Newbie test results--do I add baking soda?

[Lannjo]

Here are my test results from today (5/28/18):

FC 2.5
CC 0.5
pH 7.4
Alkalinity 50
CH 360
CYA 50


I am adding a gallon of bleach (according to pool math) tonight. I read that TFP Recommended Levels for TA is 70-90+ so do I need to add baking soda? Pool math says to add 70 oz of baking soda. But my pH hasn't gone crazy. It was 7.2 last week.
Advice?

 

[Lannjo]

Argh! I didn't pay attention to the % bleach on pool math. Pool math had 6% and my jug was 10% so I added too much bleach. I should have added 106 oz of 10% and I added 128 oz (1 gallon) of 10% bleach.
Is that a big deal?

 

[jblizzle]

Your chlorine will be five fine and safe.

I would leave the TA and see how the pH behaves.

What CSI does PoolMath give you?

 

[pooldv]

Was pH 7.2 on its own? Or did you lower it? If pH is dropping then I would add baking soda to raise TA to 60. Once pH stabilizes in the mid to upper 7s then I'd leave TA alone. Assuming you are in flower mound, TX, your fill water should push the TA up a bit once we stop getting all this rain and evaporation starts kicking in. Also, once you stop using pucks and start using bleach more your TA and pH will rise some.

 

[Lannjo]

CSI says -0.23 but I don't know what that means or if I put the values in correctly. I didn't change the "goal" column just now when I plugged my test values into Pool Math.

I didn't do anything to lower pH (not purposely anyway!). I'm not even sure how one would go about doing that yet

Do you guys use the chlorinated tablets? The previous owner left a ton. So we just kept using. But now I'm wondering if I should be using it? or does that complicate things?

 

[jblizzle]

Tablets are acidic and will lower your pH and TA and increase your CYA along with adding chlorine. We generally do not recommend their use unless you understated everything they are doing to your water.

 

[Lannjo]

Ok here are my test results from today:

FC 5.5
CC 0.5
pH 7.4
TA 100
CH 380
CYA 40

I entered my numbers into pool math and now it says my CSI is 0.6.

Here are yesterdays results just for reference:
FC 2.5
CC 0.5
pH 7.4
TA 50
CH 360
CYA 50


My question now is: Is it normal for Alkalinity to change that much? All I did was add a gallon of 10% bleach yesterday. I know I am new at this so not sure how accurate my testing is.
Also, what is CSI and why did mine change from -.23 to 0.6 in one day (according to pool math)?

 

[jblizzle]

No the TA would not have changed that much unless you added baking soda. And no the CSI should not have changed as much as you showed either.

Forget I mentioned CSI. It is more of an advanced topic

 

[Lannjo]

Ok. I'm going to chalk that up to my lack of experience. Hopefully it gets better with practice! I think I'm still trying to figure out when the color actually changes when adding drops and swirling.
I may be adding drops to quickly and not waiting a bit while I swirl.
Thank you!

 

[jblizzle]

SpeedStir is greatly helpful