used borax and now shade of color does not match any in test

[Yankintx]

AFter using borax to raise my ph from 6.8 to 7.5, the shade of color the water turns in the tester is not the same as any of the indicated colors. It is more orange red than pink. It is closest to 7.3 to 7.5 but really does not match.

ANy suggestions?


fc 2
ta 120
cya 50
ch 220

 

[JasonLion]

Re: used borax and now shade of color does not match any in

When you are in-between PH levels that you have color samples for you will see other related colors that don't match up exactly. As you get more practice with it they will become more familiar.

 

[chem geek]

Re: used borax and now shade of color does not match any in

You can also try using a different number of pH indicator drops. It's the hue you are trying to match, not the saturation, but sometimes the standard 5 drops are too high or low in saturation so using fewer or more drops can help you match against the standard better. Just note that using fewer drops will have less chlorine neutralizer so may not handle FC up to 10 ppm as usual.

 

[Yankintx]

Re: used borax and now shade of color does not match any in

Drained my pool today and refilling with 34000 gallons fresh water. It has been 7 years since I had the pool built and have never changed the water out.

My CYA level came in at 115 when doing the test correctly, so I figure now is the time to drain and start fresh.
Tired of using 5 times the amount of chlorine everyone else does to sanitize my pool.

 

[chem geek]

Re: used borax and now shade of color does not match any in

Tired of using 5 times the amount of chlorine everyone else does to sanitize my pool.

Do you mean having an FC level that is higher such as 9 ppm FC or higher? You shouldn't have been using more chlorine (i.e. daily demand) in your pool than normal -- in fact, at that high CYA level it might have been less than 2 ppm FC per day, perhaps even 1.5 ppm FC per day. So what was the problem with having a higher FC level if the daily chlorine demand was still similar to or even less than someone with, say, 4 ppm FC with 50 ppm CYA? The main problem with the high CYA is if you ever needed to shock the pool since that would require quite large amounts of chlorine.

 

[Yankintx]

Re: used borax and now shade of color does not match any in

Tired of using 5 times the amount of chlorine everyone else does to sanitize my pool.

Do you mean having an FC level that is higher such as 9 ppm FC or higher? You shouldn't have been using more chlorine (i.e. daily demand) in your pool than normal -- in fact, at that high CYA level it might have been less than 2 ppm FC per day, perhaps even 1.5 ppm FC per day. So what was the problem with having a higher FC level if the daily chlorine demand was still similar to or even less than someone with, say, 4 ppm FC with 50 ppm CYA? The main problem with the high CYA is if you ever needed to shock the pool since that would require quite large amounts of chlorine.

I was mainly referring to properly shocking my pool. No matter how much I added, I couldn;t get it to proper shock level, and it would not maintain free chlorine. I spent a small fortune last week and decided a water change was warranted.

After a week of spending needless $$ on chemicals, I finally drained the pool. Haven't done it since the pool was built, and i figured that since The CYA was so high, as were the phosphates, I was better off draining and starting fresh.

In the past 5 seasons, i had no problem maintaining the proper chlorine levels, but this year is was impossible. I figured since it was early in the season, i should drain and refill so that things are perfect when my kids get out of school next week.

I know....I made some mistakes, especially by using Sam's Club dichlor shock, and I'm certain that using the case of shock raised my CYA levels to where they were. Live and learn, and this forum has taught me much.

 

[chem geek]

Re: used borax and now shade of color does not match any in

Got it. Thanks for explaining. We all live and learn and I've had my own share of mistakes from initially using Trichlor-only with CYA buildup to get cloudy water and rusted stainless steel mounts and later on not watching the chlorine level in the pool as the water warmed up and ending up with a CYA-to-ammonia conversion that took a lot of chlorine to clean up.