So far so good

[SirSwimAlot]

Been reading a lot and asking a few questions for our new pool. We moved last year and got a huge pool with the new house. It needed a new liner which we got done at the end of May.

Since then I have been using TFP method and so far everything has been great. The pool looks and feels great and my wife loves how clean the pool is.

I got the M400 robot as I was having to vacuum constantly and it does an amazing job.

My last readings were

FC 4
CC 0
AL 120
pH 7.2
Ch 75
Cya 40

I have been lowering pH to try to drop the Alklinity down as the pH was climbing on a daily basis. I'm hoping the morning it is a little lower as I haven't had a chance to test today and will in morning.

I have a good friend who moved as well and have a 24' pool at their house that is scary looking. Very cloudy and greenish. I offered to test their pool and give them some advice as my son swam in the pool and it freaked me out when I saw it.

Their numbers were not all that bad except for no chlorine of course.

FC 0
CC 0
AL 50
pH 7.3
CH 150
Cya 75

I immediately ran back and brought them some of my 10% as I didn't want them to go another night with 0 chlorine. I got a text the next day they are going to do the slam and it is already looking better just with the chlorine we put in. I suggested they do a slam very carefully and vacuum the pool as much as they can. Keep the chlorine around 5 until they do the slam. I also had them toss the pucks immediately out of the pool.

Here are some pics of our pool. Really loving how clear it is.

Thanks!

If I make it through the season and the method works for us I will donate to the site. I did pick up a TF-100, some extra reagents and a skimmer head.

P.S. I am really do well with testing and measurement related tasks as I am a perfectionist but the arbitrary nature of some of the tests frustrates me. Like the cya test it says to fill until you can't see the spot, I did the standard solution to test my testing and I can still see the spot at 50 and it's really wishy washy when you "call it" it really can vary by about 20 points.

Then you have the drop tests, I'll get mostly through it and then I'll get rogue drop drop drop and skew the results. Does three tiny drops equal one drop? Who knows. Sometimes I will do it over if it is really unclear.

The pH test gets really tricky around 7.8 and feels like a guess at if it is above or not. Lower it is easier but still hard to get the exact .1 at times.

Rest of the tests are pretty easy.

 

[MarianParoo]

Congrats on your pool!!!! Good luck with the neighbors. You can lead a horse to water...

I did the same thing with my neighbors and it took them a year to give in. They finally got tired of looking at my sparkling pool and decided to self-test and regulate. Now they are ecstatic, but it took over a year.

 

[kimkats]

LOVE IT! I SO hear you on the CYA test............Like everything else in life everyone is different and that includes our eyesight! What I have started doing for the CYA test is this:

Fill to the first line, GLANCE in. If I still see the dot I fill to the next line and GLANCE in, repeat until you do not see the dot when you GLANCE in. If you stare long enough you will see it LOL We will have you round up to the next number anyway so might as well save yourself some time and effort and just go line by line.

For the PH test I hold the tube in front of a white, plastic plate under a bright light. I pull the plate back and forth until I get a color match.

Nice of you to help out the neighbors! Will they be getting their own test kit?

Kim:cat:

 

[SirSwimAlot]

LOVE IT! I SO hear you on the CYA test............Like everything else in life everyone is different and that includes our eyesight! What I have started doing for the CYA test is this:

Fill to the first line, GLANCE in. If I still see the dot I fill to the next line and GLANCE in, repeat until you do not see the dot when you GLANCE in. If you stare long enough you will see it LOL We will have you round up to the next number anyway so might as well save yourself some time and effort and just go line by line.

For the PH test I hold the tube in front of a white, plastic plate under a bright light. I pull the plate back and forth until I get a color match.

Nice of you to help out the neighbors! Will they be getting their own test kit?

Kim:cat:

Not sure if they are going to get a kit. They have HTH test strips, but I told them to get a real test kit. I will probably hear from the soon, my son is off at camp this week so I don't have any contact with them this week.