Thanks to TFP forhelping me understanding TDS!

[yaya97]

I was a bit desperate yesterday: We just bought a home with a 24000 gallon pool. Beautiful clear water but when I took a sample to Leslie's the salesman said we have to drain the pool now as the "TDS" is at 3500.
Knowing California is in a drought I did not want to empty the pool. Everything else was perfect except for higher phosphates ( 400) and the TDS. I bought the products to get the phosphates down and found this fantastic site that explained not to really panic on the TDS. Thanks TFP for being there!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

So did you take the magic potion and return it to the store?

If you want to take control, you need to cut ties with the pool store testing and invest in one of the Recommended Test Kits. The best value is the TF-100, order it from poolsupplyworld.com (west coast distributor) and you will get it a few days.

 

[yaya97]

thank you ! I will use the phosphate products ( $79 for both products) but am not buying anything else. Will order the rest from poolsupplyworld.com
Thanks again!

 

[jblizzle]

Why? Take them back and that will pay for your test kit.

 

[Iciee]

Like jbizzle said return them. They are nothing but snake oil. Use that money for bleach/chlorine or a test kit.
Besides I have threads where some people have had adverse reactions with those chemicals due to some other stuff in the water they had no idea was in there ie metals


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[Isaac-1]

Like they said, phosphates are meaningless in a well balanced pool. Think of it like this phosphate is algae food, phosphate removers only remove some of the phosphates, but not all, so you still have algae food in the pool. Chlorine kills algae, if all the algae is dead it does not matter if you have a little or a lot of algae food in the pool.

TDS is another meaningless measurement, it stands for total dissolved solids, this test may have had a place a few decades ago, but now that we have individual test for the majority of the component types of solids it is next to useless. Think of the TDS test as being like going to your doctor and he tells you that you may be eating too much of something, but can't tell you what, or maybe not.

 

[yaya97]

Great advice !!! Bringing back tomorrow! Thanks to all!!!