Just found the site and am converting to BBB

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sorry about that. yes I meant < for less than. not sure why I used the greater than sign.

I'm expecting my TF100 kit to arrive tomorrow so once I have that I'll be able to get an accurate FC reading for the shock cycles. At the moment I have no way to get a good reading so I can't really check that often.

Luckily I work from my home office full time so I will be able to check my levels every hour during the shock cycle once the test kit arrives.
 
duraleigh said:
cp,

Be careful of that 20 CYA from a test strip. That's frequently very, very inaccurate. Do you have another test source to verify it or has it tested at that level in the past?
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unfortunately no I don't. according to FedEx my TF100 kit should arrive tomorrow so Ill be able to get a much more accurate reading on all my levels at that time. Until I get a good test kit I'm just playing the waiting game.
 
Take some pool water and dilute it 50/50 with distilled water (or any chlorine-free) and then run the test... it does lose some accuracy but it may give you a better guestimate so that you can try to raise up the FC level.
 
I can't wait for you to go your test kit... it is only then that you will understand everything. So many people that come here looking for help tend to balk at purchasing the test kit, but it is really the single-most important aspect of gaining and keeping control of your own pool.

You have made great progress so far and it will only continue to improve. I think one thing that tends to get misunderstood, and I was one who did... the goal is to keep at shock level for a sustained period of time. Getting it up to shock and letting it come back down again is fighting a losing battle.

What the heck is it about those darn mesh covers... we couldn't get ours off one year and ended up cutting it and everything went into the pool. Last year I didn't cover at all, and I must admit, that ended up being an even worse mess!

Good luck! When you get your test kit... you will feel the power! :D
 
Thanks.

As soon as I read through pool school and a bunch of other posts on there, I knew I needed the test kit. Even before I found this site, I knew the junk test strips and droplet tests I have been using weren't good. First, those types of tests are nearly impossible to read and they only give broad ranges so you never really know what to dose.

Thanks for the pointer on maintaining the shock level. The first few days I was reading TFP I didn't realize that, but yesterday as I got into some older threads I found that out. Luckily I do work from home, so I'll be able to test my water every hour and work toward keeping the pool at shock level until it is all cleared up and I have low FC loss overnight.
 
FedEx just dropped off my test kit about 15 minutes ago. According to my calculations from the test kit, here are my current readings

FC - 0
CC - 0.5
pH - 7.8
TA - 60
CH - 50
CYA - 0
TC - 0

I'm assuming my CYA is 0 because I filled the tube up to the top and the black dot never disappeared.

Based on this and the info from pool school and poolcalculator.com, I need to raise my CYA to about 30 and start my shock cycle. My TA also needs to come up to about 80, right??

First things first, I should start the CYA and shock process right? or do I need to raise my TA with baking soda before I start the shock process?

Also, I have powder stabilizer and I see most people talking about adding stabilizer by using a "sock" in their skimmer. Does this mean people are just literally putting powdered stabilizer into a normal tube sock and then just resting that sock into the skimmer bucket until it all dissolves?

Well, I'm off to start my shock process. I'm going to add a full 128 oz jug of 12.5% chlorine now. Then check every hour after that to make sure I'm maintaining a shock level of 10-12.

Once I get an answer on the "sock" method, I'll start trying to raise my CYA as well.

--PS--

With checking every hour, is that enough time for the last round of chlorine addition to have circulated through?
 
...and just FYI, while you are trying to get comfortable with the CYA test, you can use your same solution and do the test several times within a period of a few minutes. Many of us would start over with new reagent every time and that can go through the reagent like crazy. SO... if you eyeball it and are not sure, dump it back in your mixing bottle and try again with the tube.
 

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With the pump running, an hour should be enough time for the bleach to circulate.

Don't worry about the TA at this point. It's a bit of a tight-wire act to raise TA when your pH is already at the high end, as yours is, and the pH reading becomes less reliable as your FC goes higher than 10. Finish the shock process first.

