter what. For bleach I usually get the Four bottles (gal sz) that's 12.5% for 9.99 (last year). All things considered it's the best buy or me but there are coupons you can use at walmart and sales in the paper that can make it smarter to shop someplace else. It also depends on how far I have to drive to get the "deal".

All last year I was getting acid at Menards. Strong, cheap and convenient for me. http://www.menards.com/main/paint/c...sunnyside-muriatic-acid/p-1479906-c-14360.htm
 
I would call around on the chlorine. I need to do that myself. Cheapest I found last year, without doing extensive searching, was 8.25% for $2.98 at Walmart. I need to find that 12.5% for $9.99 that kiss4afrog got. That's a great deal. If I have that readily available, I may use bleach instead of buying a new SWG.


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