I know its sacrilegious but I take my water into a a shop to get it tested, last year you guys had me talked into getting my own proper kit, but being nearly color blind I doubt I could use it well.
Anyway, had my pool opened for a couple months now with crystal clear water, looks better than it has any year, all my levels were perfect. We had a really bad storm before the weekend so Saturday I took it in to get tested;
pH: 7.1
CYA: 23ppm
TA: 66ppm
So I knew my TA and pH were low. I wanted to add baking soda. I know that for a 20,000 gallon pool (mines 30,000) to raise the TA 20ppm it takes (I thought it took...) 5.6lbs. The calculator said to get my pH up I needed 15lbs or so. I knew I couldn't put in that much or I would raise my TA too high. So I put in 5lbs, I wasn't trying to get it perfect just trying to get it manageable and go from there. I was thinking I'd see a TA increase of about 15-20 and a pH increase of about .2. I wanted to get my TA and pH back on par before I started with the rest of the levels.
I let that filter and pump run non-stop for a few days, took the water in this morning;
pH 7.2
CYA 12ppm
TA: 224ppm
.... Two-Hundred and twenty four? How in the world did adding 5lbs of baking soda increase my ppm well over 150ppm in a 30,000 gallon pool.
Did I do something completely stupid?
Anyway, had my pool opened for a couple months now with crystal clear water, looks better than it has any year, all my levels were perfect. We had a really bad storm before the weekend so Saturday I took it in to get tested;
pH: 7.1
CYA: 23ppm
TA: 66ppm
So I knew my TA and pH were low. I wanted to add baking soda. I know that for a 20,000 gallon pool (mines 30,000) to raise the TA 20ppm it takes (I thought it took...) 5.6lbs. The calculator said to get my pH up I needed 15lbs or so. I knew I couldn't put in that much or I would raise my TA too high. So I put in 5lbs, I wasn't trying to get it perfect just trying to get it manageable and go from there. I was thinking I'd see a TA increase of about 15-20 and a pH increase of about .2. I wanted to get my TA and pH back on par before I started with the rest of the levels.
I let that filter and pump run non-stop for a few days, took the water in this morning;
pH 7.2
CYA 12ppm
TA: 224ppm
.... Two-Hundred and twenty four? How in the world did adding 5lbs of baking soda increase my ppm well over 150ppm in a 30,000 gallon pool.
Did I do something completely stupid?