Bixby, OK water chemistry

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Thanks Matt! I had gone out there and rubbed (very hard!) the vit c on some spots. Don't think it did anything. It did clean some stuff off the hard plastic strip between the deck and the tile...

I'll report on it when I can go out and get a puck.
 
Nursenini said:
Thanks Matt! I had gone out there and rubbed (very hard!) the vit c on some spots. Don't think it did anything. It did clean some stuff off the hard plastic strip between the deck and the tile...

I'll report on it when I can go out and get a puck.
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Well, that's good. No metals in the pool, that is our mantra....

This will sort itself out soon enough. New pools are like having babies - they need constant attention for the first year or so and mommy & daddy get no sleep....eventually they learn to behave ;)
 
Still haven't made it anywhere to get a puck but I did brush really well today, ran the robot twice and am doing another OCLT tonight.

Current FC 28
Current CC 0

A couple of questions-

do I need to keep my pump running 24/7 right now?

when scrubbing inside the skimmer (under the deck lid), do you all take the basket out and scrub that area??? Is this something I should do? Are there other areas that should be regularly scrubbed that also are just not occurring to me as a brand new pool owner?
Thank you!
 
No need to run 24x7, although you can run it 24x7 at a low rpm if you want. No reason to wait for FC to lower to add Borates. You should probably lower your TA to 50 or 60 first though.
 
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works perfectly to clean the plastic well inside the skimmer. Takes an old grey/yellow PVC surface and makes it bright white again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
pooldv said:
No need to run 24x7, although you can run it 24x7 at a low rpm if you want. No reason to wait for FC to lower to add Borates. You should probably lower your TA to 50 or 60 first though.
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JoyfulNoise said:
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works perfectly to clean the plastic well inside the skimmer. Takes an old grey/yellow PVC surface and makes it bright white again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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needsajet said:
Run the pump for 30 mins to an hour before collecting your OCLT sample in the morning. Some get more sleep by leaving it running at low rpm for this reason :)
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You guys are THE BEST!!! Thank you!
 

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Today's numbers:


pH 7.7
FC 6.5
CC 0
CH 425-450
TA 90
CYA (from last week-no sun today) 70
salt 2800-3000
Water temp 58

I added bleach, waited almost an hour, added MA (trying to lower TA)

currently:

pH 7.0
FC 10.5 (oops, overshot the 9 I was aiming for, but we are supposed to get a thunderstorm...)
CC 0

How long do I wait to retest TA?


If I get it lowered to 50 (to add borates), will it gradually raise back up?

When I want to add borates, I saw that I need to lower my TA first. Is this true if I use either boric acid or mule team borax? I know with the boric acid I don't need to add MA, but I need the MA if I use the Mule Team Borax. Just trying to wrap my mind around all of this.

I just ordered the borates test strip from TFtestkits last night along with some other refills.

Should I add salt now or wait a few weeks for the water to warm up and start up the SWG? I still have LOTS of bleach to use up.
 
If you are aerating the water with a water feature then you can retest pH and TA in a few hours. If not, wait a day at least.

Yes, boric acid is pH neutral and most folks buy it from Duda Diesel. Or you can add Borax and which will add Borates and also raise the PH, then you need to add MA to offset the pH rise.

Yes, good to lower your TA to 50-60 before adding borates. But, once you get your TA to 50-60 and add 50 ppm of borates your pH rise will be very slow after that. And I like the borates for water feel as well. They also say it helps keep bugs away. Which is probably true because we don't have after lot of bugs and our pool is in the woods.

Salt now or later doesn't matter. Might as well wait just in case it rains a bunch and overflows your pool. It will probably rain now because I added 120 lbs of salt to my pool last week and today. :)
 
Nini I would wait on borates if using borax just because of the ph shift. With high fc the ph test isn't accurate and the borate and ya could result in needing more acid. I had to use 6 gal ma instead of the 4 per poolcalc because of this. If my fc had been high I would not have known my ph was over 8
 
pooldv said:
If you are aerating the water with a water feature then you can retest pH and TA in a few hours. If not, wait a day at least.

Ok. I'll just test again tomorrow

Yes, boric acid is pH neutral and most folks buy it from Duda Diesel. Or you can add Borax and which will add Borates and also raise the PH, then you need to add MA to offset the pH
Thanks for the supplier name! I had seen it somewhere, couldn't find it, and it wasn't coming up on a google search. I'll probably order it tomorrow. I need granular, right? I thought I read granular dissolved better than the powder...

Yes, good to lower your TA to 50-60 before adding borates. But, once you get your TA to 50-60 and add 50 ppm of borates your pH rise will be very slow after that. And I like the borates for water feel as well. They also say it helps keep bugs away. Which is probably true because we don't have after lot of bugs and our pool is in the woods.

If it keeps bugs away, that's a GREAT bonus!!

Salt now or later doesn't matter. Might as well wait just in case it rains a bunch and overflows your pool. It will probably rain now because I added 120 lbs of salt to my pool last week and today. :)
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oh no! I hope you don't lose any, Danny! Thanks so much!

- - - Updated - - -

madwil said:
Nini I would wait on borates if using borax just because of the ph shift. With high fc the ph test isn't accurate and the borate and ya could result in needing more acid. I had to use 6 gal ma instead of the 4 per poolcalc because of this. If my fc had been high I would not have known my ph was over 8
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm going with boric acid so I don't have to add all that acid.
 
Today's numbers

Sunny day, slight breeze. Air temp 63. Water temp 58. Water clear and sparkly

pH 7.4
FC 9.5
CC 0
CH 450-475
TA 70-80
CYA 70 (was 60- not sure how it went up- might have added too much reagent..)

So, I was expecting my TA to drop more. Is this the normal procedure that it takes repeated dropping of the pH to 7.0 and aeration to increase it back to normal levels in order to drop the TA more than 10 ppm?
 
Today's numbers:

pH 7.5-7.6
FC 7.5
CC .5 (big storm the other night and windy ever since)
TA 70 (still!!)
CH 500
CYA 70
Borates 0

So, my TA is down from the previous 90, but it is taking FOREVER to raise my PH back up after dropping it. It hasn't gone up from yesterday afternoon to early this afternoon. I'm running my bubblers, spa overflow and scuppers 12 hrs/day (go me for figuring out how to "un-winterize" my scuppers and waterfall pump!!)

I was REALLY hoping to have the borates added by tomorrow before I go back to work. Guess it will have to wait for Tuesday or Wednesday.
 

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