Another First Test

[habajaba]

Ok,
I've been using the test strips from my PB until I got the awesome TF test kit. I don't know what it is, but I just can't tell the readings on test strips. My wife and I can look at them and come up with totally different numbers! Kudos to Dave on such a great product. On to my readings -

FC - 3
CC - .5 (probably less, barely any coloration to begin)
pH - 7.8
T/A - 120
CH - 180 (vinyl liner, so no issue here)
CYA - 30
Water Temp - 79

I have a SWG and will be putting another 4 lbs of CYA into the pool tonight in order to get my CYA up to 50 or 60. I gather that this will lower my pH to some extent. Other than the slightly high pH and borderline T/A, it seems to me that I'm within acceptable ranges. Is there anything I should be addressing immediately?

Based on what I've been reading here, I want to add borates into the mix. Bought all of the 20 mule team that Meijer had in stock today! I would assume a new pool would have close to 0ppm borates to begin with. PB and I have added some chemicals to get the numbers close as the pool has been filled since last October, though it didn't function until this spring. Would certain pool chemicals add borates into the water? I have borate test strips on order, but would like to get things moving while I wait. Would it be safe to assume a 0ppm reading and put maybe 75% of the borax into the water and get the pH back down while I'm waiting?

Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

There are very few pool chemicals with borates in them. Proteam's Supreme and Bioguard's Optimizer are the two obvious ones. If you haven't been using one of those then your borate level is going to be very low.

 

[habajaba]

Jason, thanks for the info. As a new pool owner, it's great to have such an awesome resource!

Here's my latest readings -
FC - 5.2
CC - .2
pH - 7.8
T/A - 110
CYA - 45
Salt - 3010
Water Temp - 77

I added 17 boxes of 20 mule team and the correct amount of acid to offset that and bring the pH down to 7.5. With my pool size, I should have used 17.5 boxes but I quit at 17 until I got my test strips. I cannot read test strips worth a Crud, but the reading on the borate strips is either 30 or 80, but it doesn't look like 50 to me. I can't imagine it would be 80 since I followed the bleachcalc amounts. Should I give it a few more days and see if it wasn't fully dissolved yet?

I turned my SWG from 30% to 20% tonight. Hopefully that will bring me down to 3ppm on the chlorine. Am I correct in thinking that 3ppm would be ideal for my setup? Or should I be raising my CYA and keeping FC up around 5? Should I be concerned that I still have .2ppm CC even with 5ppm FC for a few days now?

It's been 3 days since the borax addition and pH has crept back to 7.8. Is that much creep to be expected normally or could it just be everything settling in after the major changes with the borax addition?

Thanks again for the newbie help!

 

[JasonLion]

It is normal for PH to climb with a SWG. That rate is slower than it would be without the borates and not unusual. Your TA is a little high for a SWG pool but nothing to worry about. Normal operation of the pool with a SWG will bring it down slowly and as it gets lower your PH won't rise as quickly. With the borates you can allow your TA to go down to 50.

I wouldn't worry about CC at 0.5 or lower. The SWG and some sunlight will take care of it after a while.

With a SWG you can usually run your FC level a little lower than the best guess chart. I would bring your CYA up to 50-60 and aim for FC between 2 and 3.

Test strips can be quite variable. Try reading them in bright light, having others check your readings, and averaging a couple of different readings. Anything in the 30 to 80 range is probably fine. There is no need to hit 50 exactly.