Trouble understanding FC test result

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A

aonis

0
Apr 22, 2013
31
Florida
Hi I just recently bought a Taylor k-2006 test kit.

My pool looks great but I'm just trying to get my numbers and understand how much chlorine I need to add to my pool to keep it healthy.

Every time I do the FC test I get confusing results and I just think I'm doing something wrong. For example:

I do the 10ml setting
I add 2 scoops of the R-0870 powder and swirl until it's bright pink.
Then I add a drop and swirl of R-0871 and repeat this until it's clear
I then multiply that number (in todays case it was 14 drops) by .5

and I get 7

what does 7 mean? is that a correct number? am I doing this right?

sorry....I'm a noob.
 
Forget everything that pool stores or pool products are telling you. They do not understand the CYA/FC relationship and their recommendations assume 0ppm CYA ... pretty sad since the info has been available since the 70s.

According to the chart, with 50ppm CYA, the minimum you should EVER let the FC get is 4ppm ... which means everyday you should boost it up to 6-7ppm to be sure it does not drop below 4ppm.

BTW, it is safe to swim up to SLAM level which is a FC of 20ppm for you ... and even that high, the active chlorine level is still LOWER than you would find in an unstabilized public pool.
 
Forget everything they told me. Ugh that is a pain :) But the reason I got into this mess was because of a pool store to begin with. We have a 9,000 gallon pool that used to have a SWG cell but it broke and instead of fixing it they suggested we could do a cheaper option and use CC tablets with CYA in our pool once a week and shock it once a week as well. I'm not sure how it happened but our CYA got up to 150ppm and we had a massive algae bloom and it was a total pain to get rid of. I decided from then on to take things into my own hands and get a kit.

I slammed the pool for 4 days and filtered out all the algae and things are looking great. I just don't want to go down that road again.

I guess my next step is figuring out when to add chlorine and whether or not I should use tablets or switch to liquid stabilizer.

BTW, thanks for all your help.
 
Do not use anymore tablets, use bleach/liquid chlorine to maintain your FC. You do not need liquid stabilizer (or any more trichlor tablets) since your cya is already high enough at 50 ppm...by the way how did you test for cya and have you added any tablets since you got that result?
 
Those 2-4 ppm FC levels are the same levels they were suggesting 40-50 years ago, and seem to have been based on chlorine levels used prior to the introduction of CYA stabilizer in the late 1950's , when no one fully understood the effects CYA has on active chlorine levels. We now know a lot more about the buffering effects of CYA and it is slowly working its way into industry methods. Even though the buffering effects of CYA were first reported in studies decades ago, the whole concept has been lost on the pool industry until the last few years, in fact while the FC/CYA relationship has been featured online for over a decade, it has only been in the last couple of years that some of the major industry groups have started to accept some of these concepts.
 
aonis said:
I tested for that result by using the test kit.

7ml water and 7ml of R-0013 then pour it into the canister until you can't see the black dot.
Click to expand...
Great, just wanted to check to make sure we had a reliable measurement to go by.

aonis said:
There is a tablet in the pool now but I will go and remove it :)
Click to expand...
Have you added just this one puck since you did the cya test, or have there been more, and if yes, how many?
 
Your CYA test result is good and go by that.

Pool stores like to make money. Their method of pool care lends to spending lots of money in their stores and as you found out, a pool that is out of balance.

TFP's method is to maintain your pool based on proven science that you only add the chemicals that you know your pool needs by the testing you do. Most of the chemicals can be bought at stores that do not cater to pools thus saving you money.

Read up in Pool School, top right button on each page, and be enlightened.
 

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@raidencmc

I've done the one scoop and the two scoop method and for some reason it didn't seem to make a big difference. Granted I don't really know what I'm talking about but I got the 2 scoop from a video I watched on youtube. :)
 
The instructions in the Taylor K-2006 says to use two level scoops and the instructions in the TF-100 says to use one heaping scoop. Both work because the amount of powder you use doesn't matter as long as there's enough to bind the chlorine.
 
Like Bama said as long as you have enough it does not matter to the test if you use some extra 870 powder, so depending on how you look at it Taylor may be a bit more cautious with their instructions (or maybe they think an instruction like a heaping spoon full is not professional looking), or they are just encouraging the uses to use more of their product so they could sell them a refill sooner.

Ike
 

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