Don't retest CYA until it's bright and sunny out. You have a pool volume similar to mine. It takes mine at least an hour to fully circulate, sometimes longer.
Drain & Refilled Completed - Chemical Questions
- Thread starter lovemyazpool
- Start date
Ah...didn't know that about the liquid stabilizer...good to know it ends up costing more....
Retested just now and here are my readings:
TC: .04
FC: 4.6
pH: 7.8
TA: 140
CH: 270
CYA: 37
I added a little more acid per the poolcalc to bring down the pH, but it is telling me to bring my pH down to 7.0 and aerate to bring it back up to get the TA down. Should I do this now, or try and get my pH down to 7.5 first?
I am assuming that (since it is dark) I should not see a big decrease in my FC overnight, am I thinking about this correctly? Or since this is a refill, will it bounce around before it stabilizes?
Right now, I have just added the additional acid to bring the Ph down, I have not added any more stabilizer or bleach. I am running my pump (new sand) continuously as well as my robotic pool cleaner.
The water is a little bit cloudy. Before adding the chemicals, it was crystal clear (from the tap), as soon as I turned on the filter and added the chemicals it turned cloudy. Not too much, can still see the deep end drain in 8' of water, but nothing like it was before adding chemicals.
I plan on continuing to run the pump and the cleaner 24/7 for right now until I get everything stabilized. I am trying to get this done before we leave for our cabin for Thanksgiving. We will be gone Mon-Fri, so next is to determine what levels I should have before we leave! Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks
- Richard
Retested just now and here are my readings:
TC: .04
FC: 4.6
pH: 7.8
TA: 140
CH: 270
CYA: 37
I added a little more acid per the poolcalc to bring down the pH, but it is telling me to bring my pH down to 7.0 and aerate to bring it back up to get the TA down. Should I do this now, or try and get my pH down to 7.5 first?
I am assuming that (since it is dark) I should not see a big decrease in my FC overnight, am I thinking about this correctly? Or since this is a refill, will it bounce around before it stabilizes?
Right now, I have just added the additional acid to bring the Ph down, I have not added any more stabilizer or bleach. I am running my pump (new sand) continuously as well as my robotic pool cleaner.
The water is a little bit cloudy. Before adding the chemicals, it was crystal clear (from the tap), as soon as I turned on the filter and added the chemicals it turned cloudy. Not too much, can still see the deep end drain in 8' of water, but nothing like it was before adding chemicals.
I plan on continuing to run the pump and the cleaner 24/7 for right now until I get everything stabilized. I am trying to get this done before we leave for our cabin for Thanksgiving. We will be gone Mon-Fri, so next is to determine what levels I should have before we leave! Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks
- Richard
TA is the last thing you worry about. It will come down naturally as you lower pH.
It is curious that while the pH went down a little, TA actually increased. Unless you had to add a bunch of fill water, one of your tests has to be wrong.
Did you run the filter on RINSE before you put it on filter? Some people forget to do that. If you did not that could be the cause of the cloudiness.
TA is the last thing you worry about. Get everything else in order THEN work on the TA like you posted above.
With TA every pool is different. Mine likes to be a little on the high side to keep my PH from bouncing around. Some pools like the TA to be lower. You will find yours with some experience and time.
I have some links for you. Take your time reading them. Ask any and all questions you have.
Print these out:
Pool School - Recommended Levels
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Some more good info. to help save you some money:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
The best link of all----the whys and hows of TFP:
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Do NOT add any more CYA for now. The reason I say that is you can use chlorine tablets for when you are gone BUT you now know they will raise your CYA so you want to leave "room" for that while you are gone so you can use the tablets.
Do you have a timer on the pump? If not any why you can add one before you leave?
Let us know if you have any more questions or just want to check what you are learning. It is a LOT of info. to take in!
Kim
TA is the last thing you worry about. Get everything else in order THEN work on the TA like you posted above.
With TA every pool is different. Mine likes to be a little on the high side to keep my PH from bouncing around. Some pools like the TA to be lower. You will find yours with some experience and time.
I have some links for you. Take your time reading them. Ask any and all questions you have.
Print these out:
Pool School - Recommended Levels
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule
Some more good info. to help save you some money:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals
The best link of all----the whys and hows of TFP:
Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Do NOT add any more CYA for now. The reason I say that is you can use chlorine tablets for when you are gone BUT you now know they will raise your CYA so you want to leave "room" for that while you are gone so you can use the tablets.
Do you have a timer on the pump? If not any why you can add one before you leave?
