2 year pool owner, finally bought taylor test kit, now what?

[jarradodle]

I am one of those guys that trusted the dip sticks to test water. I finally upgraded to the test kit and automatic swirler. I ran all my numbers tonight and then used the taylor website to put them in and give me an idea of what to do. Here are the numbers

CYA 60
CH 240
TA 190
PH 7.3
FC .8 (not sure if i did this right. I had to put 4 drops into get it to change and multiplied by .2 like it says.)
CC .4 (same as above but only used 2 drops to get it to change and multiplied by .2) I read somewhere on here to multiply by .5?

I have never used muratic acid for lowering ph, I always used ph down from glb. I bought muratic acid today and added 20 oz to lower ph and bit and now aerating with a fountain to raise ph back up a little and not raise TA.

I have always used chlorine from pool store. Don't understand bleach yet. I added about 100 oz of 12.5% chlorine tonight to raise FC and wipe out CC. As far as chlorine goes, I have an inline chlorinator that have always put 3 pucks in on sunday night but I am guessing you would suggest I stop that do to CYA number.

Am I on the right track?

 

[atttech-2]

Looks like you are on the right track only thing to clarify is the FC test. The FC the multiplier for the drops depends on the size of the water sample. If you used 25ml of water then multiply by 0.2 as you did if you used 10ml the multiply by 0.5. There is almost no reason to use the 25ml sample you generally don't need that kind of precision.

And welcome to the forum

 

[Caco]

Bleach and liquid chlorine are the same thing. The pool chlorine you use is 12.5% Sodium hypoclorite. Most bleach used around here like Great Value from Walmart is 8.25% (I think, its on the label)
Its the same chemical but you just have to use a little more bleach than pool chlorine
It all depends on the price in your area as to what is most cost effective

 

[domct203]

I am one of those guys that trusted the dip sticks to test water. I finally upgraded to the test kit and automatic swirler. I ran all my numbers tonight and then used the taylor website to put them in and give me an idea of what to do. Here are the numbers

CYA 60
CH 240
TA 190
PH 7.3
FC .8 (not sure if i did this right. I had to put 4 drops into get it to change and multiplied by .2 like it says.)
CC .4 (same as above but only used 2 drops to get it to change and multiplied by .2) I read somewhere on here to multiply by .5?

I have never used muratic acid for lowering ph, I always used ph down from glb. I bought muratic acid today and added 20 oz to lower ph and bit and now aerating with a fountain to raise ph back up a little and not raise TA.

I have always used chlorine from pool store. Don't understand bleach yet. I added about 100 oz of 12.5% chlorine tonight to raise FC and wipe out CC. As far as chlorine goes, I have an inline chlorinator that have always put 3 pucks in on sunday night but I am guessing you would suggest I stop that do to CYA number.

Am I on the right track?

Welcome.

Yes, you are on the right track, stop using stabilized chlorine right away. With a CYA of 60ppm, you will want to maintain a FC target of 7ppm, and never let it go below 5ppm.

Glad to have you here.

 

[kimkats]

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Here is our Pool Math. Go down to the bottom and make sure it says "trouble Free Pool" for settings.

Here is a set of links I put together for new pool owners. You might have seen some of them but I don't want to leave any out just in case:

Print these out:
Pool School - Basic Pool Care Schedule

Pool School - Recommended Levels

Bookmark these:
Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Pool School - ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Make sure to ask any and all questions you might have no matter how small! We have all been where you are at one point.

You are going to LOVE how your pool looks after we get done with it!

 

[jarradodle]

thank you for the help guys. I am really excited to actually understand all of this.

 

[jarradodle]

By stabilized you mean don't use the tablets correct? I also use glb algecide, clear blue, oxy powder, and sequa sol once per week. The sequa sol is because I was having a problem with my heater getting clogged and sequa sol helps keep calcium suspended and not bind to heater. Do I need to use all this stuff or am I wasting money?

