Hi from Tasmania,
fantastic site and bunch of helpful knowledgeable people. Been reading lots over the past week and had most of my questions answered reading other peoples posts and of course pool school.
I bought a 1250 litre hot tub 2 weeks ago and have added borates – very happy with the result. Still using the sanitiser that came with the tub (Lithium) till I use it up as I read in pool school there are minimal side effects.
Which brings me to my first question – I have been checking out bleach at local super markets.
One brand says on the label:
Active Ingredient: Sodium Hypochlorite 42g/L
(Available Chlorine 4.0% m/v) at use by date
Available Chlorine 2.0% m/v. Sodium Hydroxide 9g/L
So is the above 4% or 6% ?
The next question (or 10) is about the pool (55,000 liters).
Changed it to salt and solar heating when we bought the house about 7 years ago and have been pretty happy with it except for occasional cloudiness issues. But it is a lot of work to keep crystal clear. The local pool shop guys are fairly blasé – and have advised against bothering with CH or CYA when I have asked over the years. I take a test sample in every month and test weekly myself with the test kit they sell – the 4 Way Blue Devil kit.
So now I want to add CYA and Borates and go BBB with the pool too.
Before coming across this site I ordered online a LaMotte 2056 ColorQ Pro 7 Photometer as I was finding it hard to tell the difference between the test colours and this would take my eyes out of the equation – not one you recommend unfortunately - will it suffice? If yes, looks like I need to add a FAS/DPD Chlorine tester? I also ordered a Salt 3000 Water Meter as one pool shop tells me salt is too high – 7000 ppm, another tells me 0 salt I need to add 230 kgs, then when I question that, says sorry my mistake 4000 ppm, AquaCheck salt test says 5250 and the salt water chlorinator and chlorine tests say everything is just fine.
Had the pool water tested today:
Salt 4000 ppm (recommended level for my chlorinator)
Stabiliser 2
Iron 0
Free Copper 0
Free Chlorine 1.5
Total Chlorine 0
pH 7.5
Total Alkalinity 140
Calcium Hardness 22
Have input figures into The Pool Calculator and with lots of reading, it looks like I have to:
1/ Adjust TA down to 80 as per Pool School – Lower Total Alkalinity (the triple header page 2 looks good)
2/ Adjust CH up to 220 – will wait on tester as AquaChek strips says 100 for pool & tap water
3/ Adjust CYA up to 50 with 2.6 kg of Cyanuric Acid
$/ Add 16 kg Boric Acid or 24 kg Borax + 12 litres of Muriatic Acid
Does that sound about right?
Cheers
David
fantastic site and bunch of helpful knowledgeable people. Been reading lots over the past week and had most of my questions answered reading other peoples posts and of course pool school.
I bought a 1250 litre hot tub 2 weeks ago and have added borates – very happy with the result. Still using the sanitiser that came with the tub (Lithium) till I use it up as I read in pool school there are minimal side effects.
Which brings me to my first question – I have been checking out bleach at local super markets.
One brand says on the label:
Active Ingredient: Sodium Hypochlorite 42g/L
(Available Chlorine 4.0% m/v) at use by date
Available Chlorine 2.0% m/v. Sodium Hydroxide 9g/L
So is the above 4% or 6% ?
The next question (or 10) is about the pool (55,000 liters).
Changed it to salt and solar heating when we bought the house about 7 years ago and have been pretty happy with it except for occasional cloudiness issues. But it is a lot of work to keep crystal clear. The local pool shop guys are fairly blasé – and have advised against bothering with CH or CYA when I have asked over the years. I take a test sample in every month and test weekly myself with the test kit they sell – the 4 Way Blue Devil kit.
So now I want to add CYA and Borates and go BBB with the pool too.
Before coming across this site I ordered online a LaMotte 2056 ColorQ Pro 7 Photometer as I was finding it hard to tell the difference between the test colours and this would take my eyes out of the equation – not one you recommend unfortunately - will it suffice? If yes, looks like I need to add a FAS/DPD Chlorine tester? I also ordered a Salt 3000 Water Meter as one pool shop tells me salt is too high – 7000 ppm, another tells me 0 salt I need to add 230 kgs, then when I question that, says sorry my mistake 4000 ppm, AquaCheck salt test says 5250 and the salt water chlorinator and chlorine tests say everything is just fine.
Had the pool water tested today:
Salt 4000 ppm (recommended level for my chlorinator)
Stabiliser 2
Iron 0
Free Copper 0
Free Chlorine 1.5
Total Chlorine 0
pH 7.5
Total Alkalinity 140
Calcium Hardness 22
Have input figures into The Pool Calculator and with lots of reading, it looks like I have to:
1/ Adjust TA down to 80 as per Pool School – Lower Total Alkalinity (the triple header page 2 looks good)
2/ Adjust CH up to 220 – will wait on tester as AquaChek strips says 100 for pool & tap water
3/ Adjust CYA up to 50 with 2.6 kg of Cyanuric Acid
$/ Add 16 kg Boric Acid or 24 kg Borax + 12 litres of Muriatic Acid
Does that sound about right?
Cheers
David