What are safe levels for pool chemicals. We are ready to swim. :)

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How did you test those levels? If the strips, the only data point any good might be the pH.

Lower your pH with acid to get into the 7's.

Did you add that much CYA powder to raise it to that level?
 
mknauss said:
How did you test those levels? If the strips, the only data point any good might be the pH.

Lower your pH with acid to get into the 7's.

Did you add that much CYA powder to raise it to that level?
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I used test strips.
I put a total of 54 oz of Muriatic Acid, 32 oz of Nophos and 7 oz of shock in within this week. I have not seen much change in TA, but pH went up to 8.4.
I don't know if I did anything to have the CYA at 75.
 
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Shock. What was it? Do you have the bag?

Regardless, you have little CYA in the water. The strips are trash. You need a test kit.

How do you plan to run this pool, as a Seasonal pool (basic test kit and drain, clean, and start over for any water chemistry problems) or a permanent pool, with a proper test kit?
 
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Nothing you did would raise your CYA level to 75. The test strips are unreliable and this shows just how dangerous that could be. If you attempt to chlorinate assuming a CYA level of 75 and you actually have zero then you'll be in for a whole host of troubles...
 
mknauss said:
Shock. What was it? Do you have the bag?

Regardless, you have little CYA in the water. The strips are trash. You need a test kit.

How do you plan to run this pool, as a Seasonal pool (basic test kit and drain, clean, and start over for any water chemistry problems) or a permanent pool, with a proper test kit?
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The shock is Chlor Brite.
Seasonal pool. I really would like to avoid draining the pool if possible, because our water bill here is very expensive. I will go get a test kit asap. Is there anything else I can do?
 
If you want to treat as a non-seasonal pool, you need a proper test kit. TF100 from TFTestkits.net or a Taylor K2006C off Amazon or others. It is very unlikely any local areas will have test kits.

For now, you need to add 30 ppm worth of CYA. So about 20 ounces of dry stabilizer aka conditioner. You put that in a sock and hang it in the water. Squeeze it every once in a while and it will dissolve.
Add 3 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine now. That would be about 2 1/2 cups. Add that every day until you get your test kit.
 
mknauss said:
If you want to treat as a non-seasonal pool, you need a proper test kit. TF100 from TFTestkits.net or a Taylor K2006C off Amazon or others. It is very unlikely any local areas will have test kits.

For now, you need to add 30 ppm worth of CYA. So about 20 ounces of dry stabilizer aka conditioner. You put that in a sock and hang it in the water. Squeeze it every once in a while and it will dissolve.
Add 3 ppm FC worth of liquid chlorine now. That would be about 2 1/2 cups. Add that every day until you get your test kit.
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Ok, thank you.
Is there a better place to get dry stabilizer and liquid chlorine other than a pool store. They are so overpriced. What should I do with the Chlor Brite? I have a dumb question, would the water be ok to swim in at all?
 
Home Depot, Walmart, etc carry liquid chlorine and stabilizer.

The Chlor Brite is dichlor. It is essentially half chlorine and half CYA. How many bags do you have?
 

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OK == so use that up and do not bother with CYA. The dichlor will add it for you.

Add 4 oz or so of Chlor Brite right now. Let it mix a few minutes, then, If you have acid, you should add 8 oz or so if 31.45% muriatic acid.

Then go swimming.

Add 4 oz or so of the Chlor brite after swimming. Do the same each day. Add 4 oz in the morning. If you go swimming, add 4 oz after.

Once you have used up the Chlor Brite, do not use anymore. Your CYA by then will be about 40 ppm. Start using liquid chlorine then to keep your FC in target range for 40 ppm CYA using the FC/CYA Levels
 
You still need a test kit. If you wish, you can get a 5 way HTH style kit for now. But you will need to add on to that soon.
 
mknauss said:
You still need a test kit. If you wish, you can get a 5 way HTH style kit for now. But you will need to add on to that soon.
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Ok, I will definitely do that right now. I really appreciate it. What about the pH and TA? I read if it is not right, it could be harmful. Is this correct? Also, I'm not questioning you, but I'm just curious why Pool math said the CYA should be between 50-90.
 
pH should be kept in the 7's. Your strip should be reasonably accurate for that. The TA is only used to determine how much acid to use, but I don't trust a strip result for TA. So that is why I said to 8 oz of acid.

I do see now you have a SWCG. So you can start using that once the Chlor Brite is gone. Poolmath is saying to have your CYA in that range for the SWCG. Once you get a kit to measure CYA we can address that.

Have you added salt yet?
 
mknauss said:
pH should be kept in the 7's. Your strip should be reasonably accurate for that. The TA is only used to determine how much acid to use, but I don't trust a strip result for TA. So that is why I said to 8 oz of acid.

I do see now you have a SWCG. So you can start using that once the Chlor Brite is gone. Poolmath is saying to have your CYA in that range for the SWCG. Once you get a kit to measure CYA we can address that.

Have you added salt yet?
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Yes we have added salt. We made the mistake of listen to the pool store, which I will not do again. They said to add 200 lbs of salt which we did and now the SWG is reading too high salt content.
 
mknauss said:
pH should be kept in the 7's. Your strip should be reasonably accurate for that. The TA is only used to determine how much acid to use, but I don't trust a strip result for TA. So that is why I said to 8 oz of acid.

I do see now you have a SWCG. So you can start using that once the Chlor Brite is gone. Poolmath is saying to have your CYA in that range for the SWCG. Once you get a kit to measure CYA we can address that.

Have you added salt yet?
Click to expand...
The original post said their salt content was high.
 
Ok. Did you add the dichlor and acid?

that sounds like too much salt What ppm salinity were you targeting?
 

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