Adding baking soda low tA

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poolmom21

poolmom21

Gold Supporter
Jul 27, 2021
171
Indio, CA
Pool Size
25000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
I took water to get tested at Leslie’s because my system kept displaying I had low salt. On the contrary I have high salt so tomorrow I will be draining out a foot and replacing with fresh water. The TA tested at 45. However, when I do the test here at home with the TFP tested kit I get a result of 70. So what result do I follow? Also, I was advised to buy a liquid to reduce phosphates? How to I lower it using the TFP method?
 

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Use your own test kit.

Leslies states 'adjusted alkalinity' to get you to buy their high price baking soda.

With your fill water, you NEVER need to add baking soda.
 
Trust the drop test across the board. For salt too. The cell and poolstore can be off there by a wide margin.

What does your k1766 say for salt ? (Please say you have one or the TF100salt equivalent. :))
 
poolmom21 said:
I took water to get tested at Leslie’s because my system kept displaying I had low salt. On the contrary I have high salt so tomorrow I will be draining out a foot and replacing with fresh water. The TA tested at 45. However, when I do the test here at home with the TFP tested kit I get a result of 70. So what result do I follow?
Click to expand...

TFP.

Why? Read TA - Further Reading


poolmom21 said:
Also, I was advised to buy a liquid to reduce phosphates? How to I lower it using the TFP method?
Click to expand...
If you bought a phosphate remover, return it.

We don't test for phosphates or worry about it.

Phosphate Removers - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
Newdude said:
Trust the drop test across the board. For salt too. The cell and poolstore can be off there by a wide margin.

What does your k1766 say for salt ? (Please say you have one or the TF100salt equivalent. :))
Click to expand...
I do!! And made the mistake of going off the reading on the system instead of testing. I know I know if mistake. I just did the test and it reads at 3800 🤦🏻‍♀️ so I’ll need to drain like 12 inches. I was adviced to drain 2 feet.
 
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poolmom21 said:
Also, I was advised to buy a liquid to reduce phosphates? How to I lower it using the TFP method?
Click to expand...
They are trying to persuade you to purchase their very expensive watered down phosphate remover called Perfect Weekly. Do not buy it.
As noted by others, phosphate is not important if you maintain proper FC levels based on your CYA level.
 
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What does the box say your salt concentration is? While the pool store number for salt is amazingly precise, the accuracy is too high, but not that far off from your own test. How old is your salt cell? Having it complain about low salt, when the level isn't low may be a sign that it needs to be replaced. Has it ever been cleaned? If with acid, how many times (Acid can greatly shorten the cell life)?
A TC-15 is a pretty small cell for the size of your pool, so it may have worked very hard over the time it has been there.

We never trust what the box says for salt, but if it is really far off, that is another clue that something may be amiss.
 
poolmom21 said:
And made the mistake of going off the reading on the system instead of testing. I know I know if mistake
Click to expand...
If thats the worst thing that happened yesterday, we ALL got off lucky. :)


The 3800 that you're testing is great and the cell is saying its low. Let's look into the sensor thats off, not drain to make the 'low salt' lower.
 
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PM,

Only thing I can offer to this conversation is my recent experience with high CSI caused by pH and TA way out of range. I ran my previous pool for years and never had to clean the cell because I was meticulous to stay within TFP recommendations and within those adjust to keep my CSI slightly negative. Now I have a new pool on well water that's 230 TA. Got way out of whack due to operator (me) error and I should have known better but got so bad I had white flakes settling in the pool. I've never seen a clogged swg until now but it was packed with the stuff. Easy to clean though and I also learned that it may look clean but the sensor can still have deposits so you need to clean again to get them off. I hate over cleaning since it shortens the life of the swg but that's the price of ignoring TFP basics. I'll be doing the second cleaning today and hopefully my sensor reading will get closer. I'd just ignore it if I could and just rely on my K1766 but when the sensor indicates out of range it stops the unit from running. One thing that's also important to remember is the accuracy of the drop test is best practical and I think that's +/- 200 ppm. Your cell sensor is worse so you may actually have to run at the high end of the range on the K 1766 to stay in range even with a good sensor.

I hope this is helpful.

Chris
 
sande005 said:
What does the box say your salt concentration is? While the pool store number for salt is amazingly precise, the accuracy is too high, but not that far off from your own test. How old is your salt cell? Having it complain about low salt, when the level isn't low may be a sign that it needs to be replaced. Has it ever been cleaned? If with acid, how many times (Acid can greatly shorten the cell life)?
A TC-15 is a pretty small cell for the size of your pool, so it may have worked very hard over the time it has been there.

We never trust what the box says for salt, but if it is really far off, that is another clue that something may be amiss.
Click to expand...
It’s less than 2 years old. I’ll clean it out and If it keeps displaying low salt I’ll call Hayward Ill do that before I drain out the pool right?
 
Run a complete set of tests.
Unless I missed it, your last CH test is from 10 months ago at CH 600. It's likely higher now.

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Salt
Water temperature

Be sure to enter all the results into PoolMath
This will assist in giving you an accurate CSI number.
Keep the CSI in the 0.00 to -0.30 (negative 0.30) range to minimize scaling in the SWG.
 
proavia said:
Run a complete set of tests.
Unless I missed it, your last CH test is from 10 months ago at CH 600. It's likely higher now.

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA
Salt
Water temperature

Be sure to enter all the results into PoolMath
This will assist in giving you an accurate CSI number.
Keep the CSI in the 0.00 to -0.30 (negative 0.30) range to minimize scaling in the SWG.
Click to expand...
I redid the rest and the salt is minus 400 today using the kit. We did clean the filters and salt cell, system box saying salt is 2900.

Also ran the other tests. I didn’t have liquids to test the calcium so I took the numbers from the Leslie’s test. I don’t understand the CSI
 
poolmom21 said:
I didn’t have liquids to test the calcium so I took the numbers from the Leslie’s test. I don’t understand the CSI
Click to expand...
Was CH the only test that you used from the pool store testing?
Did you try the CYA test or is that also from the pool store testing? Just need to understand the numbers.

Always trust your own salt test and do not add or make any adjustments to salt based on the controller reading. As long as your SWCG is producing FC then the cell is happy.

If yo want to read more on CSI please read

CSI and LSI - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
HermanTX said:
Was CH the only test that you used from the pool store testing?
Did you try the CYA test or is that also from the pool store testing? Just need to understand the numbers.

Always trust your own salt test and do not add or make any adjustments to salt based on the controller reading. As long as your SWCG is producing FC then the cell is happy.

If yo want to read more on CSI please read

CSI and LSI - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
Click to expand...
Yes I used the Leslie’s levels of CH and Cya. I have recorded reagents and will redo tests on Wednesday using the TFP kit
 
Those numbers from LPS are suspect.

Post a full set of results when you get fresh reagents.
Until then, use 40 as your CYA and dose to the high side of the FC range for your CYA.
FC/CYA Levels

If you run out of reagents again, just so state rather than post pool store numbers.
TFTestkits has a sale every March for refill kits. You should replace your reagents then.
How old are you other reagents?

Your other numbers look good.
 
proavia said:
Those numbers from LPS are suspect.

Post a full set of results when you get fresh reagents.
Until then, use 40 as your CYA and dose to the high side of the FC range for your CYA.
FC/CYA Levels

If you run out of reagents again, just so state rather than post pool store numbers.
TFTestkits has a sale every March for refill kits. You should replace your reagents then.
How old are you other reagents?

Your other numbers look good.
Click to expand...
I am replacing everything. The reagents expired 2 months ago.
 
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