Newbie Needs Advice

[cmbutterbaugh]

Ok, so after spending all the money on stuff you need to make the "affordable" pool work, I bought an HTH 6 way test kit. Decided to check the water chemistry from the source from which we will be filling it (the hose).

Chlorine- no reading
pH 7.6/7.7 (uh...HtH apparently does not believe in the necessity of having a color for every
tenth)
TA the green NEVER changed to red--no matter how many drops of the alk titrant I put in)
TH the red NEVER turned to blue --no matter how many drops I put in.

The HTH "chemist" said that I have really hard water and very alkaline water and to buy "......."
to fix it. What do I do when I can't even get a reading? How do I know how much BBB stuff to use?

This person even said that I should just wait until I fill my pool and I will definitely get a "reading". I thought the idea was for me to check my source water and then I would know what stuff to buy (from Pool School).

I am tired of thinking so uch about this pool. I just want get it up and float around with a margarita in my hand!

 

[zea3]

Check to see if there is a date anywhere on the kit. This is one time I would use a pool store to check my water and see what they get for TA and CH. If they try to sell you anything tell them you think you have some at home. Since you do not have a plaster pool I would not worry too much about the Calcium levels. How many drops did you add before you stopped counting for the TA test?

 

[cmbutterbaugh]

I added about 25 drops! At about 7 or 8 drops, there was a red swirl that quickly dissipated into the green (the entire green tube didn't turn red).

 

[JasonLion]

On TA, you should go up to at least 50 drops, and on CH go up to at least 100 drops, before giving up.

 

[Bama Rambler]

The fact that you saw the red swirl says that it would eventually turn red if you put enough drops in. Mine it does the same thing. A small red swirl after a few drops then after many drops it turns the whole vial full red.

 

[anonapersona]

And be sure to add one more drop after you think it is red to see if it changes to more red. I used to stop too soon. Don't count the drop that does not change the color anymore.

 

[cmbutterbaugh]

Thanks for the advice!