Just got my TF100

[mrjetson707]

I just got my test kit and feel like I might have done something wrong. here are the results.

FC=7.5PPM
water stayed clear for the CC
pH=7.5
TA=200
CH=850 or 580 (I'll explain below)
CYA=60

So a couple things. I've been going to leslies since I got my new house with the pool. I have about 10 tests from the past month. Every leslies test has shown TA in the 120-130 range so idk how I got 200 on my test. I re did the test and got the same results. I redid it a 3rd time but filled 25mL with the magnetic stir bar in the cylinder already so it would have been less than 25mL. that result gave me 140 which is pretty close to what leslies was showing.

Now, CH... The card says to add 10mL of pool water then multiply by 25. the video says to have a 25mL sample and multiply by 10. the reagent amount doubled for the video instructions. The card instructions got 34 drops for color change, multiply by 25=850. The video used 58 drops multiply by 10=580. Either way, leslies always gave me results slightly below 300. both of my test numbers seem outrageous. I don't have calcium stains on my pool

CYA from leslies has constantly been in the 120 range. my pool was in really bad shape when I got the house (only 1 month ago) so I know 60 is good, but I feel like my pool has been out of whack so the 120 number seems to make more sense.

here are my last leslies test results from tuesday. I added 16mL muratic acid that night and again the next night. then 1/4 gallon liquid chlorine yesterday (3rd night). Please help explain what's going on here. I plan on going to leslies again tomorrow to get a test and immediately follow up with a test of my own to see the difference

 

[HermanTX]

I would suggest that don't use Leslie's test results as a bench mark. You do not know if your sample was contaminated with the previous test, if the person doing the test took their time and ensured it was done right or if they used the fancy computer test if it has been calibrated. Trust your test results over theirs.
Now practice makes you better, so test your fill water and test your pool water daily or twice a day initially to practice.

The 10ml sample for CH is used to reduce the amount of reagents you have to use. The 25ml sample is for those people that wish to have a little more precision but not really necessary. The test with a non-valid 25ml sample is invalid. Throw that out. In the CH test you may be off by 1 or even 2 drops but not by more than that. Retest again and use that. The color change is straightforward from red to blue (not purple).

Are you using a speed stirrer? That is very helpful for the FC, CC, CH and TA tests.

The CYA test is always more challenging.
This is what I do and find it provides a more consistent result.

Rather than looking down the tube at the black dot and pouring your mixed solution. I suggest you squirt enough in your tube to a specific mark - such a 100. Then look in the tube for the black dot. If you see it, then squirt in more mixture to the 90 mark, then look in the tube for the black dot. Continue this for each decade graduation (i.e. 80, 70, etc.)
On the one you cannot see the dot then the previous mark is your CYA level. So if you saw the black dot at 50 but not at the 40 mark then your CYA is 50. This way you are never putting the solution between 2 graduation marks. You are only looking at the bottom for the black dot at defined graduations.

Furthermore, you are not staring at the black dot constantly and seeing it regardless. I remember my teacher in grade school had us stare at a black dot for 60 secs and then look up and we saw that black dot everywhere we looked - it’s the same effect if you stare down that tube. So the glancing method is much better. Trust your own test results.
Hope this helps.

 

[mrjetson707]

I would suggest that don't use Leslie's test results as a bench mark. You do not know if your sample was contaminated with the previous test, if the person doing the test took their time and ensured it was done right or if they used the fancy computer test if it has been calibrated. Trust your test results over theirs.
Now practice makes you better, so test your fill water and test your pool water daily or twice a day initially to practice.

The 10ml sample for CH is used to reduce the amount of reagents you have to use. The 25ml sample is for those people that wish to have a little more precision but not really necessary. The test with a non-valid 25ml sample is invalid. Throw that out. In the CH test you may be off by 1 or even 2 drops but not by more than that. Retest again and use that. The color change is straightforward from red to blue (not purple).

Are you using a speed stirrer? That is very helpful for the FC, CC, CH and TA tests.

The CYA test is always more challenging.
This is what I do and find it provides a more consistent result.

Rather than looking down the tube at the black dot and pouring your mixed solution. I suggest you squirt enough in your tube to a specific mark - such a 100. Then look in the tube for the black dot. If you see it, then squirt in more mixture to the 90 mark, then look in the tube for the black dot. Continue this for each decade graduation (i.e. 80, 70, etc.)
On the one you cannot see the dot then the previous mark is your CYA level. So if you saw the black dot at 50 but not at the 40 mark then your CYA is 50. This way you are never putting the solution between 2 graduation marks. You are only looking at the bottom for the black dot at defined graduations.

