We are new pool owners and trying to figure out the ins and outs of pool chemistry. We have been looking at the forums for a month or so and finally got the funds to buy the TF-100 test kit. Our pool kept turning a clear green color and, like many others on the website,we kept buying more and more chemicals from Leslie's pool. The pool would clear up after a few days, but within a week would turn green again. Also, no matter how much liquid chlorine we put in, the reading would be 5 at night, but by morning it would show 0 on the basic chlorine tester we originally bought from Leslie's. About 2 weeks ago, it turned green again and nothing was working to clear it up. We finally went to a different pool store and the guy there sold us a thing called Pool Rx. We put that in the skimmer basket and left town for 5 days for a funeral in Chicago. While gone, our son put some liquid chlorine in the pool once a day. When we came home, our pool was miraculously clear for the first time ever. It has been clear for about a week now and we have used a lot less chlorine. We haven't gotten any chlorine reading of 0 since we've been home.
So, before we added the pool rx, we had a floating thing with chlorine tablets in the pool and added liquid chlorine morning and night. Since adding the pool rx, we still have the floater with the tablets, but we only add liquid chlorine once per day. The chlorine readings stay at about 3 all of the time now.
We just received the TF-100 test kit in the mail and tried testing everything today. When we tested the CH we were confused about the color change. It says to take a reading when it turns blue. It turned purple first and after several more drops it turned to a color that we consider to be blue. The same thing happened with the TA test, saying to stop when it turns red, but we thought it was more of a pink and turned darker as we added more drops, but never red. So, the readings below might be way off. We need to know if we should stop adding drops as soon as the color changes, or continue until it is actually blue and red instead of purple and pink. Also, the Chlorine Drop Test says to stop when it turns clear. Ours turned clear, but cloudy. Do we take the reading now, when the color is clear, or when the liquid is actually clear, not cloudy?
We hope it's okay to ask these questions here. We've been looking through the forum for a while now and didn't see anything about this.
FC 5
CC .5
TC 5.5
CH 675
TA 80
CYA 58
So, before we added the pool rx, we had a floating thing with chlorine tablets in the pool and added liquid chlorine morning and night. Since adding the pool rx, we still have the floater with the tablets, but we only add liquid chlorine once per day. The chlorine readings stay at about 3 all of the time now.
We just received the TF-100 test kit in the mail and tried testing everything today. When we tested the CH we were confused about the color change. It says to take a reading when it turns blue. It turned purple first and after several more drops it turned to a color that we consider to be blue. The same thing happened with the TA test, saying to stop when it turns red, but we thought it was more of a pink and turned darker as we added more drops, but never red. So, the readings below might be way off. We need to know if we should stop adding drops as soon as the color changes, or continue until it is actually blue and red instead of purple and pink. Also, the Chlorine Drop Test says to stop when it turns clear. Ours turned clear, but cloudy. Do we take the reading now, when the color is clear, or when the liquid is actually clear, not cloudy?
We hope it's okay to ask these questions here. We've been looking through the forum for a while now and didn't see anything about this.
FC 5
CC .5
TC 5.5
CH 675
TA 80
CYA 58