Hi all,
I bought a new (to me) home last January, and it came with my first pool. The first two months I just used a "pool guy" while I was learning about BBB and TFPC, then I took over the duties myself. I use the Taylor K-2006, and I've added nothing except MA and 12.5% liquid chlorine for the past few months. After testing myself yesterday, I decided to bring a bottle into Leslie's to have them test just for grins. Their results were pretty close to mine, probably within the margin of error for both us. My results vs their results were: FC = 2/2, PH = 7.8/7.7, TA = 80/80, and CYA = 45/35.
So I feel confident in at least those basic numbers.
The store did point out my TDS were 4200, and that about 4000 of that was salt. He also told me my phosphates were at 400ppm and tried to sell me some PhosFree. Naturally, I declined until I could come back home and get on TFP.
After researching that, I'm okay with the phosphate levels. My understanding is that I shouldn't be concerned with phosphate as long as I keep my pool sanitized with chlorine. With the salt level though, I've read several posts today and have learned my levels will go up with the use of liquid bleach and MA. The posts I've read so far basically seem to say I shouldn't worry about the salt level very much, but those replies have been in response to questions about levels in the 2500-3500 range. Is there an upper range with salt levels that I should be worrying about?
I don't know what the salt levels were at when I got the pool, but I do remember being told my TDS were really high. I now know "TDS" doesn't mean much without knowing which solids we are talking about. I haven't done any intentional water changes, but my pool has already been diluted quite a bit over the few months I've had it, mostly by a couple of times of forgetting I had the refill valve on while topping off. I wouldn't have thought that would have a significant impact, but it diluted it enough to bring my CYA down from about 95 to 40 (if I split the difference between mine and the store's testing), and my CH down from around 850-ish to 600-ish.
I bought a new (to me) home last January, and it came with my first pool. The first two months I just used a "pool guy" while I was learning about BBB and TFPC, then I took over the duties myself. I use the Taylor K-2006, and I've added nothing except MA and 12.5% liquid chlorine for the past few months. After testing myself yesterday, I decided to bring a bottle into Leslie's to have them test just for grins. Their results were pretty close to mine, probably within the margin of error for both us. My results vs their results were: FC = 2/2, PH = 7.8/7.7, TA = 80/80, and CYA = 45/35.
So I feel confident in at least those basic numbers.
The store did point out my TDS were 4200, and that about 4000 of that was salt. He also told me my phosphates were at 400ppm and tried to sell me some PhosFree. Naturally, I declined until I could come back home and get on TFP.
After researching that, I'm okay with the phosphate levels. My understanding is that I shouldn't be concerned with phosphate as long as I keep my pool sanitized with chlorine. With the salt level though, I've read several posts today and have learned my levels will go up with the use of liquid bleach and MA. The posts I've read so far basically seem to say I shouldn't worry about the salt level very much, but those replies have been in response to questions about levels in the 2500-3500 range. Is there an upper range with salt levels that I should be worrying about?
I don't know what the salt levels were at when I got the pool, but I do remember being told my TDS were really high. I now know "TDS" doesn't mean much without knowing which solids we are talking about. I haven't done any intentional water changes, but my pool has already been diluted quite a bit over the few months I've had it, mostly by a couple of times of forgetting I had the refill valve on while topping off. I wouldn't have thought that would have a significant impact, but it diluted it enough to bring my CYA down from about 95 to 40 (if I split the difference between mine and the store's testing), and my CH down from around 850-ish to 600-ish.