need some help with taylor k2006 readings

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simplicity

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Sep 8, 2010
21
SF Bay Area, CA
Hello,

Finally had our liner replaced a week ago, came across this forum and couldn't stop reading since. I've been testing the water with some test strips and could not trust the readings, so I took the recommendation from many here and purchased a Taylor K2006 kit. In the meantime, I just put half a gallon of chlorine every few days and raised the pH with pH+.

It arrived today and I couldn't wait to test it out.

Here are my readings, please let me know if I'm reading this properly.

FC: My guess is zero, since the vial never turned pink after I put two scoops of the powder, so I stopped there.
TA: It looked hot pink after the 8th drop, so I added up to 11 drops and the color remained the same (never seemed RED to me). Is this right?
pH: (I know I must be color challenged) I think it fell between 7.7 or 7.8
CYA: 0
CH: I ignored this test since it's vinyl liner.

So this is what I plan to do tomorrow, get some stabilizer and add 6 lbs (according to pool calculator goal set to 40). At the same time, add about a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine (pool calculator set to goal 4).

Or do you guys think I need to worry about my pH being a bit on the high side?

Thanks, I hope I can get the hang of testing with drops but I think I need to confirm if I'm doing it right.
 
Hello, and welcome to TFP!

FC: You did that one correctly. No pink, no FC. Try it again if you're unsure.

TA: Mainly what you're looking for is a color change. Pink is ok, mine's always come out hot pink too. When the color starts to change, add one drop at a time until the color stops changing. If you add a drop and the color does not change, don't count that drop. That will be your TA.

pH: To make it a little easier to read, try doing the test in indirect sunlight with a white piece of paper held around 6 inches held behind the test block. Doing it this way helped me read it a lot easier.

With no FC and no CYA, go ahead and add the CYA and get FC to hold. Your pH is on the high end of where it should be, but will probably be ok for a few days. You can go ahead and lower it too, either way I think would be fine.

Wait 5 or 6 days after adding the CYA to test for it (it takes a while to show up in the test). The test takes a few times to get the hang of. You can get some practice by running the test, then instead of dumping the water, pour it from the tube back in the mixer and do it over a few times.

Here's a link to show what the end result should be: http://www.taylortechnologies.com/Chemi ... ntentID=44

Hope this helps, I tried to be as thorough as possible.
 
I'm pretty confident that FC is zero since I had no stabilizer.

I just went ahead and added some pH Minus...15 oz to be exact, to try to get to 7.5 pH. I will retest pH tomorrow against a white piece of paper as suggested.

Does my TA sound fine? I think it is probably around 90-100. Since 8th drop color started changing...

Thanks again and hope that FC will hold after I add some CYA. I hope I don't need to test CYA that often cuz I used up half the bottle to get the vial from 7 ml to 14 ml to make the cloudy mixture ...
 
Simplicity,

Welcome to the forum. Be sure to stay focused on calculating the correct dosage for your CYA, get it in there and then BE SURE you keep your FC up so it is NEVER at zero. That's where your emphasis needs to be.

TA, pH and CH are all secondary items (in your case) and can be dealt with once you have a given amount of CYA (I would suggest 50ppm) and then brought your FC up to around 4-6ppm and KEPT IT THERE for a couple of days.
 
Thanks Dave.
That will be my goal...to maintain a level of FC that don't seem to go away overnight. I had thought that the first step was to get pH and TA balanced out first and then take care of FC and CYA.

I might also add that the water looks clear and clean, that probably doesn't mean anything in my case since FC is close to zero or zero.

I'll aim for a CYA of 50 ( 2x 4lb HTH stabilizer from Walmart) and put in some chlorine to get 5 ppm and see how things are in a couple of days with FC. I'll retest CYA in a week. I'll try the sock method over the return for the CYA and will not clean out the filter until I retest CYA.
 
Simplicity,

Now you've got it goin' on!! That's a great plan.

I should've explained my post a little better. Your pH and TA may need adjustment before FC and CYA if they are w-a-a-y out of whack. Yours results for both pH and TA are within an acceptable range and can be tweaked later.

My main point (which you picked right up on) is that FC at ZERO needs immediate attention and, since there is currently no CYA, you will burn up a lot of FC until you get the CYA in place.

As Richard said, the CH needs to be tested as well but get that FC stabilized and a correct dosage (8 lbs sounds pretty good) of CYA in there first.
 
simplicity said:
Awesome! I've never been so excited to go to Walmart... :)
Click to expand...

Walmart is very seasonal, they tend to take down the pool stuff when school supplies go in. My need to go to a regular pool store or a hardware store if no luck at Walmart.

Also, check labels to see if 99% CYA
 

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I was able to get the HTH Stabilizer from Walmart. Though they are 96% CYA, I didn't have a way to do the sock method so I poured it slowly into the skimmer with the pump running, gonna keep it running for 24 hours and then measure CYA next Friday.

Also poured in a gallon of 10% liquid chlorine. Will test FC tomorrow to see how it's doing. I got these on sale last weekend from my local OSH store, so hopefully they werent too old. After I'm done with the 10% I'm going to switch to 6% Bleach from Costco...works out to about $2.60 per gallon.

I retested the pH today after I put in some pH minus last night...the pH dropped a bit more than I expected, seems orange colorish and looks like possibly somewhere between 7.2 and 7.4 (I guess it means it's 7.3) I'm starting to wonder if my pool volume is incorrect...since my side walls curve towards the bottom and doesn't go straight down at the deep end. In any case I'll play around with the pH once I can get FC to hold.
 
After running the pump for 48 hours I've taken the following reading...

FC - 6
CC - 0
TC - 6
pH - 7.0 (this dropped since I added CYA so I put in a box and a half of borax to try to get this back up)

I'm happy that FC is present and held up after 2 days. I will do a full test at the end of the week when I test CYA.

Thanks for all your help!
 
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