I am new to your forum and website

If you are moving to a house with a pool, you can use the tabs there occasionally. I think they last a while. Or you can leave them for the new owner. They will bring cya up slowly.

I hope your new house will have a pool, now that you are learning all the right stuff. ?
LOL if it does have a pool it will be part of a community that I won't have to take care of and I'm all good with that. but that's about the size of it, I finally learned how to take care of my pool and then I move out but that's okay because I can share this site with the next family that moves in here. I will encourage them to donate to the site as I will be doing that myself.
Thank you all again so much, Kathy
 
Muriatic acid is used to lower your pH. Only use this when you need to, and do be very careful when using it. Wear personal protective equipment such as goggles and gloves. The vapors are very strong and can harm your lungs, so stand up wind when you pour directly from the bottle.

use a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water (or as much as you can lift), pour the muriatic acid into the water and stir with a plastic spoon (no metal spoons). Then pour the bucket slowly in front of your return.

Cyanuric acid is, as Oly noted above, often called stabilizer. Consider this sunscreen for your chlorine. Without it you will lose all of your chlorine every day. It helps keep the chlorine stabilized so that it doesn't all disappear. You will only need to add this if your CYA test is too low, but let's check that when you get your kit. Also, you should only need to add it once, for the moment. It is far less dangerous to handle than the muriatic acid. It is commonly sold as a powder which is cheaper than liquid, and you will use a sock (from your sock drawer) tied off at the opening with a string to hang it in the water (away from the wall) and soak it so that it dissolves. We squish the sock every half hour or so to help it disperse. Once it's in the water, it is there and doesn't normally decrease (unless you backwash a lot of water out).

Chlorine and liquid shock are the same thing. When we say chlorine, it is referring to all forms of chlorine which includes the liquid shock, bleach, chlorinating liquid, trichlor (tablets), dichlor (powdered shock products), and cal-hypo (another powdered shock product).

As to what to do with the tablets you have... I would save them for the moment. You may have to be away for a day or so sometime, or you might want to use them to increase your CYA a little. Note, they will also lower your pH. For regular maintenance though, don't use them. Use liquid chlorine (shock) or bleach for regular maintenance after your CYA level is set manually by you.

Happy shopping!
okay so I got my test kit yesterday K - 2006 and I am completely baffled unfortunately I have not been able to make sense out of it and meanwhile I have dumped 4 gallons of Shock 1 gallon of bleach and I can't figure out to do the test I'm supposed to do at night time I believe the FAS - dpd. I think at this point I should dump at least one gallon of the stabilizer in to keep what I have in the pool as far as chlorine goes. so I do not have any test results to share but I'm still trying So bear with me.

Kathy
 
Videos of all the tests. Some of the vials in your kit are a little different, but all the reagents (with the exception of the pH are the same):
 
Videos of all the tests. Some of the vials in your kit are a little different, but all the reagents (with the exception of the pH are the same):
Thank you for that I've learned an awful lot in 2 days but I'm getting there.
 
thank you for that and yes I think you're correct I have not read the ABCs of pool water chemistry so I will go to pool school and check that out.
Thank you so much for all of your help and good advice. I think I'm kind of starting to get it LOL
have a great day and I'll be in touch once I receive my test kit in a couple days. I will be starting the slam process meanwhile.
You guys are all just amazing I am so taken back and how everybody genuinely cares and the great advice.
I will be making a donation to the company since all of your advice is priceless and yes everybody's right the pool stores have sent me on Wild Goose chases for years. well, haha for them, I have you guys now.
Many thanks and have a great day, Kathy
okay so this may confirm my ignorance to pool care but I went to the place you told me to look for the ABCs for pool chemistry and I didn't see anything in particular in their referencing primer for tfp. Is there another word for that lol
 
Muriatic acid is used to lower your pH. Only use this when you need to, and do be very careful when using it. Wear personal protective equipment such as goggles and gloves. The vapors are very strong and can harm your lungs, so stand up wind when you pour directly from the bottle.

use a 5 gallon bucket half filled with water (or as much as you can lift), pour the muriatic acid into the water and stir with a plastic spoon (no metal spoons). Then pour the bucket slowly in front of your return.

Cyanuric acid is, as Oly noted above, often called stabilizer. Consider this sunscreen for your chlorine. Without it you will lose all of your chlorine every day. It helps keep the chlorine stabilized so that it doesn't all disappear. You will only need to add this if your CYA test is too low, but let's check that when you get your kit. Also, you should only need to add it once, for the moment. It is far less dangerous to handle than the muriatic acid. It is commonly sold as a powder which is cheaper than liquid, and you will use a sock (from your sock drawer) tied off at the opening with a string to hang it in the water (away from the wall) and soak it so that it dissolves. We squish the sock every half hour or so to help it disperse. Once it's in the water, it is there and doesn't normally decrease (unless you backwash a lot of water out).

Chlorine and liquid shock are the same thing. When we say chlorine, it is referring to all forms of chlorine which includes the liquid shock, bleach, chlorinating liquid, trichlor (tablets), dichlor (powdered shock products), and cal-hypo (another powdered shock product).

As to what to do with the tablets you have... I would save them for the moment. You may have to be away for a day or so sometime, or you might want to use them to increase your CYA a little. Note, they will also lower your pH. For regular maintenance though, don't use them. Use liquid chlorine (shock) or bleach for regular maintenance after your CYA level is set manually by you.

