Small Pool Build - Brisbane, Australia [emoji1037]

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Small Pool Build - Brisbane, Australia ??

Had my first swim today! Water was probably about 28* as I’d had the cover off for a couple of hours prior. It wasn’t cold but wasn’t warm. About 20 mins was enough for me but the boys swam for about 1.5 hours. Outside temp was about 23 and sunny with no wind.
 
Costas > DownUnder said:
Well... was it fun...?

Water temp sounds nice - ambient, not so much... :mrgreen:


Kids trying to pull mum in...!
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Umm, not really [emoji23] It was relaxing sitting on the bench... until one child or another splashed me with their flippers [emoji849] It felt very strange being in my pool for the first time. I’m very well acquainted with it just from the outside! Felt smaller and low with all the big rocks surrounding it. Just strange. The water height is perfect covering my shoulders though. Do have to say that my pb does build a good pool. Communication leaves a lot to be desired.
 
needsajet said:
Congratulations on your first swim!!!

It sounds so weird to me with 3 degrees C this morning here in Sydney, lol :) Makes me feel colder just typing that!
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Thanks! It’s cold here today but not quite Sydney cold. I think Saturday is meant to be around 25 so hoping to get another swim in but then thinking I might turn the heat pump off for July/August. Mid to late August we should see some nice weather again. I guess swimming 10 months of the year isn’t bad!
 
I have a pool maths app question. I tested my water and recorded in a new log. FC was 5.5 and I wanted to bump it. Went in to the effects of adding section and 300ml said it would add 1.5 ppm. Perfect as I wanted to reach a FC of 7. % chlorine was entered correctly at 23.5%. After doing this I clicked on the FC section of the log to double check and entered 7 for target FC and it told me to add 162ml of chlorine. Double checked the % and I had it set to the same 23.5%. Which one do I believe. I have added the 300ml so I guess I’ll find out if I test again later.

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0d0080940ff0a8383e9e66dfc994366d.png
 

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The math may not allow the 23.5 percentage. I just set your pool up on my App and it returned 330 ml of 12.5% for 1.5, and "Effects of Adding" 330 ml returned 1.6 ppm FC, so it seems OK.

Hey, I laughed at the name of your pool!!! Good one!
 
needsajet said:
The math may not allow the 23.5 percentage. I just set your pool up on my App and it returned 330 ml of 12.5% for 1.5, and "Effects of Adding" 330 ml returned 1.6 ppm FC, so it seems OK.

Hey, I laughed at the name of your pool!!! Good one!
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Very true. It might not have liked my value. Thanks for double checking for me.

Yes, pool lives up to it’s name [emoji23]
 
Small Pool Build - Brisbane, Australia ??

Feeling a bit frustrated with my water. It’s not as clear as it should be. Numbers look ok and am still adding acid by hand each and every day. As time goes by I am becoming less and less confident with the ph test. It’s not orange and not hot pink, but a definite pink. I think this is around 8 but since the ccl lab finished at 7.8 I’m not sure how I can be accurate with this. I do use my pbs drop test as well and colour is the same. It does go from 7.8 to 8.2 and I guess 8 is the best approx. colour but have heard as my fc is over 5 it can’t be trusted. Really feeling fed up with this. I do add acid everyday to bring ph down from where I think it is to where it should be but feel this test is very inaccurate and subjective. The other tests I have confidence in running but ph is kinda important! TA has dropped from about 140 to 125 which is expected given the amount of acid I’ve dumped. Once I bring my ph down each night my csi drops back to just slightly negative. I don’t understand what it going on with my water and also how I can become more comfortable with the ph testing.
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Re: Small Pool Build - Brisbane, Australia ??

riley00dog said:
have heard as my fc is over 5 it can’t be trusted
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The pH test should be OK up to 10ppm of FC, chem geek posted here that you can also do dilution with distilled or deionized water to reduce the FC level and measure the pH.