 

[LuvNH]

Just got my pool in July, 27' AGP, and I started using the strips that came with the pool stuff. Sorta worked as i was figuring things out. That Taylor kit seemed like mad scientist stuff initially. I lost the strips and had to learn. MUCH BETTER! I test every morning while i have my coffee. I learn the effects of weather, pool load etc, and am getting pretty good of knowing what to add.

This site is great, pool math helped a lot. Couple tips from a newbie, go slow on the chemicals. I added about half to two thirds of what things said and I got there without having to reverse anything.

Bleach is the way to go, - easy, cheap, and immediately effective. I use baking soda and have used the granular CYA (used my skimmer to avoid clumping and to ensure it spread/dissolved well). Was going to use liquid CYA, but couldn't find any around and it was expensive.

This site also helped me recover quickly from an algae onset (wife let chlorine get too low).

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Wow . . . that's what I call being "Pool Stored". I know you can drop the glb algecide, clear blue and oxy powder. IF . . . you maintain a proper level of FC (Chlorine/Bleach) for your CYA. At 60 that would be what domct203 mentioned, never below 5ppm and try to maintain 7ppm.
If you drop the CYA level then you can also reduce the amount of FC you need to maintain. - - > Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

I would also try to drop the CYA level by dumping 1/3 of the water and refilling. You should do a CH test on your tap water to see what the level is. Maybe when you dump water and refill the fill water will have a much lower CH level and lower your pool level. That might make your heater a happy camper.

This is helpful in comparing apples to oranges. Sometimes the 96oz 6% walmart bleach is cheaper than the 121oz 12.5% but it's near impossible to tell until you plug those numbers and the cost into this app. It will tell you how much you're paying for the actual chlorine per oz. - - > Chlorine Price Per Ounce Calculator

Don't forget to check out bleach on sale with a coupon too. Just never get the scented, splashless or easy pour stuff. You just want basic bleach as these can cause problems like foaming.

 

[jarradodle]

I tested my ch from tap/hose bib and it registered at 270. I guess refilling with that water won't help ch numbers. FC was up to 3 today so I add more chlorine from the calculator so by tomorrow morning I should be close to 7. Does it take a while for cc to come down when I am trying to get everything up to recommended levels based on my cya? Seemed like it stayed the same or dropped just a little but fc came up from .8 to 3.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

CC is usually an indication of a problem. If it's the start of algae it will slowly increase and your FC will get used up faster and faster. If you're trying to kill algae you need to jump up and maintain 24ppm FC at your 60 CYA to kill off algae. If you hold it at 24 you'll see the CC start to drop. That's what we call performing a SLAM. SLAM instructions - - > Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

If you dump some water and lower that CYA to 40 or 30 then you'd only need to go to a FC of 16 or 12 respectively. It would take much less bleach to do the SLAM and less to maintain the daily amount once the SLAM is over. See the CYA/chlorine chart.

 

[jarradodle]

So I am still figuring this out. I have eliminated the cc and it hasn't showed its ugly head in about 4 days. My problem is that when I check fc it usually goes from 7 to 4 or so in about 24hrs. I have not done a slam yet due to time constraints and realize that I probably need to. My question is does water temp have anything to do with it? We keep the pool at about 84 and sometimes it is around 88 when warmed. We close the cover almost all day except to swim during the week so sunlight isn't eating the fc. The answer might be as simple as slamming but seems like I am using a lot of chlorine daily to maintain a 7 fc.
Thanks again for all the help.

CYA 60
TA 160
PH 7.4

 

[VinDeeLoo]

It is not uncommon to lose that much FC in a 24 hour period. I lose almost 6 a day but I am completely in full sun from sun up to sun down.

 

[Cinic]

As low as your initial FC results indicated, it's quite likely you have something organic consuming the FC. I'm not sure how water temperature impacts chlorine use. My pool uses more FC when it gets warmer, but that's also the same time it gets more direct sunlight. There could be different algae grow rates at different temperatures.

Try to add enough chlorine to get over your target of 7 ppm FC and do the OCLT. That will give you the best indication if something organic is present. Make sure your inline chlorinator is off/empty.

http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/136-perform-the-overnight-fc-chlorine-loss-test-oclt