First Time Test numbers - some questions

Jump to latest Follow Reply
R

RawhideKid

0
LifeTime Supporter
Jan 16, 2010
89
As my new signature line shows, our pool is finally DONE!!!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....
My first post here was Jan 16, 2010, and I was reading and planning for a few years before that, and saving money even longer.
Yes, after 14 years of unbearable summers, we finally can survive these summers with relative ease!

Wish I could figure out how to post a dang photo for y'all, but you can tell from my signature, this is a great pool, if I can say so myself. We are getting a lot of comments like "looks like Cabo!" and such....truly a wonderful thing, and I can't thank all of you for your posts and information that I read as much as possible.

So here's the scoop. Pool was filled Saturday to Sunday am by about 10 am (12th). Pool guy showed up yesterday am and put two gallons of 10% liquid chlorine in. FC was high after that - about 7.8. But by that evening, it was down to 7.2. We jumped in of course, brushing the pebble edges aggressively as told to but enjoying it. By last night (14th), the FC was low, at about 1, and pH 7.2 still. Ok, i'm getting worried I haven't done the full range of tests with the kit I bought. We still swam today, but just now I did the full range of tests for the first time using my trusty TF 100 kit. (advice: drink less beer before testing - less waste that way:)

Results: (with my guess at what I'm to add based on pool calc)
FC: 1 - add 126 oz of 10% bleach - I need to go buy some.
CC: 0.5 - not in pool calc. Why do I measure this?
pH; 7.8 - 16 oz of 31.45% muriatic acid - this I have! (bought at Shasta pool store as was cheaper than Home Depot.
TA: 90 - ok
CH: 140 - 963 oz (liquid) of CA Chloride - need to go buy. Wonder if this is at Home Depot? Forgot to check this when there today.
CYA: About 20, maybe a little less - add 309 oz of stabilizer (Cyanuric acid) - should have bought today too.

Also, found some "Sequestrant" at the Shasta store - wow. (Jack's magic Magenta stuff and others) It'll cost me $100 ($24/ quart x 4 for 40k gallons) to add this first time to pool. I'll do online search for same stuff but only cheaper. Didn't see it at Home Depot but will look again.

Is their another name for Calcium Chloride?
Why no test for Borates in the TF-100? or did I miss it?
What should I add first, second, etc, and wait how long between, or does it matter? When can kids jump back in?

thx for all comments!!! I'll post some comments and advice about the build experience soon. Wow...very fascinating...many lessons learned!

RK
 
RawhideKid said:
Results: (with my guess at what I'm to add based on pool calc)
FC: 1 - add 126 oz of 10% bleach - I need to go buy some.
CC: 0.5 - not in pool calc. Why do I measure this?
pH; 7.8 - 16 oz of 31.45% muriatic acid - this I have! (bought at Shasta pool store as was cheaper than Home Depot.
TA: 90 - ok
CH: 140 - 963 oz (liquid) of CA Chloride - need to go buy. Wonder if this is at Home Depot? Forgot to check this when there today.
CYA: About 20, maybe a little less - add 309 oz of stabilizer (Cyanuric acid) - should have bought today too.

RK
Click to expand...
You check CC to tell you if things are growing in there. Think of it as half-used chlorine. If it gets higher, you got problems.

I'd leave the Ch alone for a few days. Since this is a fresh pool, it will probably start rising. And the Phoenix area is known for hard water on this board. As it evaporates and you refill, CH is going to climb. Unless you have some sort of warranty, wait a week or two and see where CH is.

I suggest you re-read Pool School. Things will make more sense now that you have the pool going.
 
Thanks Richard. I printed a bunch of the pool school stuff and put it in a binder with a grid to track my measurements. Yup - i'll read and re-read (by the pool of course) it.

Thx for the advice on waiting. Forgot to add something: The pool guy added a floater with four large chlorine pucks. Looks like they are about half gone already. Pool guy said to add a few pucks (he left behind) by end of week if they run out, but he'll be back next week to recheck things. This was all part of the pool contract, but after next week, he'll start charging. He programmed all the equipment too....

pump is on 24/7 and the kreepy-crawley is on whenever we are not in the pool.

Question: What about adding acid? Wait on that too?
 
Contract is silent on this. I'll listen to what the pool guy said and add a few pucks end of week. But i'll keep testing - if nothing else than to get used to the procedures. And to drill my 11 year old on how to do it himself.
 
