Just opened first pool tests done, now what?

[Bperry]

Good to know. Going to test shortly. Pool Math says 350-650 is ideal. Any idea what I should aim for? Older plaster pool, showing some signs of wear (yellowish spots). Not sure what other info would be helpful, but adding 35 lbs of calcium chloride seems like alot

edit to add - so adding the 4lb bag brought it up to around 250ppm. Water still looks very clear.

Probably shoot for the low end. Test your fill water and see if it’s high calcium. It’ll build up quick and require draining if it does. Track the CSI in pool math and only add enough to keep CSI at 0 to -0.3.

 

[easy-e]

Probably shoot for the low end. Test your fill water and see if it’s high calcium. It’ll build up quick and require draining if it does. Track the CSI in pool math and only add enough to keep CSI at 0 to -0.3.

Thank you, will do.

 

[easy-e]

Fill water is about 50-75 ppm for CH, don't know if that is high/low/normal. Don't plan to add anything else right now.

Some sun today so FC should be dropping a bit. At 8 now. Still too high for pH testing to be reliable?

CYA is at around 35 (halfway between the two). Not where I wanted it but seems like I should not add more from what I am reading?

Pool Math says CSI is -0.46. I'm not sure if this is a reliable number yet though due to the FC levels.

FC - 8
CC - 0
pH -7.5
TA - 80
CYA - 35
CH - 250
CSI - -0.46

 

[Bperry]

Fill water is about 50-75 ppm for CH, don't know if that is high/low/normal. Don't plan to add anything else right now.

Some sun today so FC should be dropping a bit. At 8 now. Still too high for pH testing to be reliable?

CYA is at around 35 (halfway between the two). Not where I wanted it but seems like I should not add more from what I am reading?

Pool Math says CSI is -0.46. I'm not sure if this is a reliable number yet though due to the FC levels.

FC - 8
CC - 0
pH -7.5
TA - 80
CYA - 35
CH - 250
CSI - -0.46

You can test your pH when the FC is below 10ppm.

The CSI is heavily influenced by pH, water temperature, and calcium. Your fill water isn’t high in CH so I’d considering adding enough to get the CSI to -0.3 and then as it warms up, it’ll drift closer to 0.

And your CYA is either 30 or 40. Always round up. On that test It helps if you fill the water up to the first test line and then check to see the dot. If you can see it, then fill it up to the next line and keep going until the dot disappears. The test will be much faster that way.

 

[easy-e]

You can test your pH when the FC is below 10ppm.

The CSI is heavily influenced by pH, water temperature, and calcium. Your fill water isn’t high in CH so I’d considering adding enough to get the CSI to -0.3 and then as it warms up, it’ll drift closer to 0.

And your CYA is either 30 or 40. Always round up. On that test It helps if you fill the water up to the first test line and then check to see the dot. If you can see it, then fill it up to the next line and keep going until the dot disappears. The test will be much faster that way.

Good to know. So CYA is 40 then. Will add some water and retest.

Otherwise nothing alarming? Water looks great, albeit cold. Robot arrives today. Need to inspect filter tomorrow.

 

[Bperry]

Good to know. So CYA is 40 then. Will add some water and retest.

Otherwise nothing alarming? Water looks great, albeit cold. Robot arrives today. Need to inspect filter tomorrow.

I’d add a bit of calcium if you are ok maintaining the pH in the high 7’s. Play around with the CSI calculator and see what I mean. I don’t know how warm water gets in NJ during the summer.

 

[easy-e]

I’d add a bit of calcium if you are ok maintaining the pH in the high 7’s. Play around with the CSI calculator and see what I mean. I don’t know how warm water gets in NJ during the summer.

When you say "if I'm okay maintaining the pH in the high 7s" - is there some reason I might not want to do that, or do you just mean in terms of whether I have the chemicals on hand to maintain pH?

My water level was a little low so I'm adding some water now. Going to test and see what that does to the calcium levels before I add anything but I have product on hand..

 

[Bperry]

When you say "if I'm okay maintaining the pH in the high 7s" - is there some reason I might not want to do that, or do you just mean in terms of whether I have the chemicals on hand to maintain pH?

My water level was a little low so I'm adding some water now. Going to test and see what that does to the calcium levels before I add anything but I have product on hand..

It’s related to the CSI. As summer comes and warms up the water (which you can’t really control) the pH and CH are two other “knobs” you can turn to keep the CSI slightly negative to avoid scaling. I find that keeping my pH around 7.8 and the CH on the lower side makes for a good balance right below 0. If your CH tends to increase over time you may need to lower the pH to keep the same CSI. It’s a weird balance that maybe doesn’t translate to different regions since temperatures vary a lot. All that to say don’t worry too much. Keep the pH in the 7’s.