Search results

Yes, turn off the SWG and let it go down on its own. --paulr P.S. The username just set off a ping... a fan of The Doctor, perhaps?

Only the pH test requires a color comparison. For all other tests, you count drops looking for the color to change, or to disappear. The results are more consistent and reliable than the strips, as well. --paulr

Regarding salt levels, I mostly use bleach except I use trichlor for vacations and 10 or so tabs in the spring to bring CYA back up a little. It happens I measured my salt level just a year ago at 500, and today is around 900, with no intentional dilution (just winter rains). --paulr

There is a pool shop near me where they told me the truth about CYA, and came out and showed me how to take care of my pool and spa myself. I recommend them to local people who ask, and I buy my acid and 12.5% liquid chlorine there. When my Polaris has a problem, I go there. It's true I am...

I wonder whether Intex pumps have unusually high flow rates compared to pool size, versus your typical full-size pool and pump. I don't know which pump usually goes with which pool but for the smallest ones it looks like you'd have one turnover in just a couple of hours, and intuitively that...

The simultaneous fill/drain technique is a good trick to know. I've seen a few reports now; once you balance the fill and drain rates you can go quite a while with it. And of course you get the biggest bang for the buck by draining as much as possible in one round. What caught my eye, though...

My CH tests are typically pale as well. I put a white sheet of paper behind the tube to help distinguish the colors. Don't shine any direct light on it (e.g. the light on a magnetic stirrer, if you use one) as it can wash out the pale colors. If you try this and it is truly colorless, let us...

I would recommend not fussing with TA when you have elevated FC levels. The pH tests will be thrown off at high chlorine levels (> 10). --paulr

There's a "report this post" button on the upper right of each post, the [!] button, next to the quote button. Is that what you want? --paulr

Summarizing and agreeing with the above: FC and CYA are the things to worry about first. pH is on the low side but not immediately critical. TA/CH are fine where they are. In a large pool like yours, the amounts of dichlor/trichlor you mentioned aren't worth much. Assuming the tablets are 8-oz...

CYA here comes as a powder/granular, people say "solid" but it's not tablets or chunks. Sometimes we see it as a liquid, which works faster but costs about twice as much. --paulr

The temporary pool guide wants you to use dichlor (something whose main or only ingredient is sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione) not cal-hypo (full name calcium hypochlorite). At 5 oz per 500 gallons you want 50 oz or round that to 3 lb (48 oz) of dichlor if it comes in 1-lb containers. This...

rastoma, ignore the knee-jerk reactions. If you know what's in the stuff you're using, and you know where your levels are and where they're going, you'll be fine. (There are whole months of the year where trichlor is all I need; keeps FC happy, builds up some CYA, and keeps the pH in check.)...

Except for the darkest splotch, it looks like my pool surface too. Plaster isn't supposed to look like that? --paulr

Low CSI is not an emergency; it takes time. And pH is the biggest factor, so nudging that up will help. Using cal-hypo as your normal (not shock) chlorine source for a while will slowly bring your CH up. For each 10ppm FC from cal-hypo you get 7ppm CH. A little playing around with Pool Calc...

The FC is on the low side for swimming, yeah. Figuring FC at around 7% of CYA and assuming 140-150 is correct, you'd want more like FC 10. When CYA is sky high like that, the thing to do is dilute the sample. I would thoroughly mix 1 part pool water with 2 parts tap water (using comparatively...

A couple of too-late-at-night data points... Pool calc says 165 gallons 6% bleach in 80k gallons will raise salt by 209. 5000 is not too farfetched. I just dumped and refilled my hot tub after 6 months; for grins I measured the salt level... 1000ppm. I mention this mainly because the hot tub...

People look at charts like that, and start thinking LC degrades to uselessness in no time. Yes it degrades, no not that fast. A chart like that means 100ºF constant 24-hour heat. Where I am the daytime temps can reach that, but it's not round-the-clock. So you need to think about it in...

If you're seeing 4-5ppm loss daily, with a reasonable (50+) CYA level, I'd do an overnight FC loss test... 1) add bleach one evening (after the sun is off the pool) as usual 2) wait an hour with the pump on 3) test to verify what your FC actually is 4) test again in the morning before the sun...

Is the kit any good? Yes. Is the kit worth it? That's a value judgement. If you're experimenting with a small temporary pool, the HTH kit is a fine choice. I've experimented with (non-pool) things where I invested a couple hundred bucks and came out with total failures; knowing I could have...

The Pool Calculator and the FC/CYA chart use different methods to arrive at their shock levels. The exact shock level is not critical; anywhere between them will be fine. Pick a target and stick to it, that's the important thing. --paulr

I get 1/4 + 1/16 + 1/8 = 7/16 not 3/4 (12/16). Not saying you didn't lose 3/4 and have a real problem, but the report doesn't balance the way it should. --paulr

Adding bleach every day or two during the summer is normal. If that's a drag, you have a couple of non-puck automation options. You can investigate a bleach feeder such as a peristaltic pump or The Liquidator; you can also look into using a SWG. --paulr

Noone will stop you from running at 8-9ppm instead of 4-5ppm, but it doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose to do that. The FC/CYA charts and ratios were devised to keep reasonable levels of sanitizer in the water; unless you have some constant source of organics that need to be cleaned up...

You would need a DPD or FAS-DPD test to measure CC. The OTO test doesn't do that. I'm not used to thinking in terms of TC loss... offhand if you see a TC loss overnight, probably it's due to CC going away. If you see up to 2ppm loss during the day with nobody in the pool, that's more likely...

Typically you'd want to start out testing every day just to keep track of things, and make sure you're not dropping below your minimum. After a while you'll get to know how your pool behaves and you don't need to test as often. These days I find myself adding bleach about every other day, but...

Make sure you get pool DE not some other kind--it comes in different grades for different purposes. --paulr

The technique has worked for many people, so I wouldn't give up yet. You could try taking pH down to 7.0, the process reportedly works faster at lower pH. I've also sometimes wondered if the Pool Calc is making some simplifying assumptions that don't apply in all cases. I find I need a little...

Now that you know the model, it might be possible to google up an online owners manual. I was able to find one for my filter that way. The main reason to know the square feet is because that tells you how much DE to use. For example, in my filter, 36 ft wants 4.5 lb, and 60 ft wants 7.5 lb...

The Pool Calculator shows that at TA 130 and 19k gallons, it would take about 28 oz of 31% muriatic acid to lower pH from 7.4 to 7.2. The Effects of Adding Chemicals section shows that 28 oz acid will reduce TA by 5.8. So, you'd expect to go through that cycle about 5 times to see a 30ppm drop...