Ok thanks for all your help people. I think you are correct sportsman, when i tested it this morning it was pure white! Ok so had wife turn off the SWG and the sand filter is still on. I will pick up the cheap HTH 6 way test kit from wally world for now and get the T100 at a later date. I will post the results when I get home after work. Thanks again for all your help everyone.
Pool out of balance! Pool party this weekend!
- Thread starter sprede
- Start date
I wouldn't wait. You have already waited long enough when you have a pool party coming at you like a train and no good way of fixing the problems.sprede said:
I hesitate to say this (I usually do not get too hung up on this), but you/we have no way of knowing if you pool is safe/pleasant to swim in. The test strips you are using are really telling us nothing. If you have a problem, you will not be ready for this weekend. The HTH kit will be better, but will not give you the tools to most efficiently fix your problem.
By the way, what does you water look like?
Thanks for all your concern. I have banned all swimming until i get this fixed so no one will be in there till then. My wife wont do anything with the pool so things will have to wait till I get home. I will have the HTH tester by then so at least it will be better than the strips.
At first the water was cloudy but you could still see the bottom. Now it is about 80% better and easily can see the bottom of the pool but not CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Here is a picture of it before.
At first the water was cloudy but you could still see the bottom. Now it is about 80% better and easily can see the bottom of the pool but not CRYSTAL CLEAR.
Here is a picture of it before.
I'm still fairly new here, but judging from the picture, the reason you keep reading 0 on your strip is because you have a green pool. All the chlorine is being used up destroying what algae it can, but there's more algae than your chlorine can handle at 3 ppm. Time to stock up on bleach and start the shock process, even if you have to use a diluted OTO sample to judge the FC level. Hit it hard, and you'll get rid of it. Good luck!
Yeah, I agree with Las Vegas. See if your wife can dump in a bunch of bleach and turn the pump on (swg off, I'd guess?). Also, I don't have an Intex sand filter/pump, but I would probably run it 24/7 til pool cleared (regardless of the run time suggestion you mentioned earlier).
Ok here is a picture of the pool up to this point. Looks a ton better in my opinion. Had my wife dump in some super shock per the recomendations I have been getting. I will test again when I get home.
What is super shock? Who recommended it? On here I think we recommend only liquid chlorine/bleach for shocking.sprede said:
Did you order a good test kit yet?
A few posts back sportsman suggested shocking so I happend to have hth super shock n swim so I had my wife add the proper amount into the pool. I had also added bleach per the recommendations as well, but by the sounds of it I should not have used the hth super shock.
I have the T100 in my cart as I write but running out of cashola so wont be able to get the super stirrer. I wont get this test kit in time so bought the cheap hth 6way test kit to use rather than the strips.
I will post the results when I get home most likely around 6ish.
I have the T100 in my cart as I write but running out of cashola so wont be able to get the super stirrer. I wont get this test kit in time so bought the cheap hth 6way test kit to use rather than the strips.
I will post the results when I get home most likely around 6ish.
I believe the HTH super shock n swim is calcium hypochlorite. It will add calcium to your pool, and since you do have a swg, I believe you do not want CH to be higher than 400 ppm. Good news here, you TF100 kit will be able to test CH! Don't worry about the speedstir, I love mine, but survived fine last year without it.
Ok so with the hth tester I get this..
FC - 5
PH - 6.8
TA - 70 when it turned pink 100 when it turned dark pink. In the instructions it says to drop and stir till it turns red. Well it never turned RED the way I see red but it did turn pink at first with 7 drops and dark pink after 10.
CYA - In instructions it says to mix water with the cyanuric acid reagent then slowing drop it into the viewing tube and once the dark dot at bottom is no longer visible read the measurment on the side. Well that never disappeared so would say CYA is less than 30.
FC - 5
PH - 6.8
TA - 70 when it turned pink 100 when it turned dark pink. In the instructions it says to drop and stir till it turns red. Well it never turned RED the way I see red but it did turn pink at first with 7 drops and dark pink after 10.
