A little all over the place. FC is zero and alkalinity is 230ppm

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Still waiting on my test kit and I noticed I'm going through almost 2 gallons of liquid 12.5% chlorine a day. Tossed another 1 gallon in.

To kill time I poured some muriatic acid to try and get the pH to 7.2 and I rigged up a shower to a return jet that I saw somewhere else. Hopefully I'll lower my TA tonight and tomorrow before the kit arrives.

Then it'll be on to CYA (I bought liquid CYA so I don't need a sock) and hopefully I'll be able to actually know what my pool's chemical balance is.

Thanks everyone for all your help. I know it's frustrating to read a newbie try and figure it out. Hopefully I'm getting there.

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Ok so I got my kit in today. I nerded out a little. I wasn't happy with the way it was organized. The bottles didn't fit well, they weren't organized in groups that made sense so I went overboard.
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Here are my readings at 6PM tonight
FC = 0
CC = 0
Calcium = 200
pH = 7.8
Alkalinity = 190 ppm
CYA = 0 (didn't register on the test and I believe the test starts somewhere around 16 or 17

Actions -
6:30PM
Added 32 ouncs of Muriatic acid to drop the pH and hopefully bring down the alkalinity. I currently am aerating all the time as well
Added 128 ounces of stabilizer in the hopes that I get the CYA into the 30's.

8:30PM
pH was down to 7.2 but Alkalinity remained the same.
I added 1 gallon of liquid chlorine 12.5%

11:30PM
pH is back up to 7.5 and Alkalinity remained the same (about 190ppm)
CYA measures around 17
I put in 18 ounces of the granular stabilizer in a skimmer basket sock and hung it in front of a return jet. It does squeeze very easily so it's actually almost all dissolved already.


Questions:
I'm going away tomorrow (Saturday) and coming back home on Monday. What should I do with the pool while I'm gone?
Run the filter 100%? Get the pool to shock level (Chlorine)?

Why isn't my alkalinity coming down? I'm aerating and putting in muriatic acid. Is it because I'm adding acid while aerating and the acid burns off too fast?
I just checked the pool
 
Underwhere said:
That is me nerding out.

I couldn't stand the way it came so I cut up foam to fit.
Click to expand...

Man, I might be willing to pay you to cut out some for me. Nothing worse than grabbing the wrong reagent and adding MANY drops before realizing the mistake. I have had the test kit for 2 years and never noticed the set of TA reagents and CH had matching label colors - until I saw your pic.
 
Well you had yours for one day...I am around 800+
BTW, nice work.

Clearly I have a new ME project. So where do you get this foam stuff?
With my lack of any attention to detail, you can clearly see I might not be the brightest person...in a room of 1
 
jagger2005 said:
Well you had yours for one day...I am around 800+
BTW, nice work.

Clearly I have a new ME project. So where do you get this foam stuff?
With my lack of any attention to detail, you can clearly see I might not be the brightest person...in a room of 1
Click to expand...
You can get it at a hobby store or a crafts store.
I got mine from a watch I just bought and the foam came in the shipping box.

I cut it with an electric knife.
You are better off with more rigid foam because some of the edges will need to be very thin...more flexible foam will be too flimsy to hold shape.

I took the box provided by the test kit and dremeled away the plastic dividers which were injection molded in place.
 
Could I get some opinions? I feel like I'm on the right track now but want to confirm a few things.

I had to go away for the weekend and here were the measurements before I left at 8AM on Saturday
FC - 9.5
CC - 0.5
pH - 7.5
TA - 180
CYA - 30

Before I left I added
30oz of 12.5% liquid chlorine
18oz of stabilizer in a skimmer sock dangling over a return line
20oz of muriatic acid to bring the pH down


Fast forward to Monday at 4PM
FC - 2.5
CC - 0.5
pH - 7.6
TA - 170
CYA - 38


So here's my thinking:
I still have some CC reading so I need to bring my chlorine levels up to 16ppm until the CC goes away.
Then once the CC goes away I try and maintain about 4.5ppm of chlorine all the time

And then I can play with my muriatic acid and aeration to get my TA down

Does that sound right?
 

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Continue the slam process until you pass the 3 criteria.

Oh, and when you get to the end and all you have left to play with is bringing down TA, it takes a while. On my 7K pool I was lucky to bring it down 10ppm a day... So be patient :)

The people here are amazing and will get you taken care of if you follow the process. My pool is better than it ever has been. Good luck!
 
Underwhere said:
I think I was shooting for 12 or 14ppm.
At the time I left my cya wasn't at 38 yet but I had left some stabilizer to dissolve. I was thinking it would dissolve over the weekend and I'd be close to ideal shock levels.
Click to expand...

Round up on CYA so we will call it 40. You probably lost 9.5+ in FC in less than 3 full days of sun, so that is at the high end of 2-4 FC loss per day. You might have some algae in there. TFP considers 0.5 CC negligible, but you reported that an Saturday as well - so again possibly some algae.

If your water is NOT crystal clear you should do a SLAM regardless.

If it is crystal clear, you can perform an OCLT - overnight chlorine loss test. If that ends up being loss less than 1 you pass.

UPDATE: I did not notice you were already in SLAM. If so continue it and try the OCLT tonight, if your water is crystal clear - no point in performing without that criteria passed.
I guess I did not think you were because you just got kit and left pool for a few days
 
Today (Monday) at 4PM my readings were
FC - 2.5
CC - 0.5
pH - 7.6
TA - 170
CYA - 38

I added liquid chlorine per pool calculator and a bit of muriatic acid.

And I just went to test the pool again at 8PM (4 hours later)
FC - 18
CC - 0

So It's 2 out of 3 SLAM criteria.
I'll test in the morning to see if any chlorine has left.

So given that it's at 18ppm right now...and assuming the OCLT being successful means that my FC levels will stay about my target of 5ppm for at least 13 days?

Is that safe to swim in?
 
Ok so this morning I tested the chlorine
FC - 18
CC - 0
CYA - 38

Is it possible that the OCLT shows close to zero loss?
Am I done with the Shock portion of the SLAM? Now I just let the chlorine levels come back down and maintain the FC at around 5ppm?

I have a 16 month old baby. My wife wants to take her in the pool. It's safe?
 

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