Let us know if you have any more questions or just want to check what you are learning. It is a LOT of info. to take in!
Kim
I would also add that you can use a 10ml sample for testing FC/CC. It saves on reagents. Multiple your drop count by 0.5.
I can just picture Teacher Ms. Kim dancing around the pool to music. What was the song?--- "the wheels on the bus go round and round"
Thank you all...
Kim -
I followed the Triton manual to the letter when I changed the sand which included backflushing first before going to filter mode. I do not have a rinse mode on my filter, just two settings: filer of backflush.
We do have a timer on the pump and can set it to run while we are gone. I have one blue floater of tablets left, not sure if that will be enough to maintain my FC while we are gone for a week or if I should put in a bunch of bleach before we leave. All the kids will be with us, so no one will be swimming the week we are gone.
@Richard - It is quite possible that I screwed up the tests myself as I am learning how to do them properly. Since the pH test is so easy, I am sure I must have miscounted the drops (or something) on the TA test. I will run all of the tests again in the morning and post the results.
Thanks Again everyone for all of the great information!
Kim -
I followed the Triton manual to the letter when I changed the sand which included backflushing first before going to filter mode. I do not have a rinse mode on my filter, just two settings: filer of backflush.
We do have a timer on the pump and can set it to run while we are gone. I have one blue floater of tablets left, not sure if that will be enough to maintain my FC while we are gone for a week or if I should put in a bunch of bleach before we leave. All the kids will be with us, so no one will be swimming the week we are gone.
@Richard - It is quite possible that I screwed up the tests myself as I am learning how to do them properly. Since the pH test is so easy, I am sure I must have miscounted the drops (or something) on the TA test. I will run all of the tests again in the morning and post the results.
Thanks Again everyone for all of the great information!
Good Morning Everyone -
OK, just reran my tests and here is what I have this morning:
TC: .2
FC: 3.2
pH: 7.6
TA: 130
CH: 275
CYA: 37
It would appear that my chemicals are right where I want them based on what I have read here. The TA is a bit high, but as I understand it, that may drop on its own so I should not do anything with it right now.
So my question would be this: Where do I go now with my chemicals? The pH is fine, the CYA looks good, the FC seems OK. The pool is still cloudy (can still see the bottom at the 8' deep end). We are running the filter 24/7 and the robotic pool cleaner as well.
We are leaving for about seven days tomorrow and with the CYA at 37 it has been suggested here that I could put tabs in a floater to keep the FC up while we are gone. I guess my question there is how many tabs do I use to keep my FC up where it needs to be if we are going to be gone a week?
We are converting (next week) to the AutoPilot SWG system and I have read here that my CYA with an SWG needs to be around 70 to 80, so I don't think tabs will be a problem for a week, just don't know how many to even shoot for right now.
Thanks!
- Richard
OK, just reran my tests and here is what I have this morning:
TC: .2
FC: 3.2
pH: 7.6
TA: 130
CH: 275
CYA: 37
It would appear that my chemicals are right where I want them based on what I have read here. The TA is a bit high, but as I understand it, that may drop on its own so I should not do anything with it right now.
So my question would be this: Where do I go now with my chemicals? The pH is fine, the CYA looks good, the FC seems OK. The pool is still cloudy (can still see the bottom at the 8' deep end). We are running the filter 24/7 and the robotic pool cleaner as well.
We are leaving for about seven days tomorrow and with the CYA at 37 it has been suggested here that I could put tabs in a floater to keep the FC up while we are gone. I guess my question there is how many tabs do I use to keep my FC up where it needs to be if we are going to be gone a week?
We are converting (next week) to the AutoPilot SWG system and I have read here that my CYA with an SWG needs to be around 70 to 80, so I don't think tabs will be a problem for a week, just don't know how many to even shoot for right now.
Thanks!
- Richard
By TC, do you mean CC? With a CYA of 40, your current FC is borderline. You want to target at 5 or so. How many tabs fit in your floater?
According to Effects of Adding Chemicals at the bottom of poolmath, every 8 oz puck will raise your pool 1 ppm CYA. So you can safely use as many as 30 pucks --15 lbs. Pack as many pucks as will fit in your floater in there and open the thing up wide. You don't need to worry about overstabilizing things.
Ah yes, I meant CC, not TC!
I have two floaters that hold (it looks like) about 7 or 8 pucks each.
LOL about as far from that as you can get! I love me some good rock and roll! We live on 6.5 acres at the back of our property with our "neighbors" at the front of their property so it can be as loud as I want it!
