Got my water test kit and trying to figure out what to adjust first :)

[jamie5879]

Hello! I have lots of things by the looks of my first reading that need to be adjusted. I was so sick of the pool store and going back every few days when opening to make sure I had it right and I wanted to start doing it myself which is where I found this site

I had to lower my CYA as it was up to 150 with the opening routine and now after draining some and adding some more I’m in between 80-90. Might even be a little lower as all of the water isn’t mixed yet but going with 90 for now.

A few questions:

The Pool Math app doesn’t tell you what to adjust first as far as I can see but in all my tests from the pool store I believe you adjust alkalinity, PH and then shock in that order.

PH says I need to increase but Alkalinity says I need to decrease PH and then aerate which I don’t even think I can do. Any ideas where to start? If I use an Alkalinity decreaser it would be nice to log that and figure out how much I need to use instead of the aerate option.

Thanks in advance!
Jamie

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!

Your numbers are tolerable except for chlorine and CYA. You can live with that CYA, but chlorine is your first, second and third priority. If your water looks decent, get your chlorine where it needs to be. If the water is green or cloudy, go for a SLAM. All the other chemistry can wait until you get clear water and can maintain your chlorine level.

 

[jamie5879]

Thanks! I knew my PH was ok and that liquid chlorine will increase that as well so I didn’t want to increase yet. Does the pool math calculator account for that in its recommendations that I’m not seeing? It seems like all of the readings are independent of each other which but yet they all can affect one another so that seems odd but I’m probably missing something

I do want to drain more water and refill but oh my our well took forever to fill back 1/3 of the water.

Thanks again!

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum.
The use of liquid chlorine in a pool is pH neutral.
Your pH will rise fairly quickly as your TA is high. As you manage your pH in the 7's, the TA will fall.

Focus on the FC. Your high CYA lends itself to issues if you let the water get away from you.

 

[pjt]

What model test kit are you using?

PoolMath is just a calculator. Don't blindly do what it tells you. You need to have an understanding of pool chemistry, then use PoolMath to help with the calculations.

ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry

There are several items things every pool owner should know about swimming pool water. We share details on the basics of Pool Water Chemistry.

www.troublefreepool.com

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[wireform]

Jamie
Hi and welcome. Congratulations on your own testing so atleast you're on right track. You'll need to fill in your pool signature and can do so with the link I have in my signature below this way we don't have to ask a million questions to help you out. With your PH at 7.2 I doubt the TA you have is correct since new kits have a static with the R-0009 reagent on the TA testing and may have caused more smaller droplets lending itself to a higher count. With the R-0009 you have to turn the bottle right side up between droplets and wipe the tip with a moist paper towel and go it again sort of rinse and repeat till the color change. The last droplet that doesn't change the color doesn't get added in the final droplet count. Let the droplet fall of on their own with very minimal pressure.
As said before me get FC into that water asap. I'd recommend you do the diluted CYA test to be sure of your 90.
Please explain how to dilute CYA test if over 100

 

[jamie5879]

I tried updating my signature but I keep getting an error message that they ran into a problem and I might be posting spam like content. Not sure how I can fix. I also notice that I have two profiles. When I Google an article it comes up with jamie5879 which is this one but I signed up with Jamiej so I must have an older profile

My total alkalinity is that high and I did wipe between. I think it’s because of all of the fresh well water I had to add back in. The pool store sent me home with 2 gallons of muriatic acid. I needed some metal magic as there is a slight tinge in the water so I had the pool store test and the alkalinity was almost spot on with what I calculated. They calculated my CYA at 109 when I had 90 so maybe it’s the sample or maybe it is that high still but either way it’s way lower than before so that’s looking at least a little better and I won’t have to use so many chemicals.

I have the TF-Pro kit.

 

[jamie5879]

I tried updating my signature but I keep getting an error message that they ran into a problem and I might be posting spam like content. Not sure how I can fix. I also notice that I have two profiles. When I Google an article it comes up with jamie5879 which is this one but I signed up with Jamiej so I must have an older profile

My total alkalinity is that high and I did wipe between. I think it’s because of all of the fresh well water I had to add back in. The pool store sent me home with 2 gallons of muriatic acid. I needed some metal magic as there is a slight tinge in the water so I had the pool store test and the alkalinity was almost spot on with what I calculated. They calculated my CYA at 109 when I had 90 so maybe it’s the sample or maybe it is that high still but either way it’s way lower than before so that’s looking at least a little better and I won’t have to use so many chemicals.

I have the TF-Pro kit.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[jamie5879]

I now see why I have two profiles. When I was hurriedly making a sign in the other day I misspelled my email address so you can disregard that question above.

 

[JJ_Tex]

You have the best test kit available, which should keep you out of the pool store and all of their nonsense.

I may have missed it, but did you add chlorine? That is priority #1 right now and should be done ASAP. Everything else can wait, but chlorine of 0 is a recipe for disaster and can allow algae growth in a matter of hours.

 

[jamie5879]

I tried updating my signature but I keep getting an error message that they ran into a problem and I might be posting spam like content. Not sure how I can fix. I also notice that I have two profiles. When I Google an article it comes up with jamie5879 which is this one but I signed up with Jamiej so I must have an older profile

My total alkalinity is that high and I did wipe between. I think it’s because of all of the fresh well water I had to add back in. The pool store sent me home with 2 gallons of muriatic acid. I needed some metal magic as there is a slight tinge in the water so I had the pool store test and the alkalinity was almost spot on with what I calculated. They calculated my CYA at 109 when I had 90 so maybe it’s the sample or maybe it is that high still but either way it’s way lower than before so that’s looking at least a little better and I won’t have to use so many chemicals.

I have the TF-Pro kit.

Yes, I did add it last night after I was done filling and testing. I had added one container of metal magic and wanted to wait a little until that had time to circulate before I added the chlorine. Which helped but apparently I needed another bottle as there was a tinge to the water. I’m hyper sensitive about this as the other year when we got a new liner the pool company dumped a lot of chlorine in and it turned a soupy looking brown almost instantly with the fresh well water

 

[wireform]

That's what chlorine will do when there is metal in the water.