Looking to vent about high FC of 20-ish after new SWG

[Lana537]

Hello all~~

This is a cross post. I've had a thread running in Chemistry 201 regarding our addition of an SWG, but now we are facing a high FC, and I mostly wanted to rant, I confess, so I am posting the body of my recent post to the other thread.

>>>Here it is, a day later (Friday June 12th), 8PM, and FC is riding at 19.5.

Early this morning, around 8AM, we realized that this is all out of control on the high side, and we turned our SWG down to 1% and then 0%, so the new machine hasn't worked all daytime.

I am going to try to post a cross thread somewhere else, mostly just to rant. I am still so angry that one of the pool dudes decided (yesterday after the SWG installation) to set our machine on Boost and shock our pool (with packets of god-knows-what) without even talking to us or asking us or, OMG doing a darned test himself. This really stinks now that I think about it, but I don't think it will do any good to yell at this new company who we will be looking to for pool care.

I know that patience is often advocated here, but we both need to leave on business trips on Monday morning, and we had hoped to have this pool stabilized and happy by now. What a disappointment. We can't be back for 7 days; we're thinking we're going to have to just ride high, and deal with those consequences later.

Mind you, we can't even test for our other tests because the FC is so high, it's killing our TA and CH tests.

Thanks for listening. I apologize; it's been a long day of hoping the FC would drop.

Lana

 

[reebok]

why is high fc affecting ta and ch tests?

 

[Lana537]

Why? I don't know.

We started the day, pre-installation, with an FC of 10. It was this high because we were finishing with shocking and the tail end of opening the pool.

We are using our trusty Taylor 2006 kit, with which we have become very familiar in a short period of time.

As of yesterday, though, the TA test and the CH test are being blown out of the water. The TA test starts out aqua with the first 2 drops, turns pale sky blue with the 3rd drop, and stays pale clear blue through drop number 8; drop 9 turns it pale sea green, with drop 10 turning pale lemon yellow, as does drops 11 and 12.

Meanwhile at the Calcium Hardness ranch, the test is totally not in control. No amount of "tying up" with 5 or 6 drops of the Hardness Reagent #0012 will give a typical test. It is as if this test came from Mars. Colors are atypical, and there is only a strange slow fade from one odd color to another, which, looking at my notes, I cannot say exactly what those strange colors were, but they were not what we experienced over the past week or better.

Lana

 

[Lana537]

Yesterday's test results

These were our results from yesterday, Thursday June 11 after the pool dude added the shock

FC = 17.5
CC = 0

pH = 7.4
TA = odd/invalid (TA from Tuesday June 9th was firmly 100, down from 110 two days earlier)
CH = odd/invalid ( 360 firm, from Tuesday June 9th)
CYA = 60
Salt = 4,040
Borates = unsure, 30 to 50
phospates = approx 1000

Here we were working to lower our TA, and now we are blown out of the water.

Lana

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I'd be willing to hedge a bet that your TA is still around 100 based on that test description, and the CH is not critical to worry about before you leave.

I think by shutting off the SWG by Monday a.m. you should be seeing more reasonable levels, then I would turn the SWG on low for while you are gone, everything should be ok, you may come home to elevated PH levels. By sunday night I think your FC should be low enough to get an accurate PH reading, and perhaps add a dose of acid.

...If it were my pool and I was in your situation that would be my plan.

 

[JasonLion]

The TA test will tend to go from blue to yellow when the FC level is high. The blue might have periods of green either at the start or the end. You can stop when it turns yellow and that is your correct TA level.

The CH test can also be done when the FC level is high, but you need to go very slowly, 20+ seconds of swirling after each drop and the colors will look a bit different.

 

[Lana537]

Many thank yous!!

Thank you all so much for yet more help and advice from experience.

Soon this evening (Saturday) we will be running a full battery of tests before we go to sleep early; we'll compare with more tests tomorrow. We are thinking of leaving the SWG running at a low percentage; DH will be back in 6 days.

Since we will be "closing up/cleaning" the house for a week and then travelling stupid-early on Monday, we may not post again for a bit, so, once again, thank you all ever so much.

Lana

 

[jkusmier]

Lana, I keep my CYA level around 60ppm, and I noted last season that FC took a few days to return to normal levels after shocking - even though those days were warm and sunny. You noted a CYA level of 60 in your thread in the Pool Chem 201 forum, so I expect you'll find it back to normal by the time you return from your trip.

I tested my level frequently last year (my first full season) and made copious notes that included the SWG output setting. I found these invaluable in adjusting output to maintain a fairly consistent "normal" FC level. Per my notes, that meant an output between 9-15% on my IntelliChlor IC40, w/ CYA around 60 ppm and an 11-hour pump run time. Don't know if you can make such fine adjustments w/ your Pool Pilot.

Given the history you cited and your CYA level, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You might reduce your pump run time by, oh, 20-25% while you're away. Worst case, your FC levels drop too much and you have to shock upon your return. But I bet you'll be just fine. Relax, it takes time, tinkering and notation to adjust your SWG's output level accordingly.