Getting antsy...

[Mdragger88]

Ok - so I just went out and dumped 36oz of acid and got the pic below (after 15 minutes of pump on high). I agree the first test this morning does look 7.8ish. Poolmath said that amount in a 15k pool will drop it .6. New test looks about right?

I also dumped 32oz chlorine in and re ran the good test with the powder. Cl went up to 3.5. Increase of 2 from the first test. Poolmath said 2.1 in a 15k pool.

Is it safe to say I’m looking at a roughly 15k gallon volume?

I’ll dump some more chlorine in now to bump it up. Don’t want algae! Question though - why does the manufacturer say to keep new plaster levels at 1-3?

They - like many industry manufacturers- are not taking the cya/fc relationship into consideration. W/ your cya 5-6ppm fc is less potent than tap water.

CYA Chlorine Relationship - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Gnarbrah]

OK - I just dumped another 36oz of CL in. Poolmath says I should be at 5.8 now. I'd check but have to go to work

 

[wireform]

Two things if I may. #1 use a white background for the PH reading and let the bright light get on the white background and don't shade it by the block. Keep it somewhat back so your reading it like it's back lit .#2 don't get to crazy testing the FC with a 25ml water sample. I use only the 10ml water sample which makes calculating simple by each drop equaling .5 That’s close enough.

 

[Gnarbrah]

Two things if I may. #1 use a white background for the PH reading and let the bright light get on the white background and don't shade it by the block. Keep it somewhat back so your reading it like it's back lit .#2 don't get to crazy testing the FC with a 25ml water sample. I use only the 10ml water sample which makes calculating simple by each drop equaling .5 That’s close enough.

Will do on the back lighting. I'm using a white paper plate as a back drop. I haven't even seen how to do the 25ml sample. My kit only had directions for the 10ml test - so that's a win?
Also - is it normal after adding the chlorine that my CC didn’t go up?

 

[Berger82]

Will do on the back lighting. I'm using a white paper plate as a back drop. I haven't even seen how to do the 25ml sample. My kit only had directions for the 10ml test - so that's a win?
Also - is it normal after adding the chlorine that my CC didn’t go up?

You dont want CC to go up. Acceptable levels are 0 to 0.5. Anything higher means you have organics in your water that the FC is eating up. Outside of a SLAM, you should not see CC increase or decrease with LC additions

 

[Gnarbrah]

Oh! Interesting. Should I be worried about my .5 reading on the cc?

 

[Newdude]

.5 is acceptable and could be the test variance. 1 is when you pay close attention to your daily FC loss to see if it behaves differently than it has for the last week or so.

And common sense comes into play as well. If you have a swim day with the kids and their friends, you expect some CCs later.

 

[Gnarbrah]

How do you treat CC when it gets too high?

 

[Berger82]

How do you treat CC when it gets too high?

"High" is relative and is dependent on the situation. Example -Did you have a pool party and now your CC is 1? Well, that is to be expected and and will drop down to normal ranges within a day with LC additions. Example - Is your CC 1-1.5+ but your water is cloudy and/or seeing spots of algae? Well, that would most likely call for an OCLT and SLAM.

My point is...cross that road if you ever get there. This is my 5th season following TFPC methods and my CC has NEVER been above 0.5

 

[Mdragger88]

Will do on the back lighting. I'm using a white paper plate as a back drop. I haven't even seen how to do the 25ml sample. My kit only had directions for the 10ml test - so that's a win?
Also - is it normal after adding the chlorine that my CC didn’t go up?

You shouldn’t really have cc’s- (should be .5 or less) they’re the bad stuff- u want all good stuff (fc)

 

[Gnarbrah]

Good morning - so I did my daily ph and cl testing and as expected they were off but not terrible. I’m still having trouble determining my pool volume. I’ve been dosing at 15k gallons but I’m starting to think that may be low.
Here’s what I found today:
Fc -3.5
Ph - 7.5

I added:
16oz acid
32oz LC

After 1 hour and then tested again at 2 hours (readings were the same):
Fc - 4.5
Ph -7.3 (2nd ph pic looks like closer to 7.2 but in the real world it was a bit “redder”)

When I use Poolmath the gain of “1” fc puts me WAY into the 20k range but the ph change has me somewhere between 15k and 20k.
Any suggestions?

Here’s pics of the before and after ph results.

 

[kimkats]

move your volume up or down by 200 and see what that does for your testing of what you added.

 

[Mdragger88]

Aim to keep ph in the mid 7’s otherwise you will lower your ta then you’ll be adding more baking soda - we don’t want that roller coaster ride again.
Just let it rise to 8 & then lower to 7.5.
Also your target fc is 6ppm
Letting it fall below 2 is begging for algae.
Minimum is hot lava …
Best to keep it in target range for your cya at all times which is 4-6ppm

 

[Gnarbrah]

Good morning all - Things have been going pretty well but I'm still putting in about 32oz of chlorine and 12oz of acid daily to keep my CL in the 5s and my ph in the mid 7s.
Salt should be coming in a week or so and I'm sure that will take care of the CL for the most part but is it normal to be using this much acid? When does that calm down?

 

[kimkats]

Each pool is different. It could only take 3 months for the ph to calm down or it could take 6 months. If you hare running water features or have a cannon ball person your ph will stay up due to the fun they are having.

 

[Mdragger88]

New plaster can take up to a year to fully cure.
You just gotta put your patience pants on and continue to do as u are doing now

 

[Gnarbrah]

Wow! Ok I'm good with it then. just wasn't sure if it was "cured" in the 30 days but it sounds like it'll be a while. I can keep up with acid and chlorine as needed.
Now I'm just waiting for the salt and I can get everything else dialed in!