First test. Completely confused☹️

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Amanda Sanborn

Member
Jun 10, 2020
19
Cecil County Maryland
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
I have a sock with stabilizer in it right now. So hopefully that will fix the cya. I added 3cups of bleach yesterday. Haven’t added anything else. I’m completely confused on what to do. I have test strips and hth 6way. The 6way only has total chlorine I think. It’s like 1. The test strips say total 1 and 0 free. I know the ph is low. But now I don’t know what to do. Let the stabilizer go in before adding anything? Add something to bring the ph up? Why is the chlorine so low still after adding 3cups? The water is crystal clear and the kids what in but I told them no for now.
(The hardness and alkalinity were completely different with the two tests.🤷‍♀️)
 

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Howdy Amanda..
This forum has standardized on test kits from Taylor. That way we can all speak the same test result language. We highly recommend the test kits from TSTESTKits.net. Read up on this. Test Kits Compared
Pools strips tests are inherently inaccurate and don't provide the precision we need to give you recommendations on your chemistry. Especially if your values are outside the range the test strips can provide. The same can be said about pool store testing, they are too variable. It's best to test with your own test kit. Post up your numbers when you get one and we will be happy to chime in.

BTW add chlorine to keep your pool at about 4ppm.. its fine to let the kids swim, nobodies ears will fall off or anything. ;)
check this for your recommended levels: What Are My Ideal Pool Levels? - Trouble Free Pool
 
Use the HTH test. The strips are usually wrong. The HTH test, while incomplete by our standards, is at least reliable.

You lose chlorine every day no matter what. With little or no CYA, it will last at best a couple hours. So nothing to panic about there. As the CYA dissolves, the FC you add will stick around longer.

The low pH, low TA needs to be addressed. Start by raising TA to 60ish. You can round a little to come out nice.(psst, 2 lbs) and give it a few hours to mix. That should boost pH a little. If you got a starter kit, alkalinity increaser is the same. Otherwise go buy it at the grocery store. One other thing: if you have any "pH up" already, you can use that instead and work on pH. Let us know if that's the case and we'll help figure out that dose. If you don't already own some, don't go buying it today.
 
mguzzy said:
Howdy Amanda..
This forum has standardized on test kits from Taylor. That way we can all speak the same test result language. We highly recommend the test kits from TSTESTKits.net. Read up on this. Test Kits Compared
Pools strips tests are inherently inaccurate and don't provide the precision we need to give you recommendations on your chemistry. Especially if your values are outside the range the test strips can provide. The same can be said about pool store testing, they are too variable. It's best to test with your own test kit. Post up your numbers when you get one and we will be happy to chime in.

BTW add chlorine to keep your pool at about 4ppm.. its fine to let the kids swim, nobodies ears will fall off or anything. ;)
check this for your recommended levels: What Are My Ideal Pool Levels? - Trouble Free Pool
Click to expand...
Thanks! Unfortunately I had already bought the hth and strips before finding this page😣 Can’t buy a new one right now😕
 
Richard320 said:
Use the HTH test. The strips are usually wrong. The HTH test, while incomplete by our standards, is at least reliable.

You lose chlorine every day no matter what. With little or no CYA, it will last at best a couple hours. So nothing to panic about there. As the CYA dissolves, the FC you add will stick around longer.

The low pH, low TA needs to be addressed. Start by raising TA to 60ish. You can round a little to come out nice.(psst, 2 lbs) and give it a few hours to mix. That should boost pH a little. If you got a starter kit, alkalinity increaser is the same. Otherwise go buy it at the grocery store. One other thing: if you have any "pH up" already, you can use that instead and work on pH. Let us know if that's the case and we'll help figure out that dose. If you don't already own some, don't go buying it today.
Click to expand...

I haven’t really bought anything yet for fear that I would buy things I don’t need. Lol. I added the bleach mid day yesterday, so that makes sense that it’s almost gone. So baking soda to raise the TA correct?
 
Amanda Sanborn said:
I haven’t really bought anything yet for fear that I would buy things I don’t need. Lol. I added the bleach mid day yesterday, so that makes sense that it’s almost gone. So baking soda to raise the TA correct?
Click to expand...
your TA is 240. you don't want to raise that. But you want to Raise your pH. I presume this is a typo. Try raising your pH with aeration first. Like let the kids splash around. @Richard320 whaddya think?
 
mguzzy said:
your TA is 240. you don't want to raise that. But you want to Raise your pH. I presume this is a typo. Try raising your pH with aeration first. Like let the kids splash around. @Richard320 whaddya think?
Click to expand...
The stick test said 240 but the hth test said 40 as long as I did it right... added 5 drops of the one and counted 4drops of the other until it turned color. Times by 10 = 40.
 

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Amanda Sanborn said:
I haven’t really bought anything yet for fear that I would buy things I don’t need. Lol. I added the bleach mid day yesterday, so that makes sense that it’s almost gone. So baking soda to raise the TA correct?
Click to expand...
Definitely purchase the FAS-DPD complete test (it's a powder & liquid to measure accurate FC levels) and you'll need more CYA regeant as the HTH kit only has enough for 2 tests, if I recall.

HTH does use Taylor regeants @mguzzy , just smaller quantities :) It's an afforable way to introduce pool owners to their own proper pool testing techniques!
 
Amanda Sanborn said:
The water is crystal clear and the kids what in but I told them no for now.
Click to expand...
  1. How much CYA did you add? (what was your target)
  2. Use PoolMath to aim for the top of the FC daily level for THAT CYA ( FC/CYA Levels )
    1. test FC after 15-30min
    2. Your OTO yellow drops should be just at the darkest yellow shade :)
    3. If it isn't super deep yellow, you should be okay to swim :)
Definitely purchase the FAS-DPD test, it will help you get confident in your pool's safe FC levels!
P.S. Please trash the strips, they will only confuse and don't really tell you anything useful.
 
Thanks!! You guys are great! I added 24oz of stabilizer. Target is 30. It’s almost all dissolved out of the sock. I read to wait 24hrs before testing cya. Yes my kit only comes with enough for two cya tests.
I did let the kids in.lol And that’s a great idea about give the strips to the kids to help!
One more question. You said “test FC after 15-30min”. After what are you referring?
 
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Amanda Sanborn said:
One more question. You said “test FC after 15-30min”. After what are you referring?
Click to expand...
FC = free chlorine, you'll want to monitor your chlorine levels to keep the kiddos safe & healthy and your pool clear. You'll definitely want to purchase (online) the FAS-DPD test kit, so that you can accurately monitor FC & CC's :)
 
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