After the storm...

[RuthN]

After 8.5 inches of rain, I could finally test my water this morning. What a mess! Not as bad as I expected, but still messy.

ph-off the chart 8.2+
FC-5.5
CC-0
TC-5.5
CH- 11 drops the water turned clear. It never changed at 20 drops....not even flashing color. I gave up. I tested twice....same results.
TA-110
CYA-70

Why do I not have any calcium?

should I even worry about ph since I need to bring it to 10+ anyway? I'm not closing my pool. I just haven't begun to raise ph to get where it needs to be. It looks like Mother Nature helped.

since I'm not closing, when do I turn the SWG off and start adding chlorine manually?

 

[pabeader]

oops! I think you are mixing up pH and FC? Yo need to bring your pH down quickly, to around 7.5. Do that right away with some muriatic acid.

As far as the SWG. What is the water temp? For most SWGs, as long as it's over 50 your SWG will continue to generate chlorine so it should be fine.

 

[Texas Splash]

Ruth, there may be some miscommunication about a couple items, so let's try to clear that up for you:
- pH should be around 7.5-7.8 on any given day. The rain may have increased it a bit (aeration), so just use acid to lower it back down.
- Rain water should have no bearing on your hardness (CH). If anything, a significant turnover may help to lower it, but that would take a lot of water. Typically we get hardness from our fill water. You can test some water from your garden hose and see what that comes out to. It would be odd for you to not have any hardness in your water unless you filled from a water softener. I would suggest testing the CH again just to make sure.

Like you, I won't close like folks up north, just let things slow down and check things periodically. Water temp will drive the operation of your SWG. I'm not familiar with your model or how much you can adjust it, but at some point you should be able to just back it all the way off and add bleach periodically. You'll be able to confirm that as you test your FC and you notice it doesn't drop anymore. I hope this helps. Try to have a nice (dry) day.

 

[RuthN]

Oh! I thought I read ph needed to be 10. Nm. I just remembered it should be FC.

Water temp is still 72.

I retested CH. still nothing. Wth?

 

[Leebo]

I've never seen the Calcium test turn clear. Can you please describe how you were performing this test?

 

[RuthN]

MA in. Will re-test in an hour.

Calcium test...10ml of water. 10 drops of R-10 and mixed. 3 drops of R-11 and mix. It was barely pink. R-12 one drop at a time and mixed. Turned clear at 11. Stopped at 20. I've tested 3 times and all similar results.

As far as SWG goes, I have it set at 60%. I can dial it back at any time.

Add: I do not have a water softener. I filled the pool from a garden hose on Tuesday. I was out of town from Wednesday to Saturday and didn't want it to go low.

 

[Texas Splash]

As for the CH testing, have you seen these notes:
Hold the dropper bottles vertically and squeeze gently, so that drops come out slowly and seem to hang on the tip of the dropper bottle for a moment before falling.
• If you expect that your CH level is very low, you can do the test so that each drop is 10, instead of 25, to get some extra precision. Use 25 ml of pool water, 20 drops of R-0010, 5 drops of R-0011L, and multiply the number of drops of R-0012 by 10 to get your CH level.
• Measuring high CH levels is much easier and more precise if you use a magnetic stirrer.
• The sample may turn purple during the test, or go to blue for a moment and then turn back to red/pink. This is called a "fading endpoint" and is caused by interference from metal ions. If this happens, do the test again, but this time add five drops of R-0012 before adding any R-0010 or R-0011L. Remember to count the initial five drops in the total.
In extreme cases, a fading endpoint may occur even when adding five drops of R-0012 at the start. If that happens, mix pool water with an equal quantity of distilled water, test that, and then multiply the result by two.
• R-0010 is calcium buffer, a strong base which prevents interference from magnesium.
• R-0011L is calcium indicator, an organic dye used to provide the red/blue color. It should be a deep blue color. If the dye stains the plastic bottle it is stored in, it has gone bad.
• R-0012 is hardness reagent, used to titrate until the color changes.
• The precision of the measurement is plus or minus one drop when up to 10 drops of titrant are used, or plus or minus 10% of the final reading, when more than 10 drops of titrant are used.

 

[RuthN]

I've probably seen them...didn't remember them. I'll test again when I test ph here in a little bit.