First test results are a little worrisome

[DrGoguma]

Hi

My pool has been managed by a local company the last year and a half. They religiously drop in pucks every week. Every week I get mail that my FC is 3ppm.

I just ran my first test (TF-Pro) and got a free chlorine reading of 11 fc and a CYA so high I couldn't read it with 50% dilution.

Most likely I'm screwing the testing up. What are the best resources that take you through running the tests one by one?

 

[DaveTheAccountant]

You’re probably not screwing the cya test up if it’s been all pucks for a long time.

 

[Donldson]

Welcome to TFP!

While it's good to double check your testing your results are not unrealistic. One puck would give you 10 ppm FC and 6.3 ppm CYA. That's a 25 ppm CYA increase per month. As for their test results, I'd guess they're just dipping a test strip and glancing at it to quickly write down a number. It's a competitive buisness and with everyone trying to undercut everyone else they have to cut every corner.

Here's a link to the YouTube page with videos showing how to use the various tests: TF100TestKit

 

[Mdragger88]

You can dilute it further to get a better idea of your actual cya just be sure to use the proper multiplication factor for the amount of dilution. Further dilution does introduce more error though.
A large water exchange is in your future.
Luckily 5k gallons isn’t really that much.
Check out the no drain water exchange.

Draining - Further Reading

www.google.com

are you on a well or city water?

 

[DrGoguma]

You can dilute it further to get a better idea of your actual cya just be sure to use the proper multiplication factor for the amount of dilution. Further dilution does introduce more error though.
A large water exchange is in your future.
Luckily 5k gallons isn’t really that much.
Check out the no drain water exchange.

Draining - Further Reading

www.google.com

are you on a well or city water?

Diluting further just seemed likely to result in error -- my test says I'm north of 200cya. I fired the pool company over iron filings they didn't clean out of the pool, so cleaning up the iron and changing the water was already likely to happen once it cools off and we enter our rainy season (November). I'm on city water -- and its pretty cheap. 5c per gallon or so.

 

[Mdragger88]

The problem is that you don’t know what your real cya is so you can’t properly manage fc to know its sanitary.
The ph test is also skewed by fc levels higher than 10ppm so this makes managing ph with proper chlorine levels challenging.
About the iron, I would do this

Ascorbic Acid Treatment - Further Reading

www.google.com

Then exchange all the water.

 

[DrGoguma]

I ran to Leslie's and got the following test results -- that indicate that maybe I'm no good at using the test kit:

FC - 7.46
ph 7.1
Alkalinity 49
Calcium 126
CYA - 173
Iron - 0 (presumably because its all deposited onto my pool)
Copper 0.2
Phosphates 1853
TDS 1000

The Free Chlorine difference is surprising. It definitely takes me 22-24 drops to clear the liquid (I just tried it again).

 

[Donldson]

that indicate that maybe I'm no good at using the test kit

No, it's just a reminder of why we say to stay out of pool stores and will not offer advice based upon their testing.

Seriously, we trust you to do your own testing more than we will ever trust any pool store. If you're concerned check out the link I posted to the YT page demonstrating how to do the tests.

 

[DrGoguma]

Okay, so I need less than a pound of absorbic acid and a sump pump. And I suppose I need to do this relatively soon, so I can figure out what maintaining a pool is like, rather than remedying a mess.