Can someone please explain why the Bioguard results show 2 numbers under Total Alkalinity? My test kit agrees with the 161 (This morning my Taylor test kit showed FC 0, TC 1, pH 7.0, and Alk 160). But when I ask the store manager she says the right number matches the test kits/strips but the left number is what it really is(?!?!). I want to start ignoring them but I'm reliant on the pool store to test for cya and hardness and earlier this week it got too low according to the left number (59/104) and they freaked out and had me drain 10,000 gallons and refill which shot Alk back up. Here's the whole story if you'd like....
History: we bought our house this year and the pool store opened it. It was crystal clear. Our pool started to get cloudy Memorial day weekend. We had our water tested via Bioguard by the pool store and followed their instructions to the letter 3 different times for one week. In general Alk was always high, pH was always low, FC was almost nil despite multiple rounds of 5-7 bags of shock. It only got cloudier and hardly ever registered any free chlorine and by this point we'd spent $400 on chemicals. We went to a different pool store and he tested with a Taylor-style test kit (titration) and that employee said we'd never get anywhere until we got our alkalinity down (he got a reading of Alk 220, pH of 7.1, FC 0.4, and TC 1.4). He had us add in 4.25 gallons of muriatic acid then wait, then add 5 gallons liquid chlorine to shock it.
We didn't see any visible results after 48 hours and had to go to the first pool store to pick up our repaired vacuum so we ran another electronic test. They said our alkalinity was so low and our TDS was so high (3900) from all the liquid chemicals recommended by the 2nd store that our best bet was to drain 2 ft and refill (that was June 7). After that the water was clearer but Alk was back up to 190. They told us to bring down our metals first and wait 48 hours. 2.25 qts of Pool Magnet Plus did nothing (metals went from 0.2 to 0.3).
All along I've been reading information from here (and everywhere) and broke down and bought a Taylor test kit that arrived 6/10. I'm finally convinced I should have ignored the stores from the start and followed instructions here. My plan of attack is to lower alkalinity slowly via muriatic acid, bringing pH back up between doses through aeration (I use my shop vac and the pool's two water fountains to aerate).
I'm maintaining some level of chlorine using 3-in sticks in a dispenser attached to our pump. I'm not going to worry about metals or hardness or anything else until the alkalinity is down to 120 and the pH is up to 7.2. I would sleep better at night though knowing what the heck the number on the left of the water analysis results meant?! And that it was safe to ignore it and rely on my Taylor kit.
Thanks for reading all this!
