First Time Testing

[Newdude]

Ok great !! You need 20% of your average depth in rain to get the CYA to 80. It would be a little over a foot in an average inground pool. It won't be terrible to manage it with a higher CYA level for 2 months (?), or less if its a wet spring.

Or you could speed it along with a partial drain/refill if water is cheap and you have a good drainage option. See these methods :

Draining - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[f30er]

Ok great !! You need 20% of your average depth in rain to get the CYA to 80. It would be a little over a foot in an average inground pool. It won't be terrible to manage it with a higher CYA level for 2 months (?), or less if its a wet spring.

Or you could speed it along with a partial drain/refill if water is cheap and you have a good drainage option. See these methods :

Draining - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

Drainage isn't great where I'm at and March/April can sometimes be pretty wet here.
Ok if I'm gonna keep the CYA at 100 for now without draining. What should I try and fix next? FC or salt?

 

[Newdude]

Ok if I'm gonna keep the CYA at 100 for now without draining. What should I try and fix next? FC or salt

Fc is *always* job #1. If you stay in target range per the FC/CYA Levels, we always have time to figure out anything else as a non emergency.

Next up is salt. Did you get the missing reagent yet ? If not you can probably pick up a k-1766 kit locally. After getting your baseline, aim for 80% or so. Never overshoot salt/CYA/CH as you will be draining. So shoot low and creep up to target. Dump it in per PoolMath and go back 15-20 mins later to brush and mix whatever didn't dissolve. It needs a full day to circulate before firing up the SWG. A highly concentrated slug / gallon can wreck the unit.

 

[Newdude]

*also, because you are new to the game, 'target range' was designed to give you a little over a days worth of chlorine, so that when you test/add tomorrow, you are still above minimum. Minimum sounds ok, but its a one way ticket to swamp town.

Daily loss of chlorine comes from the sun and eventually swimmers. As the angle of the sun increases and the days get longer, you'll lose more FC per day. No biggie, you will be testing daily and notice it ever so slowly. The peak season has the most amount of UV loss and swimmers, and then it slowly drops the back half of the season.

 

[f30er]

*also, because you are new to the game, 'target range' was designed to give you a little over a days worth of chlorine, so that when you test/add tomorrow, you are still above minimum. Minimum sounds ok, but its a one way ticket to swamp town.

Daily loss of chlorine comes from the sun and eventually swimmers. As the angle of the sun increases and the days get longer, you'll lose more FC per day. No biggie, you will be testing daily and notice it ever so slowly. The peak season has the most amount of UV loss and swimmers, and then it slowly drops the back half of the season.

I overshot with the FC. Guess one of the bottles was MUCH more concentrated than the other two and it shot up. Luckily we’ve got clear blue skies the next 6 days.
FC: 13.5
CC: 1.5
Salt: 600

 

[Newdude]

I overshot with the FC. Guess

A GREAT foul up if you have to foul something up. FC is safe up to and including SLAM level for swimmers and equipment. There is zero leeway below minimum. What a difference a potent jug makes, huh ? Lol.

Besides, until the SWG is running you should be following the chlorine side of the chart and shooting for 11-13. A 13.5 could be user error. Did you really make 27 identical drops ? It gets harder to stay perfect the more you do. But either way, 13.5 is GREAT.

CC: 1.5

You may have and early algae outbreak due to being below minimum from the weak bleach. (Which you will always now comfirm after adding and mixing). Perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to confirm organics. By doing the overnight test, the sun wont burn off any FC, and if you lose more than 1 overnight, something is brewing.

 

[f30er]

A GREAT foul up if you have to foul something up. FC is safe up to and including SLAM level for swimmers and equipment. There is zero leeway below minimum. What a difference a potent jug makes, huh ? Lol.

Besides, until the SWG is running you should be following the chlorine side of the chart and shooting for 11-13. A 13.5 could be user error. Did you really make 27 identical drops ? It gets harder to stay perfect the more you do. But either way, 13.5 is GREAT.

You may have and early algae outbreak due to being below minimum from the weak bleach. (Which you will always now comfirm after adding and mixing). Perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to confirm organics. By doing the overnight test, the sun wont burn off any FC, and if you lose more than 1 overnight, something is brewing.

