Advise needed

[eransh10]

Yesterday I tested my pool and here is what I got:

ph: 7.6, Alkalinity 80ppm, FC=TC=1ppm, Calcium Hardness 360ppm, CYA = 30 ppm

I was thinking of increasing the Alkalinity to 90ppm (by adding baking soda) and reduce the ph to 7.4-7.5 with Muratic acid.
I wonder how much should I add ? and also how do you measure the weight of the non liquid stuff you add to the pool (do you use one of these cooking scales)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[duraleigh]

Hi, Eran,

Welcome to the forum. Lot's of info and good advice to be found here.

My first question is "How does your water look?" Are you thinking about those changes because you have a water issue or (this is my guess) your water is just fine and you're really just fine tuning your test results.

If the latter is the case, I'd leave everything alone for now and watch for trends rather than a one time test result. The difference between 7.4 and 7.6 on your pH will have no appreciable affect on your water or maintenance regimen. Likewise, raising the Alk 10ppm will neither help nor harm you.

You FC and CYA is a tad bit low but tell us where you live and what winterizing you have put into effect and we'll have some more info. Again, welcome! :lol:

 

[The Mermaid Queen]

I would definitely get the FC up a smidge.

As per measuring dry chems, some use a scale. Someone else mentioned using a scoop: (was it you DaveS? something about cutting off a bottle or jug at the right level... )Then he marked the scoop/cup that 1 scoop = Xppm. So if he needed a X ppm rise, he could just add one scoop in the future.

Maybe that person could chime in??

 

[eransh10]

Hi, Eran,

Welcome to the forum. Lot's of info and good advice to be found here.

My first question is "How does your water look?" Are you thinking about those changes because you have a water issue or (this is my guess) your water is just fine and you're really just fine tuning your test results.

If the latter is the case, I'd leave everything alone for now and watch for trends rather than a one time test result. The difference between 7.4 and 7.6 on your pH will have no appreciable affect on your water or maintenance regimen. Likewise, raising the Alk 10ppm will neither help nor harm you.

You FC and CYA is a tad bit low but tell us where you live and what winterizing you have put into effect and we'll have some more info. Again, welcome! :lol:

I live in Dallas TX area.
My pool looks just fine for now I just wanted to fine tune it. As for winterizing - I actually just bought the house with the pool and besides cleaning stuff up (with a leaf skimmer or my robot) I didn't change anything. Usually around here we don't do anything special for the pool in the winter, just let the filter run for 4-6 hours a day and I got a "freeze guard" so if the temp goes below the 40s then my pool motor works 24/7

 

[Guest]

If you are using a non stabilized chlorine such as liquid chlorine or bleach your numbers are actually perfect as they stand, other than your FC being too low. With a CYA of 30 ppm you should really get it up to about 3 ppm. by raising your TA and lowering the pH you will actually decrease the pH stavbility of the pool because you will have a faster outgassing of CO2! If you are using a stabilized chlorine souce then increasing the TA to 100 to 120 would be helpful at maintaining the pH but i would still keep the pH at 7.6 sicne the more you lover pH the faster you will outgas CO2 and the less stable your pH becomes.

As far as measuring dry chems I use a cooking scale (0 to 4 lbs in 1 oz increments, cost me about $12) that can be zeroed when a container is put on it (tared is the technical term) and a 4 cup plastic measuring cup to measure into (only because it's the right size to sit on my scale and holds a decent amount without going over the scale's limit). If you decide to use the scoop route you will need a separate scoop for each chemaical you use since the amount by weight and the amount by volume of different chems is different. Also the amount needed to raise your pool a certain amount will depend on not only the chem but on your pool volume. The only chem that I see a scoop being useful for would be a granular chlorine such as cal hypo or lithium hypochlorite since these are dosed very frequently and it would be faster to know that your scoop contains enough to raise your pool, say, 1 ppm instead of having to weight it out each time. (Actually, I LIKE that idea and think I am going to put it to use for my calcium, borates, and salt since I buy them in bulk!!)