Happy shopping!
Okay, so I got my test kit like 4 days ago I've been reading and reading the book watching online videos on YouTube and my head is just spinning. I am not getting this at all there's too many percentage signs and quotations and formulas and oh my God it goes from bad to worse for me. I did do some testing finally today I think I did it correctly but don't know what to do from here. if I can give you the results I received for my test kit and what I've done so far could you please tell me where to go from here? I'm pretty sure I need to put more shock in and more stabilizer at this point I have already put as follows,
4 gallons of shock in 1 gallon of bleach
A whole gallon of liquid stabilizer

I'm guessing at this point I need more shock and more stabilizer but these are the readings I have got.
Free chlorine 6
Combined chlorine 14
Cya 30
PH 7.0
For the acid I added and stopped at 40 drops and it's still stayed yellow
Alkalinity 90 PPM

Please help me!
 
When you have an overwhelming task, break it up into manageable tasks.

Your FC test seems correct but re-do it and report the results. JUST DO TH FC TEST - nothing else Disregard all other tests.

When you report your result, tell us what you think about your result....is it normal? Is it too high? (ABC's of Pool Water chemistry will give you the correct range)

Once FC is solved, we'll walk you through the next test......one step at a time easy peasey.
 
When you have an overwhelming task, break it up into manageable tasks.

Your FC test seems correct but re-do it and report the results. JUST DO TH FC TEST - nothing else Disregard all other tests.

When you report your result, tell us what you think about your result....is it normal? Is it too high? (ABC's of Pool Water chemistry will give you the correct range)

Once FC is solved, we'll walk you through the next test......one step at a time easy peasey.
Thank you you have put my mind at ease already and eliminated all the things spinning around in my head. I will take another free chlorine reading and let you know.
 
If you don't get the water to turn pink after 1 or 2 scoops of the powder then that means you have no "Free Chlorine" or FC. If it doesn't turn pink after 2 scoops I wouldn't waste the powder as that is one of those reagents that disappear quickly. Add an appropriate amount of chlorine/bleach to raise it to 3ppm or so and then test again after about 15 minutes. It should turn pink rather quickly after 1 or 2 scoops and assuming you have any FC at all.
 

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For the 10ml water sample, with an expected maintenance level FC, you only need 1 scoop. If it does not turn pink, your FC is 0.
You can use the yellow OTO color matching chlorine test (assuming you go the TF-100) to confirm that.
 
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If you don't get the water to turn pink after 1 or 2 scoops of the powder then that means you have no "Free Chlorine" or FC. If it doesn't turn pink after 2 scoops I wouldn't waste the powder as that is one of those reagents that disappear quickly. Add an appropriate amount of chlorine/bleach to raise it to 3ppm or so and then test again after about 15 minutes. It should turn pink rather quickly after 1 or 2 scoops and assuming you have any FC at all.
Good to know. I just wasted over half of the bottle I guess but that's how we learn right! something's wrong with this stuff anyway it didn't dissolve in the water all the way and was chunky. Thank you for the great advice.
 
Just smash it back up, should be fine. Make sure it stays sealed and dry.
Can you tell me if my neighbor got a sample of my pool water late today and I brought it right into the house and capped it, will it still give me an accurate reading in the morning? I have an inground pool and for several reasons I can't get into the pool to get an 18 in in-depth pool water sample. I got my first sample today myself and then was stuck on the ladder for half hour LOL
 
You should test your water sample right away. FC will be eaten up as it continues to attack biologicals if left too long, even in a sealed container.

Any way you can fashion a plastic measuring cup to a broom handle or yard stick to dip into the water without you having to bend over? A big rubber band or bungie cord should attach it to the stick well enough to grab a sample. You don't need to go to 18" deep either, as close as you can get to 12" is fine, but with a broom handle you could do 18" easily. Sorry to hear you got stuck in the ladder, that sounds terrible!

You may want to get some more DPD powder on order if you used up half the container already. While you're at it, to save with shipping maybe order some more R-0871.
 
If your pump is running and the water is recirculating.. its pretty well mixed, so you can really take it from anywhere. If the pump is not running and the pool has been stagnant for awhile, then you need to get it from 18 inches down to avoid edge effects of the pool. Just for the sake of consistency I take my water sample from the same spot in the pool when the pump is going to insure its mixed.
 
You should test your water sample right away. FC will be eaten up as it continues to attack biologicals if left too long, even in a sealed container.

Any way you can fashion a plastic measuring cup to a broom handle or yard stick to dip into the water without you having to bend over? A big rubber band or bungie cord should attach it to the stick well enough to grab a sample. You don't need to go to 18" deep either, as close as you can get to 12" is fine, but with a broom handle you could do 18" easily. Sorry to hear you got stuck in the ladder, that sounds terrible!

You may want to get some more DPD powder on order if you used up half the container already. While you're at it, to save with shipping maybe order some more R-0871.
thank you for the great ideas. sounds a lot easier than the way I went about it. The reason I couldn't get back up from sitting on the edge of the ladder is my knees are very weak. I did not take that into consideration when I went off for the sample LOL.
well back at it in the morning and thank you so much for your support.
 
If your pump is running and the water is recirculating.. its pretty well mixed, so you can really take it from anywhere. If the pump is not running and the pool has been stagnant for awhile, then you need to get it from 18 inches down to avoid edge effects of the pool. Just for the sake of consistency I take my water sample from the same spot in the pool when the pump is going to insure its mixed.
Good to know that. My pump runs 24/7 so that will make it easier to get a water sample.
 

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