First time owning a pool, new TF-100 results

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B

bsedgal

0
Sep 24, 2016
16
Dallas, Texas
Hello everyone. We moved over thanksgiving and bought a house with a pool. See signature for details. I didn't pay for any pool school but a few co-workers have been giving me tips. Over the winter I've gone to the pool store a few times with water samples and all my numbers have been good. I've just been treating with leftover chlorine tabs and muriatic acid as needed (using a cheap test kit).

I've got a few questions. My nieces (5,3,1) are visiting in about a month. They've had pool "accidents" before. Whats the quick procedure for me when that happens?

That aside, here are my initial TF-100 results

FC - 2.5
CC - 0.5
pH - 7.5
TA - 100
CH - 1250
CYA - 100
water temp - 64F

So I think I have a problem with the bottle concerning the calcium hardness (R-0012). The droplets appear smaller than usual and come out too rapidly. I had to do the test over a few times due to miscounting, but I think I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 drops before the solution turns blue. I didn't have this problem with any other bottle. The other reason I blame the bottle is because pool store readings have been in the normal range. Thoughts?

Also any comments on the other measurements?
 
When we have little ones over to swim, who may have accidents we raise the chlorine a few ppm before they arrive and test again after swimming and raise it again if required
Ie my daily target is 9, I raise my FC to 12 before they arrive and that evening will raise it again to 12.

If they have solid 'accidents' then I scoop it out with a net asap and raise my FC to my slam level and hold it there for 24 hours, with pump on the entire time. I would be happy to swim after an hour or 2 but most other guests seem to want to wait until the next day.....

After that particular accident I now insist on swim nappies for those who arent potty trained
 
B,

Welcome to TFP... A Great resource for all your pool related accident questions.. :cool:

Woodyp's advice on your CYA measurement is based on the fact that the test stops at 100. In order to correctly take a reading over 100 you have to dilute the sample as he outlined above.

The main reason your CYA is so high is because you have been using 3" tables to add chlorine to your pool. My "guess" is that you also add a bag of shock every week or so. As your CYA gets higher and higher, the amount of chlorine you need to sanitize your pool also increases.

Looking at the chart that Woodyp has linked above... and assuming your CYA is only at 100, your FC level should never be below 8 and really should be kept in the 11 to 13 ppm area.

Your CH reading is awful suspicious.. I tried my bottle of R-0012 and as you suspected the drops come out in a pretty slow fashion, not at all as you describe.

I have a bottle that you can borrow to see if that solves your problem. If interested just PM me.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Thanks everyone for all the good info. So all the focus has been on raising my FC super high to keep up with the super high CYA. Does that mean I forever need to keep FC at 11-13? That means I can't use the daily test subkit that came with TF-100 since it only measures to 5.

What about focusing on lowering CYA... According to the pool calculator here I should be draining half of the pool. Leslie's says I can use "Bio-Active" to lower it. Just easier to raise FC rather than bother with CYA? If the tabs are causing CYA to increase then I should just switch over to bleach/liquid chlorine? That's easy enough.

I agree that its probably CYA is probably higher than 100 and can do the dilute test.
 
Yes, you're right, you currently need to keep your FC high, because your CYA is high
However if you lower your CYA then you can keep your FC lower

BTW the levels of FC we use on here may seem high, but that is because we take into account the buffering effect of the CYA. In fact the active levels of chlorine suggested here would be less than 4ppm with no CYA, which is what the drinking water standards allow for

Several users on here tried the 'bioactive' to reduce their CYA, but found it did not work. Or if it did it was so minimal as to be unmeasurable :-|

If you do the diluted CYA test, we will have an indication of how much water you would need to exchange to get your CYA down to managable levels
 
update.

I added 2 Gal of generic bleach per pool math and ran the pump all night. FC is higher than I was expecting but thats probably because I should have removed the floating tab. Also think I figured out how to handle the R-0012 bottle now. Also did a diluted CYA test. Today's results:

FC - 16.5
CC - <0.5
pH - 7.6
TA - 90
CH - 625
water temp - 64F

For the 50/50 diluted CYA test I'm having a hard time interpreting results. This is because it got to the 95mL mark and I could not see the black dot. Then I noticed after 10-20s of settling, I could see it. So do you go by immediate results or delayed results? If by delayed results I got to the 50mL mark before I could never see the black dot again.
 
Taking a quick glance at that sample is better than "staring" at it. You can pour it back and forth 2 or 3 times and average your result too. CYA doesn't evaporate btw. Water exchange only way to fix it. If you're considering that, I'd wait till after spring rains and hopefully needing to pump out some overflow water before I did a partial drain.
 

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Well I've been keeping more chlorine in the 11-13 range and all has been well. Then we had some friends visiting this week. I checked yesterday and it was at 10.5ppm. Today while I was at work they ran the hot tub all afternoon and the pool did not circulate. After everyone was done I noticed the hot tub was green. UGH. So I guess I am starting the SLAM. Unfortunately with my sky high cya I had to go deplete the stock at the grocery store. All the liquid chlorine and bleach I could find. What a major pain. Right now my FC is at 33.5 and I'm increasing it. Anyways I have 2 questions
1. Do I really need 80ppm FC since my diluted cya test is 190? Man that would be counting 160 drops of R-0871!
2. Should I have kept the spa in a closed loop rather and treat it? Instead I mixed/circulating the whole pool.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I don't think you'll find a soul here who would recommend trying to overcome a CYA of 190. It's time for a half drain if that's the case. And then another 1/3 drain and fill. Gonna be awful hard to make it thru summer in Texas with that anyhow.
 
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