Can someone please help me analyze my first water test?

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The TA results seem off.....can you explain your testing to get that result?? I'd guess a math error is in store.

How many drops until no color change was noticed??
 
80 sounds like a reasonable number. Get that chlorine up!! I believe you need to shock, correct? You need to get the chlorine up to 20, and keep it there. You can see full shocking instructions in my signature. Once you are done shocking, never let chlorine drop below 5. Just keep an eye on the pH and keep the CSI happy. You can see your current CSI towards the bottom of the pool calculator. 620 is high for CH, but manageable. There are some on here with over 800 CH.
 
So 8 drops.....that's MUCH better. :)

The first thing that flags is your FC....that is low for your high cya level. Anytime you let it go below 5 you're asking for an algae out brake. Add at least enough liquid bleach to reach a FC level of 8, and keep it in that ballpark. You will lose about 2FC per day (your mileage may vary) so in this range you should be above 5 even if the sun thiefs get your chlorine.

The next numer that's Very high is your CH level. Is your pool a plaster or vinyl pool??



Edit.....I see the previous poster wins. :) You may not need to shock. What is your CC levels?? What's the water look like???
 
My water looks reasonably clear, though there seems to be bits of some type of algae in different parts of the pool. As far as I know, the pool is plaster, though I am including a link to a pic for someone else to verify and also check the water appearance. http://imgur.com/ySZN9Kg

1. My FC is currently 2.5, can anyone give me any idea of how much liquid chlorine I should expect to put in the pool each day to get to 8? The chlorine sold at my local store is 10%.

2. You said I need to get the chlorine up to 20? What is 20?

3. Does my pool indeed appear to be a plaster pool?

4. The pool store employee was trying to convince me to not use liquid chlorine, they sell 10% and he was trying to explain that it leaves too much salt behind and I should be using one of the Lithium Hypo types without CYA in it. Is there any reason to consider using what he is recommending?


Thanks so much everyone!!!!!!! I have gone from ZERO understanding of my pool to at least getting started in the right direction because of all of your help! Amazing resource this forum is.
 
Algae is a reason to shock.
1) There are many factors that affect this, such as CYA level, sun exposure, bather load. I'll let someone with more experience handle this.
2) 20 ppm. Right now you are at 2.5 ppm.
3) Looks like plaster to me.
4) The only reason to consider Lithium hypo is if your wallet is too heavy and feel like lightening it by giving the pool store about 5 times what you should be spending on chlorine. By the by, lithium hypo also adds salt.
 
kat.hayes said:
My water looks reasonably clear, though there seems to be bits of some type of algae in different parts of the pool. As far as I know, the pool is plaster, though I am including a link to a pic for someone else to verify and also check the water appearance. http://imgur.com/ySZN9Kg

1. My FC is currently 2.5, can anyone give me any idea of how much liquid chlorine I should expect to put in the pool each day to get to 8? The chlorine sold at my local store is 10%.

2. You said I need to get the chlorine up to 20? What is 20?

3. Does my pool indeed appear to be a plaster pool?

4. The pool store employee was trying to convince me to not use liquid chlorine, they sell 10% and he was trying to explain that it leaves too much salt behind and I should be using one of the Lithium Hypo types without CYA in it. Is there any reason to consider using what he is recommending?


Thanks so much everyone!!!!!!! I have gone from ZERO understanding of my pool to at least getting started in the right direction because of all of your help! Amazing resource this forum is.
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1) According to Pool Calculator (you need to bookmark this - it's second only to the test kit for keeping levels perfect) you need about 1.5 gallons of 10% chlorine to raise FC to 8 from where you are. Once you get things under control, you will probably only lose about 2 ppm per day, which should be in the neighborhood of half a gallon every day.

2) 20 is shock level. That's a very high FC to kill the algae off faster than it can reproduce. It will take 4.5 gallons to get there right now, and several more every day to keep it there until the shock process is complete and you no longer see any green stuff, amongst other things. Read up on the shock process in Pool School.

3) It sure looks like plaster to me.

4) You didn't, by chance, visit a prominent national chain store in Glendora, did you? That's the same line of bull he tried to feed me years ago. Salt buildup is much less troublesome than Calcium buildup or CYA buildup which you will get using the powdered forms of chlorine he's trying to push on you. Salt doesn't leave those blotches you see in your pool; Calcium does. And if you've read any of the recent help! posts with green pools, you'll see that almost all of them have high CYA levels and they get to drain the water to fix it. Don't go back to that guy unless it's for some obscure thing you can't find anywhere else. Hunt around. Lowes sells 10% out in the garden section. You can load up your cart and pay and no one will try to sell you anything else. When you get tuned in - a couple weeks is all it should take - you can start really comparison shopping various sources of bleach and figure out the best deal. I use 12.5% stuff I get from a local independent pool dealer in returnable jugs.
 