For the colour matching, I'm finding it useful to compare against the photos at each pH level on the CCL website here.


pH6.8-510x339.jpg


pH7.0-510x339.jpg


pH7.2-510x339.jpg


pH7.4-510x339.jpg


pH7.6-510x339.jpg


pH7.8-510x339.jpg
 
Yeh, I get your concern, and hopefully I can help. Main thing is to not be overly concerned. If pH gets too high, you'll start to get scale. I don't think you have, so it's been fine. The first place is usually the SWC, and/or on the waterline tile. It's fairly easy to watch for.

So try correcting pH just twice a week for a while. Try it for a few weeks, but run your hand over the waterline tile (just in one spot) every day and feel for any spots a bit bigger than dust particles. Have a glance in the SWC cell and see if you see any whiteness on the plates.

The high TA is going to continue for a while, because your pool is new. That aspect will get better. If you want it to get better faster, correct pH down to 7.2 each time.

Hope that helps :)
 
Re: Small Pool Build - Brisbane, Australia ??

jgb75 said:
The pH test should be OK up to 10ppm of FC, chem geek posted here that you can also do dilution with distilled or deionized water to reduce the FC level and measure the pH.

For the colour matching, I'm finding it useful to compare against the photos at each pH level on the CCL website here.


pH6.8-510x339.jpg


pH7.0-510x339.jpg


pH7.2-510x339.jpg


pH7.4-510x339.jpg


pH7.6-510x339.jpg


pH7.8-510x339.jpg
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Those pictures are amazing! Thank you so much! I take it that it is a photo for each of the levels listed? In that case my ph might not be as high as I think. From this the colour I am typically seeing is roughly 7.5/7.6 which is what my chlorinator is currently reading... so maybe my calibration has held from the last recalibration. Hmmm. Food for thought. These actual colours look very different to me than the little squares on the vile. Have trawled the ccl site and never seen this, so thank you again.

With the ph testing not being valid I was referring to the test kit that my pb left me. Someone mentioned a while ago to me that since it only tests fc up to 5 it won’t be accurate for ph over that level of fc. As I said it seems to be the same colour as the ccl water though. Will ignore that comment. After seeing these photos I feel much more comfortable with the ccl test I think. Now to figure out what is going on with my water.
 
needsajet said:
Yeh, I get your concern, and hopefully I can help. Main thing is to not be overly concerned. If pH gets too high, you'll start to get scale. I don't think you have, so it's been fine. The first place is usually the SWC, and/or on the waterline tile. It's fairly easy to watch for.

So try correcting pH just twice a week for a while. Try it for a few weeks, but run your hand over the waterline tile (just in one spot) every day and feel for any spots a bit bigger than dust particles. Have a glance in the SWC cell and see if you see any whiteness on the plates.

The high TA is going to continue for a while, because your pool is new. That aspect will get better. If you want it to get better faster, correct pH down to 7.2 each time.

Hope that helps :)
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Thanks [emoji4] I don’t have scale. I run my hand down low over the waterline tiles every time I brush lol. If I do decide to bring my TA down quicker should I up my CH to compensate? I know you said it was at a sweet spot with the higher TA and lower CH. Just wondering what I do with that when my TA drops? Should I gradually be upping my CH? I thought I would have seen it push up by now as I think that’s what new plaster is meant to do but it hasn’t. So should I just test ph twice a week or continue to test daily and only only adjust twice a week? I did drop my pump run time down several days ago but still should be ample at 8 hours a day (4+4). It’s raining here with more expected. It’s the first real rain since the pool was filled. Be interesting to see what it does to my numbers. At least I have a functioning overflow drain!
 
At the end of the day - with regards to the PH test, as long as the colour is not overly 'yellow' and not overly 'pink' then you are in the ball park so to speak.

I would not get hung up too much on whether it is 7.2 Vs 7.4 or 7.4 Vs 7.6.

You could always test the sample which is 7.2 PH to give you an idea of exactly how orange-yellow that looks like in the flesh. Use that as a guide for the bottom end of your PH range.


riley00dog said:
It’s raining here with more expected. It’s the first real rain since the pool was filled. Be interesting to see what it does to my numbers. At least I have a functioning overflow drain!
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I have had a bit of rain over the last few weeks (enough to backwash twice) but in reality my levels have not really moved enough that it became noticeable to me.
 

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