CYA - In instructions it says to mix water with the cyanuric acid reagent then slowing drop it into the viewing tube and once the dark dot at bottom is no longer visible read the measurment on the side. Well that never disappeared so would say CYA is less than 30.
Sportsman said:
Wal Mart also carries the Hth 6 way test kit for about $16 that will do a black dot CYA test and others but I think it only has the basic OTO cl test. The regents look pretty small so you may only get a few cya tests. If it is worth that much to get by a few days is up to him but he would still be doing the dilution method on the OTO chlorine test. I am having trouble with WalMart.com right now but a web search should tell exactly what is in it. A friend of mine told me Home Depot has something similar too but I haven't seen it myself.
How much stabilizer was added to the pool? That should give a min it will come up to after it all dissolves. Maybe its my eyes but to me the strips are useless.
hth 6 way worked way better than the strips. What you think about the results seen above?
Sorry about that Sprede. I didn't see you already had the 6-way when I posted. I must have only read page one. It looks like you have already figured out you are in good hands with these guys.
If your cya is 30 your fc shock level is 12 if it is 20 your shock level is 10. Will your test kit test that high? If not you can dilute the pool sample with 2 parts distilled water to 1 part pool water and then multiply the results by 3 to get your tc level. This will not be as reliable as the TFT 100 will be but it is better than guessing.
If you used granular CYA it may take days to all show up in the test. It is the slowest desolving thing you add to the pool.
If your cya is 30 your fc shock level is 12 if it is 20 your shock level is 10. Will your test kit test that high? If not you can dilute the pool sample with 2 parts distilled water to 1 part pool water and then multiply the results by 3 to get your tc level. This will not be as reliable as the TFT 100 will be but it is better than guessing.
If you used granular CYA it may take days to all show up in the test. It is the slowest desolving thing you add to the pool.
Use borax and raise your pH to the low 7's first.sprede said:
TA is fine for now.
Can you tell us how much CYA has been/was added?
The tube starts at the top with 30 and ends with 100 for CYA. Only thing is there is probably enough reagent for one more test of the CYA. According to recommended ranges CYA should be between 30 and 50 and I think i am below 30 for sure. I did put some stabilizer to bring that up yesterday evening so it may just take some time to desolve right? My PH seems to be low now, should I go ahead and put in some PH plus to bring that up or leave it be the way it is for another night?
didn't refresh before i posted. Ok so added the PH + will check my results again when i get back from soccer practice in about 2 hours. thanks for all your help guys.
didn't refresh before i posted. Ok so added the PH + will check my results again when i get back from soccer practice in about 2 hours. thanks for all your help guys.
Yes it takes days to rise but if you post how many pounds of stabilizer you put in someone will tell you how much that will raise it and you can save that next test for later. you can use that calculated stabilizer level for shocking.
Dalandlord said:
Yep, don't waste your reagents testing CYA too early! Just tell us about how much you added and we can estimate the level in your pool. You can do this, too. Just use the PoolCalculator.com and the "effects of adding chemicals" section near the bottom
Generally, 24 hours after adding CYA to a pool, we 'assume' it is there and adjust FC/shock levels accordingly.
Ok Just got back and tested the pool water which look a ton better than it did.
Cl - 4
Ph - 7.4
TA - 140
If i am not mistaken that is pretty good right?
Oh and I had zero cya and added 14oz of the HTH stabilizer boost yesterday about this time.
Cl - 4
Ph - 7.4
TA - 140
If i am not mistaken that is pretty good right?
Oh and I had zero cya and added 14oz of the HTH stabilizer boost yesterday about this time.
Your pH is perfect
Get it back up to shock level and maintain it as best you can.
You have added enough CYA to reach about 24, so shock level is about 12. Keep at it!
Get it back up to shock level and maintain it as best you can.
You have added enough CYA to reach about 24, so shock level is about 12. Keep at it!
when you say bring it back up to shock level, do you mean take the chlorine level back up with the bleach? and can i know say tomorrow morning turn on my SWG? How much longer do i need to shock the pool before I can just start using the SWG? I mean I bought the SWG so i wouldn't have to add to many chemicals to the pool or at least that is what I was lead to believe?