1.) Is 1.5 gallons a day a reasonable amount to have to put into my pool everyday? If my CYA was lower I would need to put in less, right? Does it make sense to even consider draining some water? Are there other benefits to having the CYA lower besides not needing to maintain as high of chlorine levels?

2.) Another thing that the salesman told me at the prominent national chain store (in a different part of LA) was that lithium hypo lasts longer and does not dissolve as quickly as liquid chlorine. Any truth to that?

3.) Just to make sure I understand, if I get my FC to 8, I will still need to shock because there is some algae in the water, and maintaining my chlorine at 8 will not get rid of the algae that is currently there?

Thanks!!!
 
Higher CYA will have lower FC loss, but the problem is it requires much higher FC levels for the shock process.

Sounds like the salesman was looking to make money ... that is the most expensive form if chlorine you will find .... and all chlorine will last just as long.

You have algae, you need to go through the shock process.
 

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jbliz, beat me...here are my thoughts:

kat.hayes said:
1.) Is 1.5 gallons a day a reasonable amount to have to put into my pool everyday?
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You will not need that everyday. As Richard said, 2 ppm FC usage per day (i.e. you start at 8 ppm and it drops to 6 ppm in a day) is a fairly typical usage, so that would be about 71 ounces (of 8.25%) per day. By the way, this is after your done with the shocking process since you mentioned you have algae in your number 3 question.

kat.hayes said:
Does it make sense to even consider draining some water? Are there other benefits to having the CYA lower besides not needing to maintain as high of chlorine levels?
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There are really no other benefits. I would drain 30% of your water to reduce your cya ~50ppm then start the shocking process

kat.hayes said:
2.) Another thing that the salesman told me at the prominent national chain store (in a different part of LA) was that lithium hypo lasts longer and does not dissolve as quickly as liquid chlorine. Any truth to that?
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Nope. The FC added by Lithium, will be used up just as fast as the FC from bleach/liquid chlorine.

kat.hayes said:
3.) Just to make sure I understand, if I get my FC to 8, I will still need to shock because there is some algae in the water, and maintaining my chlorine at 8 will not get rid of the algae that is currently there?
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Yes you need to do the shocking process after you drain/refill to lower cya.
 
1. Do you use the same liquid chlorine to shock the pool as you would use daily to maintain your FC levels?

2. How do you know when it is safe to use the pool after shocking? What measurements or what indicators do you look for? Do you just want to get back to equal to 0.5 ppm?

3. How did you do the calculation to determine that I should drain 30% of the water to reduce my CYA from 70 to 50?

4. If I am not ready to drain 30% of the pool yet, with a CYA of 70 based on the chart, I need a Shock FC level of 28. Will it be that difficult/expensive to just shock at this level and continue to maintain the pool afterwards until I am ready to drain it by 30% at some point in the future? Can someone please give me an idea of what shocking at this level will entail/require?

Thanks!!!!
 
1. Yes. Plain old bleach or stronger liquid chlorine.

2. See article in Pool School about the shock process. There are 3 criteria to pass to know the process is complete. Then safe to swim when FC is less than shock level.

3. 70 x 0.7 = 49 ... replace 30%

4. It will just require more bleach to reach and maintain the higher level. And will use more reagent to repeatedly test the higher FC levels.
 
1. How does this chlorine that I just picked up from Home Depot look for daily use and for shocking: http://imgur.com/DFFDtRF

2. Sorry, I'm still confused by the calculation. I know this must be real obvious, though I am missing something here...
70 x 0.7 = 49 ... replace 30%
My CYA = 70
Where did you get the 0.7 from?
The resulting amount comes out to 49, so what is the relation between 49 and 30%

Thank you in advance for your patience!
 
It is fine. It is 10%, there is also 6 or 8.25 or 12.5% out there.

I solved for 0.7 .... 50 (what you want) / 70 (what you have) = ~0.7
1-0.7=0.3=replace 30% of the water ... why does this matter? Just trust me ;)

The actual equation:
CurrentCYA(1-x) + 0ppm(x) = DesiredCYA

Where 0 ppm is the CYA in the tap water.
Solve for x which is % of tap water.
70(1-x) + 0 = 50
1-x = 50/70 = .7
X = 1 - .7 = .3
 
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