Incidentally if the 6% bleach is really $2/gal then the 10.5% stuff is cheaper per ppm FC. If the 6% jugs are the bigger 182-oz jugs for $2 then that's cheaper than the 10.5%.
--paulr
 
dattia said:
...and just FYI, while you are trying to get comfortable with the CYA test, you can use your same solution and do the test several times within a period of a few minutes. Many of us would start over with new reagent every time and that can go through the reagent like crazy. SO... if you eyeball it and are not sure, dump it back in your mixing bottle and try again with the tube.
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ahh, good advice. i never would have thought of that. Once I get to the point where the black dot actually disappears, I'll be sure to do that.
 
PaulR said:
With the pump running, an hour should be enough time for the bleach to circulate.
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yeah, i let it circulate for an hour after my first dose and then checked. My FC at that time was 6.5 so I ran the poolcalc and added another 54 fl oz of 12.5% chlorine. I think I'm going to go with 90 minute intervals between checks from here on out.
 
FYI...this worked pretty weel when I just helped my neighbor and I didn;t want to be running over there hourly.....you can feel free to aim for a little higher than 12ppm (let's say 15ppm) on your FC...this will save you some time in between FC checks...remember you want to keep it at shock level which is 10-12, not raise it to 12 and then re-raise it to 12, after it falls to 6ppm. If you don;t let it fall below 10 ppm you'll speed up the shocking process.
 
dmanb2b said:
FYI...this worked pretty weel when I just helped my neighbor and I didn;t want to be running over there hourly.....you can feel free to aim for a little higher than 12ppm (let's say 15ppm) on your FC...this will save you some time in between FC checks...remember you want to keep it at shock level which is 10-12, not raise it to 12 and then re-raise it to 12, after it falls to 6ppm. If you don;t let it fall below 10 ppm you'll speed up the shocking process.
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thanks
 
cpjolicoeur said:
Here are the results:

FC > 3.0 - test only reads up to 3.0
CC > 3.0 - only reads to 3.0 NO matter what your instrucitions might say OTO (the liquid that turns yellow in the presence of chlorine) only measures total chorine. Add the drops, let it sit about 3 minutes, and read your total chlorine. If the color darkens from the initial time of putting in the drops then you do have CC present but it is really impossible to tell just how much since you really cannot measure just FC with this particular test.
pH > 8.2 - only reads to 8.2 This is true of all swimming pool pH tests. They all use phenol red since this particular pH indicator is most sensitive in the normal pool pH range of 7.2-7.8. If you are outside of this range you have a problem and need to take immediate action to correct it.
TA - 100
CH - no test
CYA - no test
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Just did my second check of the day and I'm amazed how much my FC went down over the past 90 minutes. I started at noon after testing with my kit for the first time and my FC was basically 0 so I added 128 fl oz of 12.5% chlorine. I checked at 1pm and my FC was at 6.5 so I added another 54 fl oz. of 12.5%.

I just checked now at 2:45 pm and my FC was down to 2. This is the time of the day that the sun is beating down on my pool, but I guess the chlorine is just doing its job grinding away at all the contaminants.
 
cpjolicoeur said:
Just did my second check of the day and I'm amazed how much my FC went down over the past 90 minutes. I started at noon after testing with my kit for the first time and my FC was basically 0 so I added 128 fl oz of 12.5% chlorine. I checked at 1pm and my FC was at 6.5 so I added another 54 fl oz. of 12.5%.

I just checked now at 2:45 pm and my FC was down to 2. This is the time of the day that the sun is beating down on my pool, but I guess the chlorine is just doing its job grinding away at all the contaminants.
Click to expand...


Keep in mind that with no CYA the FC level will also drop faster as there is nothing there to protect it from the sun. You can buy liquid stabilizer that works faster it is just more expensive than the granulated.
 

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