Exactly what I was thinking for tomorrow morning!!

 

[f30er]

A GREAT foul up if you have to foul something up. FC is safe up to and including SLAM level for swimmers and equipment. There is zero leeway below minimum. What a difference a potent jug makes, huh ? Lol.

Besides, until the SWG is running you should be following the chlorine side of the chart and shooting for 11-13. A 13.5 could be user error. Did you really make 27 identical drops ? It gets harder to stay perfect the more you do. But either way, 13.5 is GREAT.

You may have and early algae outbreak due to being below minimum from the weak bleach. (Which you will always now comfirm after adding and mixing). Perform an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to confirm organics. By doing the overnight test, the sun wont burn off any FC, and if you lose more than 1 overnight, something is brewing.

OCLT done:
FC: 13.5
CC: 1.5

 

[Newdude]

Well I love the FC part. The CCs are not behaving as they should per the other parameters. Are you letting the sample sit and 15 seconds later it goes pink again? This has fooled us all. If so, as soon as it goes clear the CC test is done.

 

[f30er]

Well I love the FC part. The CCs are not behaving as they should per the other parameters. Are you letting the sample sit and 15 seconds later it goes pink again? This has fooled us all. If so, as soon as it goes clear the CC test is done.

Nope, sample is in the the magnetic stirrer and I’m just going through the steps. Very little delay time. I can test everything again this evening since I’ve got all the reagents now.

 

[Newdude]

Is the pool covered ?

 

[f30er]

Is the pool covered ?

Not anymore and probably never again! That cover is a PITA!

 

[Newdude]

CCs (or any test) can be weird sometimes as your test is a momentary snapshot of that one spot in the pool with however many other gallons swishing around. You had little CCs and now have some, with no overnight loss. See if they go away at the next test.

Pat/Marty and ideas ?

 

[mknauss]

CC is removed from the pool by the sun shining on the surface. Has the pool had sun shining on it the last few days?

 

[Newdude]

Has the pool had sun shining on it the last few days?

 

[f30er]

Sunny since Monday for the rest of this week. All of last week was cloudy and the cover just came off. Will see what it shows tonight

 

[mknauss]

and the cover just came off.

Brush and circulate the pool well. CC should fall.

 

[f30er]

Ok. First off I just wanna thank you all for the help! Feel like this should be a paid service!! Thank you!!
I got lazy last night after a long day and decided to sit back and just have some bourbon.
Ran the full battery of tests this morning (getting better at it and faster with less fumbling around looking for the right reagents):
FC: 11
CC: 0
pH: 7.8
TA: 90
CH: 300
CYA: 100
Salt: 600

Not sure if it helps or not but forgot to mention my SWG is and has been off.

 

[Newdude]

I got lazy last night after a long day and decided to sit back and just have some bourbon.

Fair enough. Also. Cheers.

Ran the full battery of tests this morning (getting better at it and faster with less fumbling around looking for the right reagents):

it gets easy and quick. The first few are bit clumsy, but you get it. I liked to get my bottles out first for each test and remove the caps. Then it was bam bam bam. There was less sense of urgency with cleanup if it took a minute.

You should be good now as you lost the CCs. Technically you have to have low/no CCs which failed you yesterday, but you had no FC loss yesterday (likely none today but unproven) and now no CCs so we can fugde the rules a bit. Just this once. Do another OCLT at your earliest convenience just to be sure-sure.

 

[f30er]

Fair enough. Also. Cheers.
View attachment 392969

it gets easy and quick. The first few are bit clumsy, but you get it. I liked to get my bottles out first for each test and remove the caps. Then it was bam bam bam. There was less sense of urgency with cleanup if it took a minute.

You should be good now as you lost the CCs. Technically you have to have low/no CCs which failed you yesterday, but you had no FC loss yesterday (likely none today but unproven) and now no CCs so we can fugde the rules a bit. Just this once. Do another OCLT at your earliest convenience just to be sure-sure.

OCLT Done!
Last night:
FC: 9.5
CC: 0

This morning:
FC: 9
CC: 0