Once you get the pool filled, post a full set of results and we'll guide you from there.
Going BBB - need some help
- Thread starter jaydar
- Start date
OK...here are the numbers...haven't added anything but water yet
FC is 3 fix for shock 2 quarts liquid chlorine
CC is 0 Perfect
TC is 3 Ok with that..maybe try for 5ppm after the shock breaks down
PH is 7.3 looking for 7.8...calculator says about 4 cups baking soda
TA is 60 ppm also says 4 cups baking soda so I'll assume I should put 4 cups and not 8
CH is 350 ( strange that) can't understand why so high after and almost complete drain
CYA is 28 ppm fix is 28oz of dry stabilizer or 69 oz of liquid...not sure what I'll do..whatever is cheapest I guess
Borates are 15 ppm looking for 50 ppm calculator says add 356oz of borax and 177 oz of muriatic acid...this is confusing me.
water temp is 78
I think I'll just start by add half gallon of chlorine tonight
put the 4 cups of baking soda in the am....wait till evening and add 1 box of 20 mule team borax and retest in the morning.
I think I'll hit the pool store now and get whatever form of cya gives me more bang for my buck and add that tonight as well after the chlorine.
FC is 3 fix for shock 2 quarts liquid chlorine
CC is 0 Perfect
TC is 3 Ok with that..maybe try for 5ppm after the shock breaks down
PH is 7.3 looking for 7.8...calculator says about 4 cups baking soda
TA is 60 ppm also says 4 cups baking soda so I'll assume I should put 4 cups and not 8
CH is 350 ( strange that) can't understand why so high after and almost complete drain
CYA is 28 ppm fix is 28oz of dry stabilizer or 69 oz of liquid...not sure what I'll do..whatever is cheapest I guess
Borates are 15 ppm looking for 50 ppm calculator says add 356oz of borax and 177 oz of muriatic acid...this is confusing me.
water temp is 78
I think I'll just start by add half gallon of chlorine tonight
put the 4 cups of baking soda in the am....wait till evening and add 1 box of 20 mule team borax and retest in the morning.
I think I'll hit the pool store now and get whatever form of cya gives me more bang for my buck and add that tonight as well after the chlorine.
Go ahead and raise the TA a little, say up to 80. But otherwise leave the PH alone. The PH will tend to drift up very slowly on it's own. You don't need to worry about PH unless it gets up to 7.8 or down to 7.2.
There is no need to shock if the water is clear and there aren't any signs of algae.
I wouldn't worry about borates right now. Get everything else working and then decide if you really want borates or not.
There is no need to shock if the water is clear and there aren't any signs of algae.
I wouldn't worry about borates right now. Get everything else working and then decide if you really want borates or not.
How are you getting a CYA of 28ppm when the CYA test is only marked in tens?
I wouldn't add any baking soda. Why do you feel the need to have your pH at 7.8? I'd leave it alone at 7.3.
Also how are you getting a pH of 7.3 when the K-1000 kit doesn't have that comparision color?
I wouldn't add any baking soda. Why do you feel the need to have your pH at 7.8? I'd leave it alone at 7.3.
Also how are you getting a pH of 7.3 when the K-1000 kit doesn't have that comparision color?
Hi Jason and Bama Rambler.
To answer the 1st question....even though FC is at 3 and CC is 0....the water is far from crystal clear and there is a slight cloud even though the drains are still visible.After 6 years with this pool...I know that slightly cloudy is a condition that can't be ignored here.I have direct sun blazing on the pool from 7am to 7pm.
How do I know that my cya is 28 ppm.Well...by deduction my dear watson.The biggest jump in graduating marks on the test vial is between 30 ppm and 20ppm...they way I see it,there there was a 2ppm difference to get to 30 ppm.
Why I want my ph at 7.8 is because I read a story from some guy who blogs in this board(I think) I folowed his link...found out he was a BBBer and a proffesional poolman for several decades taking care of residential and big commercial pools.He explained how he had found that running PH slightly higher than 7.6....he found that 7.8 - 8.0 ph was the least problematic for keeping pools balanced and therefore he'd be using less chemicals and never worried about algae bloom.
He does offer a caveat that not all pools can be run at high ph...it's something that takes some time to get to know the characteristics of every pool you deal with...and I guess pools have their own personality so to speak.
I know when I began experimenting last year with BBB and high ph my water spakled and was comfortable to swim in...no stinging eyes.Even though my cya and chlorines were so Dang high.
Also...I'm a bit of a health nut and have learned that keeping your body PH at slightly more alkaline than neutral,can help prevent and even help cure cancer.
To answer the 1st question....even though FC is at 3 and CC is 0....the water is far from crystal clear and there is a slight cloud even though the drains are still visible.After 6 years with this pool...I know that slightly cloudy is a condition that can't be ignored here.I have direct sun blazing on the pool from 7am to 7pm.
How do I know that my cya is 28 ppm.Well...by deduction my dear watson.The biggest jump in graduating marks on the test vial is between 30 ppm and 20ppm...they way I see it,there there was a 2ppm difference to get to 30 ppm.
Why I want my ph at 7.8 is because I read a story from some guy who blogs in this board(I think) I folowed his link...found out he was a BBBer and a proffesional poolman for several decades taking care of residential and big commercial pools.He explained how he had found that running PH slightly higher than 7.6....he found that 7.8 - 8.0 ph was the least problematic for keeping pools balanced and therefore he'd be using less chemicals and never worried about algae bloom.
He does offer a caveat that not all pools can be run at high ph...it's something that takes some time to get to know the characteristics of every pool you deal with...and I guess pools have their own personality so to speak.
