total noob..is leslie's ripping me off?

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Freakaloin

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Jun 17, 2013
27
central texas
So up until this point the pool builder has been taking care of everything and I know nothing about pool care. Took a sample up to Leslie's today...results are below. The salesman sold me 25 lbs hardness Plus and 10 lbs Alkalinity Up for $75. He tried to sell me something for the phosphates that cost $50 but I passed because of the weird look on his face :). The water looks clear and nice. I had it tested mainly because we had a hard rain last night and we haven't put anything in it except chlorine caps for a few weeks. Is Leslie's shooting me straight here? God I need to learn how to do all this...

 
After reading the title ... my only thought was ... "probably" ;)

Based on those numbers ... which we generally do not believe pool store testing ... the only things I see are:
1. Your FC is too low for a CYA of 50ppm: FC/CYA Chart
2. The CYA of 50ppm is on the high end of recommended for a non-SWG pool: pool-school/recommended_levels
3. You likely should raise the CH some since you have a pebble pool.

Everything else is fine.

Any reason you have not gotten one of the Recommended Test Kits and taken control for yourself?

How are you chlorinating the water? I assume "caps" mean you are using tablets? That is what is raising your CYA and you must stop using them and switch to bleach ASAP or you are going to start to have algae problems and have to drain water to lower the CYA to take back control.

Have you read these:
ABCs of Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
 
Yes, you do need to learn how to do this! :)

Yes & No, the CH is a little low but the TA is fine. And if the CYA can be believed, the FC is way too low. You don't have a swg do you?

Phosphates are a non-issue.

You should learn to use PoolMath to figure out how much of each chem to add to the water.
 
Probably. But we'll never know if you rely on pool store test results.

Odds are if you don't add any of that stuff and bring a sample to the same store tomorrow, you'll have totally different readings and a different shopping list.

inconsistency-in-readings-t61728.html

If the results are correct, then the hardness plus was probably a good idea.

The only way to know what your pool needs for sure is to test it yourself. Spend the money on a proper test kit - pool school has a good article explaining it - and it will pay for itself many times over with what you save by not getting pool-stored.
 
Hi. Pool stores sell chemicals to make make money and fed their families. They're not necessarily looking out for your best interest. You may want to check out pool school. Link is at the top right side of the page. If you manage your chlorine level propelrly you don't need to worry about phosphates. Phosphates being algae food, if you kill the algae you don't have to worry about the "food".

Check out pool calculator (poolcalculator.com)

It looks like your CSI may be very low. I would increase the CH but leave the TA for now. Other will chime in with other info.
 
See now I'm just more confused. Yes we have a kit. Says model 78 all in one. I tested a few times and both me and my wife have trouble with the different shades... Guess we are blind ish...

I shouldn't even use tabs? Isn't it designed for that? Everyone i know uses tabs and their pools look great. Bleach? Lol I'm screwed!

I'll change sig to indicate it's not swg...
 
Seriously- read pool school. Those tabs have CYA (stabilizer) in them. Nothing will lower that level other than replacing water. They're great for when you go on vacation or can't add chlorine for a few days. But for constant use- plain clorox has no extra additives that the pool store chlorine has. And look at the all the money you'll save- no more buying "shock", don't worry about phos-free, etc etc. BTW, get the TF100 test kit here from the site. I only had to see the pool store once in the whole summer for a 4lb thing of stabilizer and that's it. The TF100 kit is easy to see the results- no "shades", the sample goes from one color to BLAM the next color and you count the drops. The only thing with shades is the Ph. Even the chlorine drop test is more accurate than the one with color shades.
 
You have a lot of reading and learning to do ... start with the links in my previous post.

Whatever that test kit is ... it in not one of the recommended ones. In the kit we recommend, only the pH is a color matching test. The rest require counting drops until the color changes.

Don't worry about CSI. It is an advanced topic that you are not ready for ;)
 

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Freakaloin said:
So for now add the hardness plus for CH, return Alka up to Leslie's, buy a proper test kit and read pool school again and again?...
Click to expand...
I would probably wait on adding the hardness plus until you get your own kit. It would be a shame to up it only to find you were already high.
I would return the Alkalinity up and if you need it in the future just buy baking soda. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/recommended_pool_chemicals
Stop using the trichlor pucks and start using bleach/liquid chlorine. See: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/types_chlorine_pool
Read the pool school articles in links at the end of this post by jbliz to you to start: http://www.troublefreepool.com/post592628.html#p592628
 
I agree with Linen. Depending on how long you've been using the pucks you may already have higher CYA than you can keep dealing with, so you may need to drain some water anyway. Once you get a good test kit you'll have a better idea of what the levels really are.
 
Rain helps a little but does not eliminate the buildup of cya. If you probe a trichlor puck user, almost always they will say their water is "perfect" and gloss over the fact that they occasionally do fairly significant drain/refills. In a few cases people get lucky and avoid problems with high cya due to a number of special conditions. On tfp, we teach a method of pool chemistry that should work for all pools with out any reliance on luck, no significant drain/refills (typically), and less money spent.
 

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