Newbie - Some advice with results from 1st TF-100 Testing Results

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Advancetec

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Nov 7, 2015
19
Cape Coral, FL
Hello Everyone!

I have a newley built plaster pool about 15,000 gallons that I been running off of test strips for the past 3 weeks. The water looks great currently.

With research from TFP I ordered the TF-100 Test Kit and here are my results.

CDT = 1.5ppm
CC = 0
TC = 1.5

PH = 7.5

Total Akalinity Test = 80

CYA = 20

CHT = 325

I do have a Pentair C320 auto chlorine feeder filled with 3" tabs. I have it up to 4 and it seems like my chlorine readings are usually low. I'm not sure if something's wrong with it but I been throwing a 3" tab in my skimmer about every week and a half.

The water is very clear and I would like to keep it that way. Please advise what I should be doing to help these numbers. Not really sure what I should be doing with the info.

Thanks!
 
Welcome to TFP~ Nice to have you here :)

Your chlorine level is too low. With a CYA of 20, your bare minimum FC should be 2ppm, with 3ppm being better. Yet with your use of pucks this is a labile value because each puck you add *also* adds more CYA to your water and that in turn raises your chlorine requirements. It can become a problem when the CYA is so high that you start to see algae because you don't realize how much more chlorine it takes to balance that CYA. Please check out this chart:
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

Please make sure you are testing your CYA with the sun to your back, holding the vial at waist high level. This gives you the most accurate reading.

Your calcium hardness is just fine where it is. Don't add any more or use any chlorine products that *also* contain calcium such as "pool shock" or CalHypo.

TA is fine and the pH is good- but as you may have noticed the pH of a new plaster pool will fluctuate up as the pool cures and often requires the addition of muriatic acid to lower the pH down again. Monitoring pH is important, as well as the brushing you should be doing, to promote the best cure.

Time to hit the Pool School articles up at the top of this webpage and learn all you can about your pool and water! Start with Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
 
Thanks for the reply!. Should I use some bleach to increase the FC instead of pucks that will effect my CYA?

Yes I am doing a lot of reading on this site as well.

YippeeSkippy said:
Welcome to TFP~ Nice to have you here :)

Your chlorine level is too low. With a CYA of 20, your bare minimum FC should be 2ppm, with 3ppm being better. Yet with your use of pucks this is a labile value because each puck you add *also* adds more CYA to your water and that in turn raises your chlorine requirements. It can become a problem when the CYA is so high that you start to see algae because you don't realize how much more chlorine it takes to balance that CYA. Please check out this chart:
Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

Please make sure you are testing your CYA with the sun to your back, holding the vial at waist high level. This gives you the most accurate reading.

Your calcium hardness is just fine where it is. Don't add any more or use any chlorine products that *also* contain calcium such as "pool shock" or CalHypo.

TA is fine and the pH is good- but as you may have noticed the pH of a new plaster pool will fluctuate up as the pool cures and often requires the addition of muriatic acid to lower the pH down again. Monitoring pH is important, as well as the brushing you should be doing, to promote the best cure.

Time to hit the Pool School articles up at the top of this webpage and learn all you can about your pool and water! Start with Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Click to expand...
 
Your CYA is actually a skosh low for a sunny climate like FL. You can continue with the pucks until your CYA reaches 40ish. Then I would recommend switching to liquid chlorine as it won't add anything else (other than a few grains of salt barely worth mentioning).

You can play with the numbers and see what the results are of using x amount of chemicals in your pool in the PoolMath app (found at the top of this page). You first need to enter your pools gallon size at the top, then down at the bottom specify pool type, chlorine source and that you want to take the advice of TroublefreePools.
Then enter your current test values in the left hand column and then any desired levels in the right (Pool Math gives you suggested ranges also) and it will tell you how much chemical to add.
Down at the very bottom you can check and see "how much FC will it add if I add 1 gallon of 8.25% bleach...." along with all the other chemicals. So you want to end up with 20ppm more CYA, right? So we need to see how many pucks will that be before you hit that level. PoolMath to the rescue!!

Holler back if you have any more questions :)
 
Yes, supplement the pucks with bleach.

Right now the CYA is too low, so you lose a lot of FC to sunlight. As the CYA increases as more pucks are dissolved, the minimum FC level goes up, but the daily losses should also decrease. When CYA hits 40, stop using the pucks. You want to leave room to add more CYA via pucks if you leave town for a few days.
 
Just keep in mind that the screen enclosure shades the pool from the sun. Your chlorine demand will be somewhat lower so you can keep your CYA on the low end of our recommendations.
Click to expand...
I don't know that the forum has ever had a good report on the effect of screening, but I think it is more significant than most folks realize.

My in-laws pool in Southern Florida (90-94 every day) must have the HEATER on anytime they want to get the pool water into the 80's
 
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