Am I safe to swim?

[Jxkey]

Wanted to have a small party this weekend.
This pool store did a digital reading and attached are my results.
I’ve bumped up my chlorine with 2 gallons of bleach and added 3 lbs of baking soda and 4 lbs of stabilizer today after the readings.
It’s a 25,000 gallon pool.

 

[jblizzle]

Do you have your own test kit?
We do not trust pool store testing and certainly would not recommend following advice based on their testing.

Your pool is safe if you can clearly see the bottom of the deep end and your FC is above the minimum for your CYA according to the FC/CYA Levels

There was really no need for the baking soda as your TA was reasonable as it was.

Please fill out your signature with your pool and equipment details.

 

[Jxkey]

I have a test strip kit. It’s still a little cloudy as it’s only been running for 30 hours.

 

[jblizzle]

We call them guess strips and they are really kind of worthless ... invest in one of the recommended test kits if you want to take control of the pool: Test Kits Compared
The TF-100 is the best value and from tftestkits.net ships out of Raleigh, NC, so you should be able to get it quickly.

The baking soda could be contributing to the haziness, especially since your pH appeared to be on the high side already.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

WOW.....that's a very confusing and totally misleading print out from the pool store.

They're calling 30-200 for CYA ideal?! OMG. I have no idea if you needed more stabilizer or not but hope you're not overshooting what *we* call ideal by much.

Your pool looks cloudy. How do you chlorinate? What have you added lately?

"Guess STrips" aren't worth a bean. They are about as bad as that pool store test you got. You *need* your own reliable drop based kit. A drop based kit will give you exact numbers for results, not a range. And with our guide we can help you have that pool sparkle with clear sanitary water.

Check out Pool School for info..... its all in there

If you have more questions, just ask and we'll be happy to answer you.

Maddie

 

[Jxkey]

I’ve been adding liquid chlorination gallons the past few days. I put two gallons in today and 3 yesterday. There’s 3 chlorine tablets in my floater and one in the skimmer. It was a super sunny day and my covers been off. I also added two bags of hth 4 in 1 shock yesterday as well. All readings on those printouts were done at 6 pm today. Since then I’ve added two gallons of liquid chlorine, 4 lbs of Cyanuric acid (as there was none put in my pool when I started it the other day) and 3 lbs of baking soda.

 

[Jxkey]

That picture was before all of the baking soda btw. It was much cloudier this morning. I can see the bottom of the shallow end now.
For reference my pump died after firing it up last week. I had to wait almost a week to get my new pump. So my pool has only been running 30 hours on its new Heyward maxflo XL 1.5 hp.

 

[jblizzle]

Don't use more bags of "shock", especially #-in-1 ones that may be adding copper.
Also do not put trichlor tablets in your skimmer (and hopefully they do not have copper either).

..... Still need pool details ......

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Any time your pump is off line you can go ahead and add liquid chlorine and mix it up with a brush or use a robot or sump pump within the pool to keep the water mixed.

 

[Jxkey]

Any time your pump is off line you can go ahead and add liquid chlorine and mix it up with a brush or use a robot or sump pump within the pool to keep the water mixed.

That’s pretty much what I did. Left the sump running 8 hours a day with adding chlorine.

 

[Jxkey]

Don't use more bags of "shock", especially #-in-1 ones that may be adding copper.
Also do not put trichlor tablets in your skimmer (and hopefully they do not have copper either).

..... Still need pool details ......

I can’t give pool details as far as depth, length and width. I do not have a tape measure long enough to measure yet.
I was told by the realty company that it was a 25,000 gallon gunite pool. I run chlorine. I recently added a 1.5 hp Heyward Maxflo XL pump and I have a Heyward sand filter.

 

[thetekgeek]

Please. Stop. Blindly. Throwing. Chemicals. In. Your. Pool.

Take a breath. Read the ABC’s of water chemistry and Pool School and learn how to take control of your pool. Get a good test kit and start managing it with the love it deserves.

 

[LadyKate]

I know this hard but without knowing exactly where things are at we can’t give you advice. You have thrown a whole lot of things in your pool. Pools stores want to sell you things. That’s how they make money. If you buy your own test kit you are able to only put in exactly what it needs and not waste your time or money on magic potions or guessing at what the pool needs. I can highly recommend TFP methods... but that doesn’t help in the short term for your party this weekend. The investment in a test kit would be a great thing so you never are panicking before a party ever again.

 

[Jxkey]

Got a kit. I can’t make out what the chlorine levels are. Someone help? CYA is registering around 40 ppm per the hth kit

 

[IceShadow]

We can’t make it out either. That’s why our methods really need a FAS / DPD chlorine test kit.

 

[jimbethesda]

And that only tests for Total Chlorine, which is a worthless number. You need to find out how much free chlorine you have with a FAS/DPD test

 

[IMissNimoy]

View attachment 110810
Got a kit. I can’t make out what the chlorine levels are. Someone help? CYA is registering around 40 ppm per the hth kit

Hey Neighbor. Where you are in the city? Maybe I can help get you a set of numbers to post here.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

*IF* I had to say I'd say 3 or 4ppm FC, and pH of 7.2.

Maddie

 

[Wobblerlorri]

TC 3 - 4, pH 7.2. You're safe to swim, more or less.

You really do need a good test kit, either one of Test Kits Compared will work.

As to why -- I prefer to keep my FC in the upper end of a range from 4 - 7. So I add LC when my free chlorine gets to 4.5. Without my test kit, I couldn't get the precision I like, plus the color matching kit doesn't differentiate between total chlorine TC and free chlorine FC. For all I know, that TC number means 3 ppm CC, and 0 ppm FC.

A good drop test kit gives me the information I need to properly maintain my pool. With a color matching kit, I'm just blindly throwing chemicals at it.

 

[AUSpool]

Wowsa J,
Looks like your in need of strong dose of TFP. Luckily it looks like there is help at hand.

I would go ahead and have your party and enjoy your pool with friends around, thats precious.

Then saddle up and take control, it’ll cost you less and you’ll have a better pool.

Sack that pool shop. Bioguard? Thats a bit silly, bio implies biological or without chlorine to me. But its the test results that have me stumped. Stabalizer at 3ppm? If you can believe it just call it 0ppm and bring it up. If your HTH test at 40 is a test strip I wouldn’t be comfortable with either. Total hardness is the combination of both magnesium and calcium, we only care about calcium. But if there results can be believed you are low. Free chlorine and combined chlorine in the one test? Optimiser, what is that? TA up to 240ppm? pH 6.8 - 8.2? And then knowing you have a low TA they tell you to lower your pH. They will have you chasing numbers and draining your pocket. My pool lives at 7.8, as long as you have at lest the minimum of CYA and corresponding FC from the FC/CYA Levels a pH of 7.8 is fine.