Lost my CYA mixing bottle

[AnnaK]

We opened the pool last weekend. Hooked up the plumbing, tested for leaks, started to add water. We're on a well so the adding will take some days. The drenching rains over the past couple of days have been much appreciated!

Today I tested the water for the first time this season. The water temp is 53° F. I closed with FC=15.5 after applying a shock(ing) amount of LC. Today's reading is FC=1. Our AGP is not covered over winter and freezes solid for about 3 months. We closed on 10/23, almost exactly 5 months ago. pH is 7.2, to be expected at this temperature. TA is 60, fine for a vinyl pool though I'll probably nurse it up to 80 eventually.

When testing for CYA I discovered that I've lost the mixing bottle! More than likely I dumped it during a manic cruise through my pool house which serves as the lab during the season and storage in winter. I used the alkalinity/hardness graduated cylinder for the CYA test today. It came out at <30, also an expected value since I tend to lose CYA during the freezing/thawing cycle. I closed with CYA=40 last October.

My question is this: if you use a TF Testkit, what are the amounts of water:reagent used in the mixing bottle? For my purposes today I went with 15 ml each but I think that's too much. It felt like too much, anyway. If I remember correctly the lines on the mixing bottle were for an equal amount of water and reagent. Could I just go with 10 ml water and 10 ml reagent in the alkalinity tube?

 

[Beez]

My question is this: if you use a TF Testkit, what are the amounts of water:reagent used in the mixing bottle? For my purposes today I want with 15 ml each but I think that's too much. It felt like too much, anyway. If I remember correctly the lines on the mixing bottle were for an equal amount of water and reagent. Could I just go with 10 ml water and 10 ml reagent in the alkalinity tube?

It depends on your suspected level of CYA in the water. If you fill up the CYA test viewing tube with plain water, then pour it into a graduated cylinder, this will tell you the maximum amount needed. IIRC, it is 30ml. You are correct that it is a 50/50 ratio of pool water/reagent.

 

[Bama Rambler]

I believe that the bottle that comes with the TF100 kit holds 28 ml so that's 14 ml of reagent and 14 ml of pool water. that's enough to fill the cylinder. If you know that your CYA should be about 30 or higher you could use 10 ml each and still reach the mark. That would also save you a tiny bit of reagent each test unless you missed the guess and then you'd have to completely redo the test thereby using even more reagent. That'd be a bummer!

 

[AnnaK]

Thanks guys (gals?) I'll go with 15:15 ml next time. I'll likely not check CYA again until mid-season at any rate. For now, I'll just have the pool calc tell me how much to add to get from the presumed 0 to 30 and call it good enough. There's some CYA in there because I did have a little turbidity in the test solution.

 

[CurtisT]

Mine that came with the Taylor kit takes 7ml+7ml... I suppose it depends on the size of the tube you use to read the results. The instructions would call for enought to fill it to the maximum reading (in my case about 12ml). Of course if you know you're down around 40-60ppm, you could use less.

 

[Lana537]

TF100 is double the amount of Taylor kit

I use the Taylor K-2006 test kit. I have also bought the CYA only kit from TFTestKits. The TFTestKits mixing bottle calls for and uses double the amount of test water and CYA reagent as does Taylor, and the test tube is twice as large.

Lana