Another green swamp conversion - am I almost there?

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Since I see the light at the end of the tunnel (and the vac head at the bottom of the pole, for the first time all year), I took a whole set of water measurements just now.

FC: 10.0 (after bringing up to about 13 last night, and it's noon here so about 4 hours of sunlight today)
CC: 0.0
pH: 6.8 (a guess...my Leslie's kit only goes to 7.0 and the yellow was fainter than the 7.0 window)
TA: 70
CH: 70
CYA: 30

Quick Q: does the TF-100 have a drop-based pH test? I'm using the Leslie's FPD kit with the TF FAS-DPD FC test. I'll get the full TF-100 when I run out of Leslie's reagents.

I think now that my FC loss is getting better and I'm starting to see through the cloudiness, I'll address the pH issue by putting in ~45oz of Borax per the calculator. I just topped off my bleach to bring it back up over shock.

Do you all think I should do anything about CH or CYA? I'm inclined to stand pat for now, but let me know if that's wrong. I do have about 2lbs of CYA on hand.
 
Stay right where you're at on CH and CYA. Your vinyl liner doesn't care about CH, so why spend the money? And if you raise CYA, you'll also need to raise the shock level. Wait until the pool's all clear and balanced for a couple days, then raise CYA.

Nobody has a drop-based pH test. Sorry. But if your test kit is the one I think it is, you have acid demand and base demand reagents, and you can see if adding some base demand puts your color into the right pH zone. Incidentally, the TF100 uses the same reagents as your kit, so you won't be gaining anything except bigger bottles of the stuff you use most.
 
Stay put with your cya until you are done shocking... it will only make you add more chlorine to meet shock levels.

Don't adjust your ph while your are shocking!! High FC levels will make your ph test read incorrectly. Wait until you are in normal FC range to adjust ph.

No bother getting a special ph test... they are the same. If you're ordering the kit.. you will just have an extra :)

As far as CH... when you have a vinyl liner, it's not a big issue and can wait.
 
Suziqzer said:
Don't adjust your ph while your are shocking!! High FC levels will make your ph test read incorrectly. Wait until you are in normal FC range to adjust ph.
Click to expand...

His pH is reading low - is that a concern? I know actual high pH during shocking inhibits chlorine but the test reads high with FC > 10 so the result is normally ignored, but reading low while showing => 10ppm seems odd.
 
Thanks all. I'll check out the additional pH tests with my kit. It does come with the acid- and base-demand tests, but I haven't done one yet. And I'll sit tight on CYA/CH for now.

Just cleaned out the filter...come on pool, let's swim this weekend!
 
I wanted to update everyone with pictures and report that we're all clear! I haven't done the OCLT, but will tonight. I'm keeping it at shock level at least for today. But here are some pictures from the last week:

July 25 - I can see the vac hose on the floor!
[attachment=2:13n98qnb]2012-07-25_14-06-56_296.jpg[/attachment:13n98qnb]

July 26 - Getting better. Can see the dirt on the floor!
[attachment=1:13n98qnb]2012-07-26_13-32-25_643.jpg[/attachment:13n98qnb]

July 28 - A quick dip before it started pouring...of course!
[attachment=0:13n98qnb]2012-07-28_14-26-07_178.jpg[/attachment:13n98qnb]
 
July 30 - Sun's out and we're sparkling, for the first time in three years!
[attachment=0:1zqxlf2e]2012-07-30_09-49-23_421.jpg[/attachment:1zqxlf2e]

It took upwards of a month from when I took the cover off to today, though the first week was mostly spent hooking up my filter and getting the right test kits. From first shock to swim was probably 21 days. The last two weeks were a test in patience, as I felt so close. I'll probably stitch all the pictures together and post up my "lessons learned" since I see a lot of the same questions from other rookies like myself in this forum. I probably spent about $75 getting it from the swamp to what it is today, and that's $60 in bleach and $15 in CYA.

THANK YOU TFP! My pool will never be the same!
 

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