Ok, since I tend to ramble on endlessly, I'll get right to the question. What do I work on next? CYA, or TA? Or can I work on them both at once?
These are all the readings I can get until next year when I get a real kit!
Oh, and please remember, in a couple months or so, I'll be dumping the water and folding up the bathtub for the winter.
Last readings about 15 mins ago.
PH 7.5
TC 1 (5 this morning and .5 the evening before)
TA 350
CYA: Well... I tried, but my test kit only goes as low as 30, and the black dot still didn't disappear. I'm using trichlor pucks, so it can't be zero from my understandings. (See ramblings below for more info.)
Ok, I've been filtering rust out all week. Swapping between two filters about every 2-4 hours. Poor little underpowered intex pump. I feel sorry for it. Been on 24/7 for a week now. The filters are less and less dirty (more and more clean?) everytime I have changed them today. The water's lookin' crystal clear now. Here's a pic with a crappy camera. Our other camera went to the beach one fine day, and now it's in the shop.
Since I put this thing up 7 days ago, I've been mostly watching the TC and PH levels, adjusting as needed, and dealing with the rust. Now that the rust is in check, or at least not noticable anymore I'm moving on to bigger and better things. Over the week the PH started at 7.6 jumped up to 7.8, so I adjusted the ph that evening before bed. In the morning it was 8.2 so I REALLY adjusted it down to 7.5, later it was back to 7.8 adjusted down to 7.5 then I took some more courses in pool school did some more testing and realized it's probably the high TA causing the jump up in PH so quickly. So I'm going to drop the PH to 7.0 and aerate like it says to do. I'm guessing my supply water has a high TA to start with. I'm also guessing I probably shouldn't even be drinking my well water with the gazillions of acres of farmland surrounding me.
I've never added any stabilizer, so that should explain the low CYA. I'm going to pick some up tomorrow, along with some more CYA test stuff, as there's only enough for 2 tests in the HTH kit I (should never have) bought. Unless someone heads me off here because after I realized I should of put in stabilizer, I also read the pucks raised CYA. So I thought I'd let 'em float for a few days to see where it was... obviously they don't raise it that much that fast... .6 per 1ppm of chlorine if my memory serves me. Still trying to picture in my head what that exactly looks like... Guess I should put it on paper to understand it better.
Yesterday morning the TC was 2, and the little one was in the pool most of the day and I take the floater out when he's in there so last night my TC was .5 and I opened up my puck floater all the way and went to bed. It was 5 when I woke up today, and the PH was 7.5 which has remained the same all day.
So, does it sound like I'm on the right track here? Drop PH to 7.0 then Aerate. Add some stabilizer. Keep testing.
This is my test pool to see if I can actually do this stuff before the money pits (AKA: Kids) are all moved out in 8 years, 8 months, 3 days (but I'm not really counting...) and we can downsize this giant house and get a giant pool instead! (Shhh, don't tell my wife, she doesn't know yet. I have time to work on her! ...and what better way to spoil future grandkids then with a giant pool? Oh yeah that's right... shove 'em full of sugar and send 'em home. LOL)
It all seems to be getting easier and easier the more I read and the more I actually do.
I'd also like to thank Marie, Sean, Evan, Carol, Jason, Wendy, Nikki, Mark, Dave, Edward, and John for writing the articles in 'pool school' as they're awesome! Oh, and whoever put this site together... Still tryin' to figure that one out! You have a soon in the near future supporter here!
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Ok, when I started this message, I had every intentions of going to the store to get the stuff today, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow. So I'll go drop the PH to 7.0 tonight and get started with that... unless someone stops me in the next hour or so.
Oh, and I also noticed I only have 4 tests results... I know I can get 5 from my 6 test kit. HA! I'll go figure out which one I missed and post it.
These are all the readings I can get until next year when I get a real kit!
Oh, and please remember, in a couple months or so, I'll be dumping the water and folding up the bathtub for the winter.
Last readings about 15 mins ago.
PH 7.5
TC 1 (5 this morning and .5 the evening before)
TA 350
CYA: Well... I tried, but my test kit only goes as low as 30, and the black dot still didn't disappear. I'm using trichlor pucks, so it can't be zero from my understandings. (See ramblings below for more info.)
Ok, I've been filtering rust out all week. Swapping between two filters about every 2-4 hours. Poor little underpowered intex pump. I feel sorry for it. Been on 24/7 for a week now. The filters are less and less dirty (more and more clean?) everytime I have changed them today. The water's lookin' crystal clear now. Here's a pic with a crappy camera. Our other camera went to the beach one fine day, and now it's in the shop.
Since I put this thing up 7 days ago, I've been mostly watching the TC and PH levels, adjusting as needed, and dealing with the rust. Now that the rust is in check, or at least not noticable anymore I'm moving on to bigger and better things. Over the week the PH started at 7.6 jumped up to 7.8, so I adjusted the ph that evening before bed. In the morning it was 8.2 so I REALLY adjusted it down to 7.5, later it was back to 7.8 adjusted down to 7.5 then I took some more courses in pool school did some more testing and realized it's probably the high TA causing the jump up in PH so quickly. So I'm going to drop the PH to 7.0 and aerate like it says to do. I'm guessing my supply water has a high TA to start with. I'm also guessing I probably shouldn't even be drinking my well water with the gazillions of acres of farmland surrounding me.
I've never added any stabilizer, so that should explain the low CYA. I'm going to pick some up tomorrow, along with some more CYA test stuff, as there's only enough for 2 tests in the HTH kit I (should never have) bought. Unless someone heads me off here because after I realized I should of put in stabilizer, I also read the pucks raised CYA. So I thought I'd let 'em float for a few days to see where it was... obviously they don't raise it that much that fast... .6 per 1ppm of chlorine if my memory serves me. Still trying to picture in my head what that exactly looks like... Guess I should put it on paper to understand it better.
Yesterday morning the TC was 2, and the little one was in the pool most of the day and I take the floater out when he's in there so last night my TC was .5 and I opened up my puck floater all the way and went to bed. It was 5 when I woke up today, and the PH was 7.5 which has remained the same all day.
So, does it sound like I'm on the right track here? Drop PH to 7.0 then Aerate. Add some stabilizer. Keep testing.
This is my test pool to see if I can actually do this stuff before the money pits (AKA: Kids) are all moved out in 8 years, 8 months, 3 days (but I'm not really counting...) and we can downsize this giant house and get a giant pool instead! (Shhh, don't tell my wife, she doesn't know yet. I have time to work on her! ...and what better way to spoil future grandkids then with a giant pool? Oh yeah that's right... shove 'em full of sugar and send 'em home. LOL)
It all seems to be getting easier and easier the more I read and the more I actually do.
I'd also like to thank Marie, Sean, Evan, Carol, Jason, Wendy, Nikki, Mark, Dave, Edward, and John for writing the articles in 'pool school' as they're awesome! Oh, and whoever put this site together... Still tryin' to figure that one out! You have a soon in the near future supporter here!
-------
Ok, when I started this message, I had every intentions of going to the store to get the stuff today, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow. So I'll go drop the PH to 7.0 tonight and get started with that... unless someone stops me in the next hour or so.
Oh, and I also noticed I only have 4 tests results... I know I can get 5 from my 6 test kit. HA! I'll go figure out which one I missed and post it.