first test results

[liveoak]

pool guy apparently shocked yesterday. im getting up to speed to DIY. suggestions?

quick drop test: Chlorine (yellow) 5+ (off scale)
quick drop test: PH (red) 7.2
Free Chlorine (FC) 13.5
Combined Chloramines (CC) 0
Calcium hardness (CH) 400
Total Alkalinity (TA) 100
CYA 25

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
Great start and good choice on a quality test kit.
No need to mess with the OTO chlorine test.
Looks to me you want to add 10 ppm worth of CYA. Let that dissolve and test again in a week. In the interim, hold your FC based on a 40 ppm CYA.

What exactly did the 'pool guy' add?
I suggest you read ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry.

 

[liveoak]

thanks for the reply! I'm trying to get up to speed. we've been in house for a long time, I've taken care of backwash and fixing pumps/pipes/polaris routinely, im finally tackling the chemicals, looking forward to DIY vs. having a pool company. hes been coming about once a week for a while, and generally adding chlorine and a bunch of stabilizer pellets (but not in a sock like you guys recommend). last week it was down to 0 FC, after he came it went up to 3, but quickly started getting some algae on the sides (this same pattern has persisted for over a year) and i called the company to ask, and i think they overcompensated this week. i cant get a straight answer what they added unless im physically there to ask/see. i was planning to cancel the service once i figure out the basics. i bought some 10% liq. chl, CYA, muriatic acid and baking soda this weekend, so i should be set. again, thanks, this forum seems to be quite useful.

 

[wireform]

Looks like you've got the hang of things. Drop the pool guy as you already know more then him. As Marty said bump the CYA to 40 and bring the FC up to slam per pool math. Start slam and keep it there till you're ready for OCLT. In the mean ti.e read pool school and the slam process. Come back when you have questions.

 

[liveoak]

thanks guys. i called the pool co. to cancel today. added 1.5 lb of dry stabilizer right after the posts above, and some liquid chlorine after that value came down some, readings today:
Ch PH FC CC CH TA CYA
2 7.6 5 0.5 300 110 35

QUESTION: on the CYA test where you read the black dot, should i do that visual test in direct sunlight, or find some shade? i can see the dot longer in the sun, making a 5-10 number difference in CYA value depending on sun or shade...

 

[mknauss]

This is how I do my CYA testing:
Once you have your solution ready, back to the sun, etc. Fill the vial to a line, say 80, lower the vial to your waist level and glance for the dot, you see it, add solution to the 70 line, glance, see it, repeat until you no longer see it with a glance. Then use the CYA value one step above the line you read. So if you stopped at 50, use 60 ppm CYA.

The vial is in logarithmic scale. So it is not viable to interpolate between the lines. Just use the whole numbers, such as 50, 40, 30, ....

 

[liveoak]

thanks Knauss! your reply is helpful, i may have been under reporting the CYA a bit, based on how you read it. i also like log scale, and agree its tough to interpolate...