As Richard has been giving more than good advice I'l just comment on a couple of things.

You only need sequestrant if it's absolutely "required" by the warranty or if you have metals in your water. If you know you don't have metals and your warranty doesn't specifically require it you can do without it.

I'd go ahead and add a little acid to get the pH down to 7.6 or so. Don't get too aggressive but keep it under 8.

Borates is an additional option that some people have. The reason it's in the Pool Calc is that it buffers pH and is needed in the calculations "if" you have them.

Jason listed the sequence in a post a while back. IIRC.

If your TA is very low to zero that's first.
If th TA is ok then adjust pH as required.
After that adjust FC.
The rest can be adjusted in whatever order you like.

Give whatever you add about 30 minutes to dissolve and you're good to swim.
 
pH climbing - 8.2 tonight. Adding 55 oz of muriatic acid. Added a few more CL pucks as floating basket is empty and FC 1.5 - a bit higher than yesterday, but still a bit lower than I like....We have four kids (and one or two big kids) using the pool about 4-6 hours PER DAY right now. Yes, it's hot in Phoenix...:) So thinking about adding maybe 177 ml of 10% liq CL (per the pool calc). Maybe I'll do just a little tonight and recheck in am....Don't want to over do it...

Got the spa heater running today and tested it. 92 to 104 degrees spa water in 15 minutes! Wow! But something messed up in the plumbing. Builder is working on fixing it next week. Not sure exactly what the issue is.

Bama - found the link to the "order of adding" or correcting my numbers: pool-opening-what-order-the-chemicals-need-to-be-added-t32616.html?hilit=fill%20order

Thanks!

RK
 
pH 7.5 and FC 1.5, CC 0. TA 90 and CH 140. Forgot to do borate test. Pool calc says to add some bleach/chlorine and some stabilizer. I've got the chlorine so will add tonight but have to run to the pool store tomorrow to get the stabilizer. Seem strange that a few days ago it was 35 and now it's zero. I've got six pucks in the floater, and thought the CYA would rise a it more. Maybe I'll recheck the CYA in am to be sure I didn't mess up the test. Slowly getting better at the tests....

any other suggestions? Water looks ok, but bugs have discovered the water and i've been using the net a lot more. We don't have a lot of flying bugs in AZ, but strange how many i'm finding in the pool now.

RK
 
The CYA test is very subjective. You can get a 20 point difference testing it in full sun vs testing indoors. I've even had a change when I hold the tube just at the top with two fingers or if I have all my fingers on it. I'd check again, multiple back-and-forths before I added any more. It's easy to add, hard to remove.
 
Borate does not matter unless you are running a borate pool. There are advantages, but I am reluctant to recommend borates. It's one of those "your mileage may vary" things, so just ignore the borate test.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Yesterday am, my readings were:
FC 0.5; CC 0.5; pH 7.5, TA 70, CH 150, and CYA 0. So I added 128 oz of Chlorine and 128 oz of Stabilizer/conditioner. (Love that milky white color of the stabilizer - told the kids I was adding milk to help their skin...kiddingly)

That evening, my FC was up to 3.5 - much better.

But wow- by tonight, FC back down to 0.5! CC .5, pH 7.2, TA 70, CH 170, and CYA up to 24. We are swimming quite a fair amount and splashing around and running the waterfall....
Added 152 oz of 10% chlorine per the pool calc, and another 128 oz of stabilizer/chlorine to get my CYA up a bit more.
Surprised a bit my pH is down. Keep expecting it to go up, but maybe i'm reading things wrong.

My big question is the CH level of 170, which is up from the original 140. Bought some "BioGuard Maintain Balance pak 300 - calcium hardness increaser." Amazing that these chemical packages don't have to list the ingredients like most other packages....Pool store people said they almost never sell any of it unless it's a brand new pool, which of course is mine...

Pool calc says to add 782 oz by weight of ca chloride. Directions on the balance pack indicate I need 40 pounds of the stuff to increase my hardness by 100 ppm. Wow - I only bought one five pound container. I need 7 more of these?

I've read (I think, but correct me if i'm wrong...)that hardness increases as the water evaporates, which obviously will happen rapidly in the 110+ degree temps we are having....my results show a 30 ppm increase in 10 days. So the obvious question: Should I add some of this "balance pak 300 hardness increaser" or simply wait for it to rise in its own?

thoughts here? Thanks for everyone's help!

RK
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply