Hello! House we bought came with a pool.

[digiegg]

Yes, I kept the same water that I made w/ the test and added 5 drops 0003. The water was still clear after that.
As for the CYA, I did as directed and just kept putting drops until I couldn't see the black dot. By the time I couldn't see it, it was upto 33 on the test kit tube(smaller sized one). It saids on here CYA and it goes from 100 to 30. I needed to fill it until about 33, close to 30 for me to not see the black dot.
Okay I will look at the manual and see how much muriatic acid I need to add to the pool to bring it down. I don't know how much to put in yet...

And yes! That completely makes sense about Leslie's and other pool stores. I always like learning about things by myself first. Also this is our first house so I'm super excited to be able to take care of the house, even though it's a lot of work. Seems like I just need to add some acid and I'll be all good then? The pool doesn't have any algae or build ups from what I've seen. I'll bring down the PH and start using it.
Thanks for all the help!
Let me know what I need to do about the CYA. Not sure if that's safe.

 

[AndyTN]

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[Orion7319]

Yes, I kept the same water that I made w/ the test and added 5 drops 0003. The water was still clear after that.
As for the CYA, I did as directed and just kept putting drops until I couldn't see the black dot. By the time I couldn't see it, it was upto 33 on the test kit tube(smaller sized one). It saids on here CYA and it goes from 100 to 30. I needed to fill it until about 33, close to 30 for me to not see the black dot.
Okay I will look at the manual and see how much muriatic acid I need to add to the pool to bring it down. I don't know how much to put in yet...

And yes! That completely makes sense about Leslie's and other pool stores. I always like learning about things by myself first. Also this is our first house so I'm super excited to be able to take care of the house, even though it's a lot of work. Seems like I just need to add some acid and I'll be all good then? The pool doesn't have any algae or build ups from what I've seen. I'll bring down the PH and start using it.
Thanks for all the help!
Let me know what I need to do about the CYA. Not sure if that's safe.

Download the “pool math” app. It’s made by people on this forum. If you get the gallons of your pool just right it will tell you how much to add of each chemical. You have to test all the variables and then save them in the app. It will then calculate what you need to add based on all the variables. Some chemicals are proportional to one another, for example chlorine and CYA and Total alkalinity and PH. So by using the app, I find I don’t have to know the acid demand for example. The app knowing the gallons, and the total alkalinity numbers will be able to tell you pretty accurately how much acid you need to add to bring the pool from say 7.8 to 7.4 for example. I have tried other online calculators and they don’t seem to work as well.

 

[Dirk]

By the time I couldn't see it, it was upto 33 on the test kit tube(smaller sized one). It saids on here CYA and it goes from 100 to 30. I needed to fill it until about 33, close to 30 for me to not see the black dot.

OK, ya lost me. There is no 33 on the kit tube, that I know of. It's in increments of 10, starting at 30 (some start at 20, but the 2006 kit tube starts at 30). So I'm not sure where you got 33. No estimating, if that's what you're doing. We round up to the next increment. If you go above 30, your CYA is 40 (for the purpose of calculating FC). Try this instead of drops: fill to 10, look for the dot. If dot, fill to 20, look for the dot. Repeat filling to each increment of 10. When you no longer see the dot, that's your CYA result. You don't need to know where in-between the increments the dot actually disappeared.

Also, you can repeat the test many times. You don't remix pool water with the reagent each time, just pour the water from the vial back into the squirter. Then go again. I usually do that at least three times, until I keep getting the same result.

 

[Dirk]

Oh, I just looked back a few posts. It looks like you're doing the "finer grained" FC test with, what is it, the 25ml sample. That's fine, but overkill. Use a 10ml sample instead and adjust the math. You'll get a slightly "rounded" result, but that is just fine for FC. It'll take less time and save on reagent. The instructions give you the details for 10ml test.

 

[digiegg]

Oh, I just looked back a few posts. It looks like you're doing the "finer grained" FC test with, what is it, the 25ml sample. That's fine, but overkill. Use a 10ml sample instead and adjust the math. You'll get a slightly "rounded" result, but that is just fine for FC. It'll take less time and save on reagent. The instructions give you the details for 10ml test.

I'll explain exactly what I did to make sure I did it correctly. I filled the small bottle to 7ml, put in 7ml r-0013 as directed. Shook it for 30seconds. Then just dropped liquid into this bottle til I couldn't see the black dot from above. I marked the location where I had to fill it up to. So the end result I was guessing would be around 33 going by the tube.

 

[Dirk]

That's fine. Your doing it right. Rounding up gives you a bit of a safety margin, as this particular test is the toughest. And all Taylor tests have about a 10% margin of error, even when done perfectly (nature of the chemicals). If your CYA is a little high, it only means your target FC (the amount of chlorine you'll need to add) will also be a little high. Perfectly safe to go a little higher on FC. If you add too much, it might burn off a little faster. But if you add too little, you risk an algae outbreak, which is not only bad for the pool, but expensive in terms of the remedy. So we round up to play it safe.

Reread my post #24 and try the alternate CYA test method I gave you. Then decide which works best for you.