Suz's tap water for practice

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SuzfromTexas

SuzfromTexas

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Apr 7, 2015
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Houston, Texas
I finally tested our tap water to practice using the kits.

Here are my results with notes on what I THINK I should do if this were pool water (SWGS):

FC = 1.5 should be 4-6 ppm; add bleach

PH = 7.2-7.5 ok

TA = 230-250 should be 60-80 ppm; not sure what to do

CH = 275 ppm ok

CC = 2.0 should be <0.5; SLAM (whatever that means)

TC = 3.5 can't find anything about this


I never did well in Chemistry class. I lived in a small town, and our Chemistry teacher was a Baptist minister. Nice guy, but I learned more about the Bible than chemistry.

Thanks! Suz.
 
From the tap, that CC is not worrisome. They use it as a sanitizer. It should go away with sunlight.

The high TA will push pH up. Don't be surprised if when you get the pool filled and circulating, that pH is higher than you tested today. Adding acid to lower pH will also lower TA.
 
Somebody with more experience please correct me if I'm wrong. I recently filled our new pool and prior to fill tested my water and came up with a plan. Nothing I came up with actually happened. From memory I had the following

FC - 1
CC 1
TA 70
CH 125

What ended up happening was that the TA went to 0 due to the acid start that the PB did (thank you Patrick for steering me straight on that one), my CH eventually ended up at about 425 I assume due to the plaster curing, I ended up doing a partial drain and refill to get it down to 300. So my advice which is given in hindsight is keep an eye on pH and chlorine levels for the first week or so then if PB has left it to you start getting your other numbers in line. It is amazing how quickly you seem to get to know what your pool water is doing, especially with pH and Chlorine, I'm about three weeks in and have my TA looking pretty good, my pH still rises but I can pretty much guess what it will be before I test and the Chlorine is finally holding better with a CYA between 20-30 (still going up with chlorine tabs) I would not rush to adjust water chemistry at the start, let everything settle down, pH and FC monitoring and adjusting will be key and take your focus to start with.


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Suz, don't worry about TC. It's only the sum of FC+CC. As long as you break those numbers out in your results, we can see it, but we don't really use the number for anything.

Your numbers are pretty good, but as Richard said, you'll have to watch pH close, because it will want to climb on you. No worries, we'll help you on that if you need it. I can't say if smurf blue will have a bearing on your numbers, so we will have to see. :jocolor:

I'm sorry about your chemistry lessons, but OMG...that was so funny!
 
Patrick: Thanks for your reply. I'm not losing any sleep over this. Since I taught school for 25 years, I know things make more sense when you're actually doing them. I just don't want to wake up to a green pool - especially not with Smurf Blue! Adjustments are expected, but I'd rather things not get out of hand.

Splash: Hilarious!!!! I'd love to call the water company and tell them a thing or two. Most of our utilities around here are run by very nice companies. And our water used to be run by a local utility district. We could always talk directly to Joe Local Guy. But then we were switched from well water to lake water, and a new big company took over. They are just vial people. I wish I had the numbers on our old water. I think it would be interesting to see what differences there are.

Question: I found a really nice chart (I love charts and spreadsheets) from "Flotsam" on TFP dated 5-3-11. Someone probably recently suggested it, or I found it by googling. It seems good, but I had to save it as a picture and then print, so the resolution isn't great. Can someone tell me how to download it or get hold of document file? Or..... do you guys know of a more recent and/or better one to keep track of my test numbers?

Thanks for now and for all future help!!!! Suz.
 
Divin Dave: That's great - about what you remember from HS chemistry!!! I remember Donnie!

Yes, I've seen pool math..... I'll try it when I test our friend's pool water.

Thanks for the link to the testing log spreadsheet. I'm going to it right now! I so appreciate everyone's help here!! You guys are awesome! Suz.
 
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