Adjusting Levels for the first time....which do I start with?

[joh05058]

Hey everyone! I'm super new with all of this and posted here for the first time last week and had so much great advice getting started with fresh water and which chemicals to start with, etc. I think I'm getting the hang of CYA and FC levels and have been excited to see the calculator actually work for me and help me keep keep my FC levels where I want them.

My CYA is about 45 and my FC has been tricky to maintain but I've been trying to aim for about 8. It was dropping down to like 1 or 2 while sitting at a CYA of 30, so I read through some other posts that suggest raising the CYA since it's so hot here in OK, and that has helped me maintain the FC a bit more.

I feel like I'm ready to move onto the other chemicals...but which one do I adjust first?

The PH is at 7.0 and my TA is at 60. If I tweak one, won't it adjust the other? I'm just curious which would be better to adjust a bit first? Or do you think they're good enough and just leave them alone? I know there are so many factors....so I thought I'd ask here first, for a little advice.

Thank you, thank you! I really feel like this isn't so crazy overwhelming like I did a week ago....but then again, I hated chemistry in high school and never took it in college. Ha!

 

[atttech-2]

pH is a little low but not so low I would mess with it, it will come up on its own. If you want to bump it a little add some borax. There is a drop down at the bottom of Pool Math page that will tell you how each chemical will not only affect the parameters you expect it to but others as well if at all. TA may or may not be low depends on the pool mine is happy around around 60. If your pH starts swinging wildly then you may want to bump it up 20 to 30

 

[zea3]

If you want to raise the pH a little bit point the return upward so it churns the surface of the water. This will aerate the pool which raises pH without affecting TA. You only need to change the TA if you need to stabilize wide pH swings.

EDIT: Sorry, I missed the fact that you can't adjust the returns on an intex, however if you add a fountain it would do the same thing. Chemical wise, use the borax to raise pH with little effect on the TA.