Just did our first test! What do we need to add?

[mrdhb]

Hello!

This morning, I was able to fix the SWG and have added the salt. The Filter Pump is in the "running for 24hr" stage, before we turn on the SWG.

My wife and I just did our first test...and here are our results:

FC 5
pH 8
TA 80
Copper .1

I'm headed to Walmart...what do we need to do to fix the numbers? (The pool was filled with regular city water)

Intex 15' x 48"

THank you!

Daniel

 

[JasonLion]

You should reduce the PH to 7.5. You can do that with either muriatic acid, sold in hardware stores, or dry acid, sold in pool stores and pool departments of various big box stores under brand names like PH Minus. Muriatic acid is significantly less expensive, but somewhat more difficult to handle.

It is also very important to know your CYA level. If you just filled the pool with tap water the CYA level will be zero. Whatever the current CYA level, you want CYA to be around 70 to 80 for use with a SWG. CYA can be increased with cyanuric acid, which is sold under various names, most commonly stabilizer or conditioner. Look for something that lists cyanuric acid as the main ingredient, hopefully 95+% concentration.

 

[mrdhb]

Jason,
Thank you for your help!
I just purchased the HTH test from Walmart...and sure enough, received COMPLETELY different answers from before! Sheesh!
TH 100
TC 0
FC 0
pH 7.2
TA 40
ST 0

Oh my!

Daniel

 

[BadOleRoss]

A better test kit will be one of the TF test kits and I highly recommend a SpeedStir. You can find a link to those test kits at the bottom of JasonLions post. Like Jason said, you really need to know what your CYA level is.

 

[JasonLion]

What did you do the original test with? Also was the second test done with the six way HTH drop based kit?

The six way HTH drop based kit is fairly good as long as the TC level is relatively low. If the first set of numbers was from test strips, I would trust the HTH kit over the strips every time. Also, if ST is stabilizer/CYA then it makes sense that your FC level come down, especially if there were several hours between those tests and it was sunny. Without CYA you lose all of your chlorine to sunlight each day. And, if TA is really 40, then it makes sense that the PH came down, though not that much. There isn't any way to account for the difference in TA number however.

Going by the second set of tests, you need to raise TA to around 70 or 80 and add chlorine and stabilizer.

 

[mrdhb]

Thank you both!

Yes...the second set of numbers was from the HTH 6-way kit recommend in one of the articles here. The first test was from the Intex kit. Won't use that again.

We have been running the pump filter with the salt in the water for nearly 23 hours...and plan to turn on the SWG in an hour. Yeah! But I'll be sure to run out and grab some CYA (yes, the ST = stabilizer).

Is there a chlorine to add that will work best with the SWG?

Thank you so much!

Daniel

 

[JasonLion]

Regular household bleach (no scents, no special features) is the simplest way to add chlorine while you are working on getting things balanced for the SWG. While CYA is zero, it is most effective to add chlorine manually in the evenings.

You should raise TA up to about 70 with baking soda.

Indeed, time to work on raising CYA.