First time tester

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R

rabin

Member
Dec 16, 2019
13
Boca Raton Florida
We’ve been using a pool “professional” to look after our new pool since March.

They were here and “worked” on the pool on Wednesday. I tested on Saturday. Would like to start looking after my own pool.
Please let me know what changes to make and where to start after my first results.
 
R,

I see from your pool math input you have the following levels..

FC 7.0
CC 0
pH 7.5
TA 60
CH 650
CYA 0
Salt 3600
Temp 72

Without CYA the sun will consume your FC in short order.

With a saltwater pool your CYA should be about 70 ppm.. I am surprised your professionals did not add CYA as it is important. I would double check this test, just to make sure..

Other than that I don't see much wrong..

Taking care of a saltwater pools is dirt simple.. even I can do it.. :mrgreen:

As others have said, you should take a read through our Pool School.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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Pool guy stopped coming this month and this is my first test without him monitoring the pool. I think theres a lot I need to be done since these numbers all seem way off.
Please help with what I should do and in what order.

FC 13
CC 14
PH 8.4
TA 340
CH 800
CYA 30
Salt 2800
Temp 72

In South Florida
SWG is set to be running at 100% everyday from 8am to 8pm
 
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Good job on the tests.

What is the cost of your fill water? Instead of adding a bunch of acid to lower the TA, as right now you are severely in the scale creation region, replacing a large amount of your water with fresh may be prudent.

Test the pH, TA, and CH of your fill water.
 
mknauss said:
Good job on the tests.

What is the cost of your fill water? Instead of adding a bunch of acid to lower the TA, as right now you are severely in the scale creation region, replacing a large amount of your water with fresh may be prudent.

Test the pH, TA, and CH of your fill water.
Click to expand...
Im not actually sure what the cost of the fill water is.
Fill water results are
ph 8.32
TA 160
CH 175
 
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With your high CH content in the pool water someone had to be adding cal hypo to it. You get quite a bit of rain so you should not have to use that much fill water to compensate for any evaporation/splash out.

Check the cost of your water. If reasonable, I would suggest at least a half volume drain and refill prior to attacking it.

Let's see what some other members suggest.
 

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I havent added anything at all. I know the pool guy before his last day told me i think he added bicarb and conditioner and was going to add in salt the following week.

How would I do a half volume drain? I started draining the pool through the backwash which was how the pool guy had showed me but the pump started making strange noises like it was struggling. Im assuming this is because the water had dropped below the skimmer line and was sucking in air. I turned it off straight away so hoping I havent done any damage to the pump?
 
Note that the pH test is unreliable when your FC is over 10 ppm. It will artificially read high. So don’t try and lower your pH based on your test.

How are you testing your pH to get values like 8.4 or 8.32?

Lower your SWG to 10 or 20% to let your FC drop.
 
Ok, things are slowly starting to come into alignment. This is my latest test:

FC 5.5
CC 5.5
PH 8.2
TA 210
CH 400
CYA 0
Salt 4000
Temp 70

What would the recommendations be on the above? Ive been trying to lower the CH so curious what the most important thing to concentrate on now? Ive bought CYA but havent added it yet, should this only be added once TA and PH are in the correct ranges?
 
A CH of 400 is not all that bad. I would be more concerned with no CYA and the potential for algae soon with no stabilizer to protect the FC. So I would add stabilizer now. The TFP minimum for a salt pool is 70, but you could start with a CYA of 50 and monitor FC usage from there. At the same time, get some muriatic acid in there quickly as well to prevent scale. Bring your pH down to about 7.6 and when it gets to 8.0 bring it back down again. Over time, the TA, which is a bit elevated, will also come down.

As long as you don't add any calcium products, your CH should not climb much. If you foresee rains in the future, then you can lower the water level a bit and let the rain fill it back up - for free. :) Make sure to use the PoolMath tool ro APP for any dosage amounts.
 
I would try and lower your FC to the target of 6 so that you can accurately test your PH.

A high PH + high CH can cause scaling. Below are the recommended levels.

Note - If you pool math logs are accurate, it looks like you just added a bunch of acid. That was probably the right thing to do, but really you should turn off your SWCG until your FC drops to under 10 and retest.

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