Need Help With CH Test

[Scottg8580]

I got my TF-100 kit last week. I have used it twice. I am getting the hang of all the test except the CH test. It says if the water turns red, you have calcium in it. Mine is turning light pink. I contiunued with the test and after about 40 drops, nothing changed. Am I doing something wrong or does it need to be red for me to continue. Please advise on this.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Richard320]

Pink is what you'll see. They intend you to see some shade of red, not yellow, not green, not brown. You get it.

You probably have very high calcium. There is an alternate method, to save reagent. Use a 10 ml sample. 10 drops R-0010, 3 drops R-0011L, and multiply drops of R-0012 by 25.

You need to mix and mix and mix. That's why I'm so pleased with my speedstir.
You'll start with pale pink. At some point it will turn pale lavendar. You're not done yet. Keep adding drops, swirl until you need to switch hands a few times. At some point it will definitely turn pale baby blue. Some say sky blue.

Did I mention that thorough mixing is essential?

 

[oldogface]

WOW! I'm in trouble then..... my test with my new TF100 kit calculates CH at 800! Solution is to replace 69% of water????

What's the impact of the "copper inclusion".... I'm not sure I have copper, but, I've had huge metal stain issues this year, and, when shocked, the water has turned green.... which someone said was a sign of copper. Should I re-do the test? How the heck do I get 69% of the water out of the pool?

Woe is me!

FC 3.5
ph 7.5
CYA 80
TA 190
borates 63

 

[dmanb2b]

CH of 800 is high, but if is not causing issues at the moment be sure to keep PH at 7.4-7.6...higher than 7.8 can cause scaling. You can perform a couple of small drain/refills in between to get the CH down over time. Also, if you happen to use calhypo to shock, stop using it. Lastly, before draining and refilling be sure to check the CH in your fill water. Depending on where you live, you may have high CH in your fill water and a reverse osmosis treatment may be your best bet.

 

[geekgranny]

You can somewhat "manage" high CH by lowering TA. See Pool School http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/lowering total alkalinity

You can plug some numbers in to the Pool Calculator to see what level of TA would help to keep your CSI reading in an acceptable range. For most people this should only be a temporary measure but for some who don't have access to Reverse Osmosis and/or those who can't lower water to add fresh water this may be the only option.

I would suggest, if you are going to lower the TA, to lets some of the board members assist you with figuring out just how low you can go with the TA.

What is the CH of your fill water?

gg=alice

 

[oldogface]

Not sure of CH of the fill water.... we're on a well, but, I don't think that it's high... do not know.

I can run water out.... to the skimmer level. and replace it; that's not a problem.... just not certain how to get that volume out.

 

[dmanb2b]

Vacum to waste, with your main drain open (if you have one)...keep an eye on the pump to make sure you do not run it dry. Just test your well water with the TF100 to determine the CH level

 

[Scottg8580]

Vacum to waste, with your main drain open (if you have one)...keep an eye on the pump to make sure you do not run it dry. Just test your well water with the TF100 to determine the CH level

I actually drained 23% of my water 2 weeks ago to lower the salt content. It went from 4200 down to 3000-3100 depending on the goldline remote. I can test my fill water tonight to see if the calcium is high. Actually I stopped testing around 40 drops because I was afraid I was doing something wrong.

 

[oldogface]

No drain.... but, will test the well water when I get hom.

Will the "if you have copper" step possibly alter the test results?

 

[geekgranny]

If you have a main drain and can close the skimmer valve you can either vacuum to waste or backwash, if you have a valve that does not have a waste setting. If you don't have a main drain you can purchase, borrow, or rent a submersible pump to lower past skimmer. Make sure main pool pump is off. You can get a good small submersible pump, at or below $100, at many hardware stores or Northern Tools. Have I mentioned lately, how much I love my submersible pumps? :lol:

Or if there is an area that you can drain to, that is lower than your pool, you can run one or more hoses to the lower area, use running water to get water into the hose, while holding both under water, then let drain hose down into water and it will syphon off. Be sure to keep pool side hose higher than draining side of hose. It's good also, to weight the pool side hose a bit so it doesn't flip out of pool or go up to surface and draw in air. That will stop the syphoning and you'll have to re-prim.

Way back, before I had submersible pumps, and needed to drain a "swamp" pool, that was the way I drained my pool when I didn't want the stuff going to the pump and filter, or through the drain, The more hoses the better, if your drain area can handle that amount of water. Mine all goes down hill to the woods.

gg=alice

 

[oldogface]

Ooops! Now I understand... vacuum to waste! Gotcha!

 

[geekgranny]

Ooops! Now I understand... vacuum to waste! Gotcha!

I just reread my post. Currently l use my skimmer to vacuum to waste. Once the water gets below the the skimmer air gets sucked in and I can't do a real vacuum. So if you can dump to waste then dump using the bottom drain only and to waste. If there is any crud on the bottom that will get sucked into the filter while backwashing I don't think it would be a good idea to do a backwash because the crud will get pulled into the grids/cartridges if that's what you have. I'm thinking backwashing should only be done using skimmer with skimmer sock to keep as much stuff out of the inside of filter grids/cartridges as possible. Someone correct me if, I'm wrong.

After I put in the multi-valve with the new filter, this spring I realized how much less work and hassle some of the maintenance functions are having the multi valve. Some people, with cartridge filters don't have multi-valves. Now that I know how handy they are I wouldn't be without one.

My pumping station is below pool level so, before, when i only had a push pull valve (no waste feature), and I wanted to let some water out, and didn't mind the bottom stuff going through the main drain pipe (no large stuff) I just opened the pump pot lid and lots of water flowed out. With this "flooded system" one does need valves on all pipes, at pumping station, to totally shut off water coming to the system when needed.

gg=alice

 

[oldogface]

I'm assuming I can vacuum to waste with the vacuum hose set up in my skimmer as if I were using to clear debris from the pool.... as there's a seal, can I not go below skimmer level that way?