I am glad to hear you backwashed the sand and followed the directions.
It is just a matter of time for it to clear up all of the way is my guess. I bet it was hard to see it so clear THEN cloud back up when you added chemicals
after all of that hard work. I would wait to work on your TA until get back.
Do as Richard says and fill up the floaters and let them fly!
Have fun on your trip!
Kim
Yup. I would take the FC up to 5-7 with bleach now, check and re-add before you leave, and then fill both floaters.
OK, so based on Poolmath which said if I added 121 oz of 6% it would raise my FC by 1.8 I went ahead and added the 121 oz to the pool. That was four hours ago and I just retested everything and here are the results:
CC: .4
FC: 6.2
pH: 7.2
TA: 150
CH: 275
CYA: 40
So my FC went up a total of 3 instead of the 1.8 poolmath had suggested it would go up. My only thought is that I am using Clorox concentrated bleach and it is a higher concentration than the 6% that I had put into poolmath which is skewing the poolmath results.
My pH has dropped from 7.6 to 7.2 without me adding any more MA. The last MA was added yesterday hours before my last test of yesterday which showed my pH at 7.6. I have had the pump running 24/7 so I am sure all of the MA that I added was completely mixed when I took the test yesterday, so I am not sure what is applying downward pressure on my pH. I will check it again in the morning and see where it is at then...
I am going to aerate tonight which is supposed to raise my pH back up (as well as lower TA). I will report back in the morning.
Overall it is looking good so far...
CC: .4
FC: 6.2
pH: 7.2
TA: 150
CH: 275
CYA: 40
So my FC went up a total of 3 instead of the 1.8 poolmath had suggested it would go up. My only thought is that I am using Clorox concentrated bleach and it is a higher concentration than the 6% that I had put into poolmath which is skewing the poolmath results.
My pH has dropped from 7.6 to 7.2 without me adding any more MA. The last MA was added yesterday hours before my last test of yesterday which showed my pH at 7.6. I have had the pump running 24/7 so I am sure all of the MA that I added was completely mixed when I took the test yesterday, so I am not sure what is applying downward pressure on my pH. I will check it again in the morning and see where it is at then...
I am going to aerate tonight which is supposed to raise my pH back up (as well as lower TA). I will report back in the morning.
Overall it is looking good so far...
Well, I guess you are working on TA ahead of schedule... All looks good! Report morning results if you have time before you leave. Have a great vacation!
Good Afternoon Everyone -
OK, here are the reading from this morning. I ran the pump/filter all night while aerating.
CC: .2
FC: 4.4
pH: 7.8
TA: 150
CH: 275
CYA: 40
My pH went back up, but not much happened to my TA. My FC is down while CH and CYA appear stable.
I am going to add another 121oz of bleach and then on Wednesday my son will drop in the floaters. We will be back on Sunday and hopefully that will hold the FC levels where they need to be and allow everything else to stabilize. I am also going to drop the pump back from 27/7 to our normal 8 hours a day in the evening.
OK, here are the reading from this morning. I ran the pump/filter all night while aerating.
CC: .2
FC: 4.4
pH: 7.8
TA: 150
CH: 275
CYA: 40
My pH went back up, but not much happened to my TA. My FC is down while CH and CYA appear stable.
I am going to add another 121oz of bleach and then on Wednesday my son will drop in the floaters. We will be back on Sunday and hopefully that will hold the FC levels where they need to be and allow everything else to stabilize. I am also going to drop the pump back from 27/7 to our normal 8 hours a day in the evening.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,403
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Regarding TA, I read your previous post -
That's not quite right. Adding acid is what lowers your TA (and pH). It lowers TA by converting the bicarbonate (HCO3-) alkalinity in your water to aqueous CO2. Then, the process of aeration increases the outgassing of the excess CO2 which also raises the pH back up again. So, you add acid, which lowers the pH and TA, and then you aerate to restore the pH to normal levels without creating any additional TA. Keep doing that cycle enough and your TA lowers.
So, the only time you will measure a decrease in TA is when you add acid to the water.
That's not quite right. Adding acid is what lowers your TA (and pH). It lowers TA by converting the bicarbonate (HCO3-) alkalinity in your water to aqueous CO2. Then, the process of aeration increases the outgassing of the excess CO2 which also raises the pH back up again. So, you add acid, which lowers the pH and TA, and then you aerate to restore the pH to normal levels without creating any additional TA. Keep doing that cycle enough and your TA lowers.
So, the only time you will measure a decrease in TA is when you add acid to the water.