New pool owner and first test results from my test kit

Jump to latest Follow Reply
T

turbowop

0
Jul 6, 2017
59
Yakima WA
Hello! My wife and I closed on our current house back on 5/4/17. We weren't looking for a house with a pool, but we ended up with one and are pretty happy about it! The pool was closed until 6/16 when I hired one of the local pool stores to send one of their techs out to help me open it. It was pretty easy. He de-winterized it, threw in a bunch of BioGuard Burnout73 and went on his way after giving me a quick tutorial. A few days later, the pool started to clean up enough that I could start digging leaves out of the bottom with my leaf rake and do another shock treatment. Long story short, I had the pool cleaned up and good to go for swimming within about ten days.

So the pool has been clear and great ever since. I've been bringing my water to said pool store to have them test and feel like I'm on some kind of yo-yo plan. I can't leave the place without spending $80 on chemicals. And I feel like this happens weekly, so here I am at this forum learning there are better ways to maintain my pool.

I ordered the TFP XL test kit and received it today. I got straight to work testing my water. Results as follows:

CH - 275
FC - 1.5
CC - 0.5
TC - 2.0
pH - 7.2
TA - 130
CYA - 65

Last time I went to the pool store they said my chlorine was super low and that I needed to shock the pool again. According to them I also had .9 metals (mostly copper), low TA and low pH. I told them not to give me powder shock because I was worried about CYA getting too high, so they sold me liquid chlorine. I poured in some Metal Magic to sequest the metals and after taking my water back in it was down to .4. To shock the pool I was told to pour in six gallons of liquid chlorine the other night so that's what I did. Obviously based on today's test the chlorine levels have come way down since then. I just threw in the last two 3" tabs I have and would like to get away from those to keep CYA from going any higher. From my limited knowledge my numbers don't look too far off. What would be my best course of action at this point?

*edit* I'd also like to add that the pool store told me my CYA was around 150. Any reason why the huge discrepancy between their number and mine?

I've attached a pic of the pool taken at the time of the water test. Looks nice and clear! Thanks for any help!

IMG_7976 (Large).jpg
 
attachment.php


There's nothing you need to do right now but boost FC to the target [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA] using bleach. Save the pucks for vacations. Just pull 'em out and let 'em dry off in the sun and store them in a ziplock baggie or something else that is airtight.

Pool store tests are wrong more often than right.

Stop and think about the CYA test... the dot disappears. So if you do the test by moonlight, the dot will disappear almost immediately. Do it in a dark room at night and you might not ever see the dot to start with. So as you can see, the dimmer the light, the higher the CYA reads; the brighter the light, the lower the CYA reads. The difference between indoors and outdoors can be huge. But there will come a point where no matter how bright the light, the dot won't be visible through the cloudiness. At least not any light your eyes can withstand. That's the lighting you use for the test. Did they do the test under bright lights? Probably not.

If they used the fancy machine test, those things are really sensitive to dirty test tubes.

Anyway, you're off that expensive merry-go-round now. No more Wheel of (spend a) Fortune.

attachment.php
 
Welcome, turbo! Gorgeous pool. Only issue I see with your test is that your FC is quite a bit under the minimum for your CYA level of 65 (round that to 70 -- especially since you've added your last two pucks -- and refer to the FC/CYA Chart link in my signature). You need to be at a *minimum* of 5, with a target between 8 and 10 FC. I would get some plain old bleach (sodium hypochlorite) added as soon as possible. You can use PoolMath (link at top of this page) to determine how much to add, taking note of the strength of bleach (generally 8.25%). Plug in your pool size (25k gallons), then enter your starting FC of 1.5, and your target of 9, and it will tell you how much bleach to add to hit that target. You want to maintain that level as long as your CYA is where it is -- which will likely not change much if at all.

Your TA is a little on the high end, but your pH is good and if it's not rising too quickly, the TA isn't something to be concerned with really.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Thanks! I did all testing in the house during the afternoon with no lights on. Just natural ambient light coming in from outside but no direct source.

I have two gallons of 12.5% liquid chlorine out in the shed still. I'll use that. So I can just start pouring in liquid chlorine or bleach to keep my FC levels up?
 
Looks like a gallon and two quarts is what PoolMath suggests. Should I just pour both full gallons in since it's close anyway? Then just go stock up on bleach or chlorine and test every couple of days? Seems like my chlorine levels drop pretty quickly and I feel like I'm going to need a pallet of product to keep up with the demand, lol.
 
It's safe to swim with FC up to shock level for your CYA, so erring on the high side is fine. I would honestly test daily until you settle into a "feel" for your FC demand. Stocking up is a good idea, but your higher CYA will reduce your FC loss to UV.
 
After pouring in the two gallons of liquid chlorine I have and giving it some time to circulate through the system the FC is up to 10.5. CC was closer to 1 now though. I know that's supposed to be closer to .5 or less. Does this indicate some sort of issue I should be concerned about?
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
BTW, 2-3ppm of FC usage per day is considered "normal" -- but it can vary based on whether you cover the pool or not, the temperature, organics growing... (here's another thread on the topic). Curious to see your results today. If it's dropped significantly, you probably want to do an OCLT to see what the loss is overnight. If it's greater than 0.5, it might be advisable to SLAM the pool, especially if it's fallen today again to below 5 when you measure this afternoon.
 
I added bleach last night with a target of 9ppm. I was supposed to use a little over 3 96oz jugs but just poured in a full 4 jugs. I gave it time to circulate and got a reading at midnight of FC 11ppm and CC .5ppm, then went to bed with the cover off. Just retested at 730am and FC is down to 6.5ppm and CC is below .5ppm.
 
turbowop said:
I added bleach last night with a target of 9ppm. I was supposed to use a little over 3 96oz jugs but just poured in a full 4 jugs. I gave it time to circulate and got a reading at midnight of FC 11ppm and CC .5ppm, then went to bed with the cover off. Just retested at 730am and FC is down to 6.5ppm and CC is below .5ppm.
Click to expand...
There's something organic growing in there, then, because you can;t bleam that kind of FC loss on sunlight. Call your CYA 70 and SLAM at 28 FC. Don't forget the SLAm also includes thorough brushing. Don't neglect behind the lights and in any other openings like ladders or autofills.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply