Just opened and have a high CH - now what?

[tj_royersford]

After shocking and getting my CYA up, here are my latest results (still haven't picked up the strips for the salt yet though).

FC 14.5
CC 0.5
pH 7.8
TA 100
CH 400
CYA 60

I'm still constantly battling the rising pH (new plaster pool I assume). Added more MA tonight. I'm leeting the FC drift down, it appears to be doing so slowly (was at 14.5 two days ago). Now that the CYA is up I'm running the SWG.

My TA has been coming down nicely. I'm still having problems doing the CH test though. The directions say look for a blue color, but I usually see small flecks of bluish/purple floating in the solution but it's that way early on in the test. An earlier post said to look for any color change. Do the flecks count?

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Great update. The FC will drop quicker if you shut the SWG off for a while, tis up to you. Yes, the rising PH will eventually stabilize as your TA is lowered, just keep on top if it with the acid.

The CH test is tricky. The most complex test, and I have yet to know if I've done it right.

Here's some tips I've found:

For the Calcium Hardness test you can use a 10 mL sample, 10 drops of R-0010, 3 drops of R-0011L, and each drop of R-0012 then counts as 25 ppm. This is handy if your hardness is somewhat high, plus it saves on reagents.

and

add the first reagent, swirl for 20-30 seconds. add the indicator (second reagent) and swirl to mix well. add the titrant one drop at a time and swirl for 20-30 seconds between drops.

If you get a purple endpoint or 'floaties' in the sample add 6 drops of reagent 3 (the titrant) FIRST and swirl to mix then proceed with the procedure above. Be sure to include the first 6 drops you added in the final count of drops.

 

[tj_royersford]

Now that you mention it, it's seems obvious that I should turn off the SWG for a day or so and let the FC back down.

I've really been using up my CH reagents trying to figure this out. I like the modified test procedures - the nearest 25 ppm is good enough for me at the moment. I've been a bit anal about testing everything since I opened two weeks ago as I try to get it all sorted out. I suspect I'll be in the market for more CYA reagents in another week or so.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I ordered some refills from Dave and they came regular mail, in 2 days.

 

[tj_royersford]

Latest round of results:

FC 6
CC 0
TC 6
pH 7.4
TA 70
CH 430
CYA 53
Salt 4200

My TA has been consistently trending downward, perhaps because all the kids are now "aerating" the pool for me. I fired up the SWG to keep the FC where it is. I'm thinking that if the TA drops any lower that I'll need to correct it. I should also bump up the CYA some more as well to get it to 70. The salt reading was from the Pool Pilot - I'm not sure how reliable that is. I suppose I should calibrate it against the test strips. I'll be ordering more reagents shortly as I'm about out of them for the CYA test.

 

[JasonLion]

The salt sensor in the AutoPilot units isn't as precise as test strips, but it is good enough that you don't need to worry about it unless you really want to.

TA will fall as you add acid. Eventually you will need to raise it up again. You can let it fall to 60, and then raise it back up to 80.

I would raise CYA to 80 with a SWG. It will fall over the course of the season.

Your CH level is a bit high. There is no immediate problem, but you should be more careful than usual not to let your PH get too high.