Just got back from the pool store and it was actually pretty painless! I told them I had my own test kit and that I'd gone to Lowe's to get what I needed and that I've been testing and adjusting as needed and they said that was fine, they were more than willing to work with me. Whoo Hoo! They didn't even try to sell me anything!
I did have them test my water and they said I've done a good job so far, so yay! They did have some recommendations based on the readings and since these differ than the TFP recommendations, I just want to get some feedback:
1) FC & TC: tested at 2.51 - their recommended range is 2-4 so they said I was good there. The TFP recommendation for a SWG is 3-6 (depending on my CYA, of course - see, I'm learning!). Obviously I will stick with TFP's recommendations but I am wondering why their's is so much lower?
2) TA: Tested at 37 - their recommended range is 100-150!!! That is a huge discrepancy from TFP's recommendation of 60-80! What's up with that? Their suggestion was to add 18 lbs of baking soda - yikes! (Pool calculator tells me to add just 84oz to get to 70. Since I added some yesterday should I add this now or wait a little longer?)
3) CYA has come up already to 68 so that's doing well. Just added that yesterday so that may still come up, yes?
4) Copper: the print out said this was too high at 11.19 and suggested I add a copper sequestering agent but the pool guy didn't mention this at all so is this not applicable to my AG vinyl pool?
5) Calcium Hardness: tested at 23 - suggested I add 30 lbs Calcium Chloride to get to their recommended level of 175-350. Alternatively, TFP recommendations are anywhere between 50 and 300 and the pool calculator says I should 43 oz to get to 50. Should I do that or is that not important?
The pH is a tad low at 7.2 but we just added ProTeam Supreme Plus so we'll see where that settles. Overall, I think we're doing pretty well and I'm so amazed (but not surprised) how easy the TFP method really is!
As soon as my husband gets my outside pool steps built, I'm going swimming!!!!!!!