I know when I began experimenting last year with BBB and high ph my water spakled and was comfortable to swim in...no stinging eyes.Even though my cya and chlorines were so Dang high.
Also...I'm a bit of a health nut and have learned that keeping your body PH at slightly more alkaline than neutral,can help prevent and even help cure cancer.
You shouldn't try to estimate the CYA level between the marks that are available on the tube. Read the level out as the nearest labeled number, or 30 in your case. The scale is very non-linear and attempts to estimate in-between marks can be way off. A reading of 28 also implies a precision that simply isn't there. The CYA test is +-15.
The whole point of having relatively high PH is so you don't need to adjust your PH manually. That is how you save chemicals, by not adjusting the PH. Your PH will go up, perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly. There is no point in adjusting it on your own other than to waste chemicals.
That whole running at higher PH experiment didn't really turn out the way he intended. A couple of years after that piece was written we finally figured out the relationship between PH and TA and CO2 outgassing. His story was an early attempt to explore the same ideas before anyone understood what was really going on.
The whole point of having relatively high PH is so you don't need to adjust your PH manually. That is how you save chemicals, by not adjusting the PH. Your PH will go up, perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly. There is no point in adjusting it on your own other than to waste chemicals.
That whole running at higher PH experiment didn't really turn out the way he intended. A couple of years after that piece was written we finally figured out the relationship between PH and TA and CO2 outgassing. His story was an early attempt to explore the same ideas before anyone understood what was really going on.
Thanks for the reply.....I guess mabe I'll go easy on that then.As to the cya...I was kinda being facetcious..I am round to 30...which is where it was closets to.I'm shooting for 50ppm cya so I will probable put have the recommended dose in and wait a day and retest after everything has circulated for 24 hours.If I' a bit over 50 ppm I won't be concerned...but I'd like to keep in that range because ther are times when I'm not around and I'd like to be able to throw a few pucks in the floater every once in a while and not have to ever worry about dealing with such high levels again.
If you still need to shock I wouldn't add any more CYA until you're complete with that.
Well I didn't give a super shock...ended up putting about 1 gal of 12.5% LC.
The lady at the pool store where I've been buying chlorine for the last 6 years had me brainwashed into superchlorination with 2.5 gal of 12.% with a 1lb bag or 2 of dichlor.
That won't be happening anymore.
I've added about half the recommended MA and about 3/4 of recommended cya along with 2.5 76oz boxes of borax and 4 cups of baking soda.
I was kind of expecting a milky reaction until it had circulated awhile..like 8 hours...but it's been 5 hours since I've added this stuff and the pool is absolutely sparkling crystal clear already.I know I'll need to tweak it a bit tomorrow...but so far so good.
A question or two...if I may.
These test kits are expensive...even the cheapy basic water test kits are a bit pricey.I'd like to know why there are no chemical names on the reagents except for hydrochloric acid?I'll bet these are common chemicals that could be bought by the pint,quart,or gallon pretty cheap, but since we don't know what they are we have to buy reagent 1oz or 2oz refills at a cost of more than should be.
Is there a way to find out what these reagents are?
#2...Is it safe for me to add salt to my pool once it's balanced if I don't have a swcg?
#3 would industrial grade hydrogen peroxide of say 35% or 70% be a good substitute sanitizer for chlorine?
The lady at the pool store where I've been buying chlorine for the last 6 years had me brainwashed into superchlorination with 2.5 gal of 12.% with a 1lb bag or 2 of dichlor.
That won't be happening anymore.
I've added about half the recommended MA and about 3/4 of recommended cya along with 2.5 76oz boxes of borax and 4 cups of baking soda.
I was kind of expecting a milky reaction until it had circulated awhile..like 8 hours...but it's been 5 hours since I've added this stuff and the pool is absolutely sparkling crystal clear already.I know I'll need to tweak it a bit tomorrow...but so far so good.
A question or two...if I may.
These test kits are expensive...even the cheapy basic water test kits are a bit pricey.I'd like to know why there are no chemical names on the reagents except for hydrochloric acid?I'll bet these are common chemicals that could be bought by the pint,quart,or gallon pretty cheap, but since we don't know what they are we have to buy reagent 1oz or 2oz refills at a cost of more than should be.
Is there a way to find out what these reagents are?
#2...Is it safe for me to add salt to my pool once it's balanced if I don't have a swcg?
#3 would industrial grade hydrogen peroxide of say 35% or 70% be a good substitute sanitizer for chlorine?
The cost of a good test kit is far lower than what it will save you on chemicals.
There are very few of the chemicals used in a test kit that you can find readily available generic substitutes for, and even then you risk not having the concentration correctly calibrated. Many of them are things that you can easily order from a chemical supply house, but that will almost always end up being more expensive. Just a couple of them are difficult to duplicate with enough precision to be useful. For example it is very easy to get phenol red to do the PH test with, but very very difficult to get it properly compensated so it still reads correctly at non-trivial FC levels.
Don't add salt for the first 30 days after plaster has been applied. Other than that, you can add salt any time.
No, hydrogen peroxide won't work. Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer, but not a suitable sanitizer, and it is incompatible with chlorine usage.
There are very few of the chemicals used in a test kit that you can find readily available generic substitutes for, and even then you risk not having the concentration correctly calibrated. Many of them are things that you can easily order from a chemical supply house, but that will almost always end up being more expensive. Just a couple of them are difficult to duplicate with enough precision to be useful. For example it is very easy to get phenol red to do the PH test with, but very very difficult to get it properly compensated so it still reads correctly at non-trivial FC levels.
Don't add salt for the first 30 days after plaster has been applied. Other than that, you can add salt any time.
No, hydrogen peroxide won't work. Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer, but not a suitable sanitizer, and it is incompatible with chlorine usage.