Got my kit...first readings

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aguyindallas

aguyindallas

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Apr 25, 2016
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Little Elm, TX
Ok, my kit just arrived. I am starting my first water test.

CL - Appears virtually undetectable in terms of color.
Ph - Very pink...more pink than the highest 8.2 indication.

When trying the Free Chlorine Test, I added 30 drops of R0871 and it never got fully clear. It went from pink to opaque white, but never clear. Not sure if I needed to keep going and add more or stop.

When trying to do the calcium hardness test....again, I added 25 drops and it never got blue.

When doing the total alkalinity, I added several drops and the test solution never changed. Eventually the actual drops did change to red but the overall solution never did. Am I doing this right?

CYA appears to be about 75.

I am a bit intimidated about this...and not sure if I have been doing the first test right. I need to understand if I am supposed to be looking for total color change in the test solutions or just add drops at test chemicals until the actual drops change color for a second or two.


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Total color change... Drops until the color changes no more... Then use the number of drops prior to the last one without a change
FC will go from the lightest pink to completely clear within a drop
PH way high.. Add MA to go from 8.2 to 7.5 then restest after about 30 min of circulation

HOw much bleach have you added recently?
 
I did the PH test twice with two different kits. It was clearly too high. I just added .5 gallon roughly of MA. Waiting for a little longer before I retest. About to turn on waterfalls to increase circulation.


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You'll get the hang of it. It's a little intimidating at first.

I keep a jug of distilled water to rinse out the vials between tests. That way I make sure there's no reagent contamination from previous tests.

With the FC test, it's the color change from pink to white that you're looking to see. The water will be a bit cloudy from the powder, so clear is misleading.

For the TA test, you will see flashes of red as you add drops. What you're looking for is for the whole vial to turn red. Same with the CH test, except you're looking for blue.

Once you've done one successful round of testing you will learn to trust your numbers.
 
Well....PH still a bit high. It did come down with the added MA from earlier. I just added some more and will retest in a little while. The CH is still on the lowest end of the spectrum and barely detectable. Should I do anything there right now, or wait until the PH is under control? My Salt system is set at 30% output according to Screen Logic and I am at 3300PPM salt. Once I saw the PH where it was, I did not attempt any other tests.

Just to be clear, I don't have any obvious issues at the moment. I am just testing and learning.
 
Don't worry about CH at the moment... your most important tests are FC (powder) PH (R-0871) and CYA (black dot test)
Since you have an SWG, CYA seems in the normal range
Your target Fc for normal operations is 6. Don't let it get below 4 for sanitation reasons...
Try your FC test again and see what you come up with... Should be 12 drops at the 10ml mark
If you FC level is over 10, your PH results will be inaccurate. Starting to see how all these tie together?
 
Ok, so I did the FC test again. Got barely pink, but I can see the difference. Only took 2 drops to turn the water white again...meaning 1ppm. It only took 1 drop of R0871 to get the color right again, so this means .5ppm...giving me a total FC of 1.5ppm...correct?
 
YEs but we don't count total... Doesn't mean much...
FC- 1
CC - .5

Which means you need chlorine... yesterday....
Check with pool math to find out how much exactly... prolly close to a gallon to get up to at least 6.
Since you have CC, that means something is in the water..ie ALGAE... I would shoot for 9 FC which will keep your PH tests relevant and give you a head start if you have to slam.
 

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Bleach will suffice... straight from wal mart.. I use Great Value 8.25%

Say bye bye to tablets unless you go on vacation...They are way to slow to keep up and introduce CYA into the water.. you don't really need your CYA levels skyrocketing...leads to more chlorine usage and eventually a water change.. Something the Pool stores don't tell you...
 
An hour after adding a gallon of bleach.

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