All In on TFP! First Test and Planning

[swertay]

Hi Everyone!

I made the call to cancel my pool service and am going all in on taking care of it myself. I went ahead and got some supplies (liquid chlorine, muriatic acid, borax, baking soda, CYA, calcium harness increaser), TF Pro test kit, and the pool math app.

I tested my pool water today and got:

FC: 18
CYA: 80
PH: 7.8
TA: 80
CH: 250

The last treatment from the pool company was this past Monday and they told me they chlorinate to 7 and also use pucks, but we did have overcast weather most of this week.

I think I’m in a decent spot and don’t plan to make any change to chemical, just monitor for another week. I’m going to let the sun burn the FC levels and just keep watching.

Anyone have any thoughts? What level should I keep my FC levels?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Your CYA and FC are both high for a non-salt pool. If you are using trichlor tablets for chlorination, stop and use liquid chlorine instead so your CYA won't rise any further. With a CYA of 80, your FC only needs to be in the 9-11 range. You can live with that but you might want to reduce your CYA when it's convenient to do a water exchange.

Check your levels with these handy articles:

What Are My Ideal Pool Levels?

Use our tool to find ideal chemical levels for any swimming pool. Check TFP recommended levels on pH, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, and more.

www.troublefreepool.com

Free Chlorine and Cyanuric Acid Relationship Explained

Also please create a signature for yourself so we can all see your pool's specs. See mine below for an example.

 

[newdude]

Hey swertay and Welcome !!!

You get about 51 inches of rain a year, which is more or less the average depth of an average in ground pool, so it's the bulk of a free water exchange yearly. You will likely be adding CYA and CH (and salt if it's ever applicable) every other month.

Your CYA will long be reasonable by the time the daily UV loss returns. (Think bell curve with little loss now and the most mid season). In the peak season you'll likely want the CYA higher than our normal recs with such intense sunshine. Many southerners go with 50 or even 60 as they road test each 10 increase.

With little daily FC loss from a short day and lower sun angle, you may run closer to min for now, but keeping it closer to the high target buys you more time, possibly a few days between ads.



You may want to start CH on the higher side, (450ish) once you prove it perpetually drops, to buy more time between adds.

And GREAT job not only taking control, but doing your homework to get started. We ride with you from here on out and it'll be second nature by the time the season starts, with big fat training wheels on you until then.

Also. Never hesitate to ask if you're not sure. If it's silly, we all get a laugh, with you, not at you. If you do something in haste, or that you're unsure of, we risk multiple issues. Don't worry, we'll help those too, but it's better for all parties to only have one task at hand.

 

[swertay]

@Rocket J Squirrel I’ll update my sig. I recognize my CYA is high. Like I said the pool company was using pucks which I imagine was raising and keeping my levels high.

@Newdude thanks for the info and welcome! That is super useful info. It’s generally drier this time of year with less rain, and I imagine summer in FL (daily storms) is a different beast of management.

My plan is probably to do a gradual water replacement as evaporation lowers the water level and I add water to maintain. I’ll watch how CYA responds, but it definitely makes sense for summer in FL to run CYA a littler higher (again, I know I’m high.)

I’m going wait until my FC levels drop to around 6-9 and maintain there. I’ll monitor CH over the next bit and look to adjust up to 450 like you mentioned.

Probably the biggest adjustment I’m feeling is that I feel like I should be adding junk to the pool, but it really doesn’t need anything right now lol

 

[newdude]

Probably the biggest adjustment I’m feeling is that I feel like I should be adding junk to the pool, but it really doesn’t need anything right now lol

EXACTLY. Keep the FC and PH in range. Monitor the rest and check here before you mess with them, along with why you are messing with them.

It takes a while to get over not blindly dumping stuff in.

 

[jimbethesda]

My plan is probably to do a gradual water replacement as evaporation lowers the water level and I add water to maintain. I’ll watch how CYA responds, but it definitely makes sense for summer in FL to run CYA a littler higher (again, I know I’m high.)

That won't work. CYA doesn't evaporate, only water does. You won't get rid of CYA that way. It does degrade very slowly overtime. You have to drain the water, which includes CYA, calcium, salt, etc. It sounds like you get a lot of rain there. You can drain some water from your pool after it rains, or if you know you're going to get a lot of rain, you can drain some water in anticipation of it.

 

[newdude]

+1.

Or just wait it out. Your 'winter' is like 9 days long and spring starts in February. And it's weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

 

[generessler]

I’m going wait until my FC levels drop to around 6-9 and maintain there.

As the chart says, target FC for CYA 80 is 9-11 ppm. You're safe to swim up to 31! So any error needs to be on the high side. 6 is flirting with a green pool. There are dozens of threads here with folks panicked about algae that finally traces to one or two days of FC a bit below the min in PoolMath logs.