Tf100 first results in..drum roll..

[FirstVallartaPool]

I'm nervous but here goes
Tc 5
Fc 4.5
CC .5
Ta 40
Ph 6.8-7.2
Cya 62
Ch 925

Its tough pool to manage as its a rental sometimes and I get a friend in to do the basics and manage when we aren't there. For the most part around here everyone uses strong powder chlorine like this pool, as no one can be around to add liquid bleach everyday. Twice a week for maintenance is about it.
This water i just tested has been treated like this now for about 3 months in the hot vallarta sun.
Sand filter running approximately 3 to 4 hours a day [which I was hoping to get away with 2 hours as its a small pool] I calculated I can turn over entire pool in approximately 1 hour.
Current state of water is not Chrystal clear although it occasionally can be. Id give it about an 85% rating
Thanks again for any and all help to come up with a good system for my situation!

 

[needsajet]

Nice to meet you via TFP

If it were me, I would add a SWG, and arrange for someone to test twice a week and adjust the setting on the SWG when/if needed, and correct pH. An acid doser could be considered for the acid. I would target 5 to 9 ppm FC for now.

I'd raise the pH to 7.4-7.6 (upper end if still using powdered chlorine; lower end for liquid bleach which should be adopted as soon as you can so CYA doesn't go any higher vs. the good level now). I would use washing soda (soda ash) to raise the pH and TA at the same time, shooting for 50 on the TA. After that if pH needs to be increased I'd use borax.

I'd test the fill water and then determine the long term CH plan.

I'd try adding DE to the sand filter while I was there and then backwash it out before leaving, unless really confident it was working fine and pool-minder could handle it. Pool School - Add DE to a Sand Filter

I'd do an OCLT to rule out any algae issue related to the cloudiness Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

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Then I'd go to the beach, eat some fish on a stick, down a few margaritas, then go down to Playa Mismaloya for dinner and more margaritas!

 

[FirstVallartaPool]

Thanks so much for all of the info! I found out from my friend that he added some acida as we typically have opposite situation with Ph approaching 8. So maybe I wait a couple days take another read. I ran filter for 7 hours and water almost chrystal now! The sand filter has never been deepcleaned and i need to do some replumbing and change gaskets so hopefully after that it will be more efficient.
I will do some research on swg this week. Also I will post ch test on fill water.
Margaritas done..we were going to go for a day trip drive with friends yesterday to salylita but I'm too busy dealing with things here since we just arrived but lots of fun shortly!
Thanks again ill post more ..thankfully so far clarity is back!

 

[needsajet]

Yep, good thinking if acid has just been added. You mentioned solid (stabilized) chlorine which reduces pH depending how much or how often high pH fill water is offsetting it.

Does the pool have an auto-fill and/or an overflow?

 

[FirstVallartaPool]

Im not sure what an autofill or overflow is?...this is my first pool in my lifetime so I'm a true newbie
Good news on the first ch test as it was way off. The problem is the dropper on the r0012 bottle. Its almost impossible to get accurate repeatable reads from it as some drops come out slow and fat and others smaller and 2 at a time. I think the bottle is not manufactured correctly so I can only get so close to accuracy.
I retested the pool ch 3 times as well as the fill water and the results are
Fill water 275 to 300
Pool 450 to 500
So not that bad?
I retested tc and Ph now today [2 days later from initial testing] results I get are tc .5 [not 5] and Ph 7.2
PS I still am awaiting a call back from Wayne at Taylor technologies regarding the vial that came with the speed stir being significantly miscalculated. Thankfully I took the advice from this forum and ordered it with the test kit as I can't imagine doing these tests having to swirl as well..annoying! For now I'm using the tf vials to measure on speed stir.

 

[needsajet]

There was a problem with reagent bottle tips that you can search for here. There's a thread with pics of how they should be.

That CH is manageable. It will go up with refilling due to evaporation, and go down when you get rain and need to drain the pool.

Overflow is an opening somewhere that allows excess water from a heavy rain to drain away before the pool overflows. Autofill is a float somewhere that senses low water and tops up the pool. If the pool doesn't have them, it just needs to be monitored and either filled or drained as needed. Quite normal not to have them.

 

[needsajet]

The TA should come up a bit. Baking soda is best if pH is now correct.

 

[FirstVallartaPool]

Ah OK Re overflow yes we have and thankfully as it's rainy season here. The autofill is my friend his family enjoys the pool and house occasionally when we aren't here so its a great arrangement as he was born and raised 6 blocks away and still lives in the same area downtown near the malecon.
Re ta what number should I shoot for? Pool is approximately 4800 gallons and our big grocery store is 3 blocks away for anything that a large major chain grocery would carry in States or Canada .
Edit. I just realized I can read up al about desired ta here

 

[FirstVallartaPool]

Before I add baking soda I just wanted to confirm numbers for my current state at ta 48 and raising it to ta 100 for my 4800/5000 gallon pool according to pool math. Also do I just sprinkle it in or premix with water?
TA Add
61 oz
by weight or
49 oz
by volume of baking soda.
That sounds like alot of baking soda for 4800 gallons?
Thanks again!!

 

[needsajet]

50 ppm on the TA, not 100. Where did 100 come from?

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Only want it raised 10 ppm, from TA 40 to TA 50

 

[needsajet]

We can discuss later, but in a nutshell, with high calcium hardness, you'll keep TA low, and pH at the low end of the range. This protects your tile grout from attracting scale.

That said, you don't want TA as low as you have it now, because your pH is going too low. My thinking is to try TA at 50.

Good to see you're getting comfortable with PoolMath. That's an amazing tool.

 

[FirstVallartaPool]

100 for recommended ta level is on the laminated printed instructions that come with the tf100 ..it recommends 100 to 120 for manually chlorinated pools. I'm confused. Also those are polmarh recommended levels
Water still not crystal clear as it has been in the past in december. I'm hoping that deep clean of the and filter will do the trick when we update the plumbing this Sunday. Otherwise I suppose I need to brush up on adding the DE thing..