First Test Results (advice welcomed)

[eric99gt]

Temp: 90
FC: 5.5
CC: 0
pH:8.2
T/A:150
CH:420
CYA:50

I'm having some trouble estimating the total volume of my pool. I have an estimate but I'm guessing I may be off by +/- 5000 gallons.

As for the numbers. I'm guessing my high pH has a lot to do with my SWG and my use of a pool cooler (tons of aeration).

 

[duraleigh]

Hi, Eric,

Welcome to the forum. :lol:

Yeah, your pH is too high and needs to come down sooner rather than later. Using muriatic, bring it down into the low 7's right away. Your TA will come down with it. Regardless of the causer use muriatic to keep it down around 7.2 or so.

The reason I'm suggesting keeping your pH down low is the somewhat high CH you have. High pH, TA, and CH combined is a big no-no.......calcium scaling and calcium precipitation can result........we want you to stay out of that upper range.

What is the CH of your fill water?

Your FC/CYA relationship looks perfect...nice work!

 

[dickeystorm]

What does the calcium precipitate look like? I find small white granuales in my crawler all the time and assumed they were left over from the chlorine shock (dichlor) I was using (switched to bleach recently). My numbers as of 7/30/10 were
FC 10.0
TC 10.0
CC 0.0
pH 7.5
Hardness 310
Alkalinity 99
CYA 70
Copper 0.21
Iron 0
TDS 1400
Temp 87 F
as tested by pool shop

I'm waiting for my "good" test kit to arrive to be able to do the testing myself. For now all I can test id oto chlorine and pH, today's readings were FC ~5, pH 7.5

25000 gal, IG, plaster, DE filter, 1.5hp pump, crawler. built in spa

 

[duraleigh]

I find small white granuales in my crawler

Is that a pool cleaner?

 

[eric99gt]

Hi, Eric,

Welcome to the forum. :lol:

Yeah, your pH is too high and needs to come down sooner rather than later. Using muriatic, bring it down into the low 7's right away. Your TA will come down with it. Regardless of the causer use muriatic to keep it down around 7.2 or so.

The reason I'm suggesting keeping your pH down low is the somewhat high CH you have. High pH, TA, and CH combined is a big no-no.......calcium scaling and calcium precipitation can result........we want you to stay out of that upper range.

What is the CH of your fill water?

Your FC/CYA relationship looks perfect...nice work!

Thanks Duraleigh. Appreciate the recommendations. I figured the first thing I should get under control is that pH. Quick question though. I did go and buy some chlorine stabilizer as the information found here
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/water_balance_saltwater_generator

States that CYA should be up in the 70-80 range and that one should take care of this first. Am I fine with the CYA in the 50 range? If so I'll stick to attacking that pH.

 

[duraleigh]

For now, I'd focus on getting your pH right. Once that's brought into safe range, you can then address the CYA level which is not as critical.

When you do, yes, bring it (CYA) up to 60-70 max. You can always add a little more to tweak it if you want but 70 is a good number and will keep you from overshooting the mark.

 

[eric99gt]

So tested the fill water for CH and it's much lower around 110. What causes the CH to become that high in the first place?

 

[duraleigh]

With a CH of 110 in your fill water, I would say the likely cause is the overuse of Calcium Hypochlorite. Often called "shock" in the pool store (shock is a process....not a product), it continually adds calcium to your pool each time you use it.

The only way to remove that calcium is thru rainwater and spashout. Yours' is borderline and can be dealt with easily enough if you keep down the pH.

 

[eric99gt]

Awesome. Thanks. I'm in the process of fazing out the person who has been taking care of the pool. I believe he's used shock quite a few times lately as I had an issue with the SWG not working. That would explain it well.

 

[dickeystorm]

I find small white granuales in my crawler

Is that a pool cleaner?

Yes. I don't know what it's called technically, we call it the dog since it's on a leash . It runs on a 3/4 hp pump and has a net to catch bottom debris.

 

[duraleigh]

Yes. I don't know what it's called technically, we call it the dog since it's on a leash

I understand. It is not likely that's precipitate....it usually sticks to something like walls, ladders, etc.

I imagine you were right in thinking it was dichlor. YOur numbers are not very indicative of calcium problems, either.

 

[eric99gt]

I've been tackling the pH issue the last couple of days. I got it down to 7.2 tonight. The pH seems to rise pretty quickly but I was expecting that with all the aeration and the high TA. So I'll continue to add acid every day down to 7.2 and hopefully that gets my TA in check. I'm a bit concerned that I'll be constantly adding acid even after I lower the TA due to the mist cooler/spa waterfall/and SWG. Is this inevitable? Am I going to be adding acid every day I'm running my mist coolers?

 

[dmanb2b]

Once your TA gets down to 60-70 range, ph rise will slow down dramatically

 

[eric99gt]

Still slowly getting that TA down. Down to around 80 now. Odd thing happened though the 2nd time around with the full test run. The FC level was much higher than last time. 10 or 11 this time compared to 5.5 last time. I haven't changed anything except for the pump run times. Used to run 8PM to 6AM now 10PM to 8AM. Only thing I can think is when I sampled. I did it in late afternoon last time and this time early morning. I'm thinking most of the FC got used up during the day last time when the pump and SWG were not running which led to a lower reading in the evening.

 

[eric99gt]

No thoughts on the chlorine? Should I be waiting until the evening when my SWG has been off for most of the day to do the testing?

 

[dmanb2b]

You've got it Test in the early evening so you will know what your minimum FC is before the SWG turns on.