Furthermore, you are not staring at the black dot constantly and seeing it regardless. I remember my teacher in grade school had us stare at a black dot for 60 secs and then look up and we saw that black dot everywhere we looked - it’s the same effect if you stare down that tube. So the glancing method is much better. Trust your own test results.
Hope this helps.
View attachment 374059

yes I have a speed stir. so my TA and CH are really high then? idk what to do from here. I was keeping my FC higher because I thought I had 100+ CYA

 

[Mdragger88]

Just to add to the above info-
most pool stores list “adjusted ta “ on the little printout. This is the actual ta minus a percentage of the cya. For tfpc maintenance purposes you don’t need to do this. PoolMath accounts for all parameters automatically. Just use your actual ta.

TA - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Bperry]

I just got my test kit and feel like I might have done something wrong. here are the results.

FC=7.5PPM
water stayed clear for the CC
pH=7.5
TA=200
CH=850 or 580 (I'll explain below)
CYA=60

So a couple things. I've been going to leslies since I got my new house with the pool. I have about 10 tests from the past month. Every leslies test has shown TA in the 120-130 range so idk how I got 200 on my test. I re did the test and got the same results. I redid it a 3rd time but filled 25mL with the magnetic stir bar in the cylinder already so it would have been less than 25mL. that result gave me 140 which is pretty close to what leslies was showing.

Now, CH... The card says to add 10mL of pool water then multiply by 25. the video says to have a 25mL sample and multiply by 10. the reagent amount doubled for the video instructions. The card instructions got 34 drops for color change, multiply by 25=850. The video used 58 drops multiply by 10=580. Either way, leslies always gave me results slightly below 300. both of my test numbers seem outrageous. I don't have calcium stains on my pool

CYA from leslies has constantly been in the 120 range. my pool was in really bad shape when I got the house (only 1 month ago) so I know 60 is good, but I feel like my pool has been out of whack so the 120 number seems to make more sense.

here are my last leslies test results from tuesday. I added 16mL muratic acid that night and again the next night. then 1/4 gallon liquid chlorine yesterday (3rd night). Please help explain what's going on here. I plan on going to leslies again tomorrow to get a test and immediately follow up with a test of my own to see the difference

Any test where the water sample was measure with the little white speed stir pill in the tube is invalid. If it says 10ml, it needs to really be 10ml.

 

[mrjetson707]

I just got my test kit and feel like I might have done something wrong. here are the results.

FC=7.5PPM
water stayed clear for the CC
pH=7.5
TA=200
CH=850 or 580 (I'll explain below)
CYA=60

So a couple things. I've been going to leslies since I got my new house with the pool. I have about 10 tests from the past month. Every leslies test has shown TA in the 120-130 range so idk how I got 200 on my test. I re did the test and got the same results. I redid it a 3rd time but filled 25mL with the magnetic stir bar in the cylinder already so it would have been less than 25mL. that result gave me 140 which is pretty close to what leslies was showing.

Now, CH... The card says to add 10mL of pool water then multiply by 25. the video says to have a 25mL sample and multiply by 10. the reagent amount doubled for the video instructions. The card instructions got 34 drops for color change, multiply by 25=850. The video used 58 drops multiply by 10=580. Either way, leslies always gave me results slightly below 300. both of my test numbers seem outrageous. I don't have calcium stains on my pool

CYA from leslies has constantly been in the 120 range. my pool was in really bad shape when I got the house (only 1 month ago) so I know 60 is good, but I feel like my pool has been out of whack so the 120 number seems to make more sense.

here are my last leslies test results from tuesday. I added 16mL muratic acid that night and again the next night. then 1/4 gallon liquid chlorine yesterday (3rd night). Please help explain what's going on here. I plan on going to leslies again tomorrow to get a test and immediately follow up with a test of my own to see the difference

so if my TA and CH are really that high, what do I need to do?

 

[mrjetson707]

I would suggest that don't use Leslie's test results as a bench mark. You do not know if your sample was contaminated with the previous test, if the person doing the test took their time and ensured it was done right or if they used the fancy computer test if it has been calibrated. Trust your test results over theirs.
Now practice makes you better, so test your fill water and test your pool water daily or twice a day initially to practice.

The 10ml sample for CH is used to reduce the amount of reagents you have to use. The 25ml sample is for those people that wish to have a little more precision but not really necessary. The test with a non-valid 25ml sample is invalid. Throw that out. In the CH test you may be off by 1 or even 2 drops but not by more than that. Retest again and use that. The color change is straightforward from red to blue (not purple).

Are you using a speed stirrer? That is very helpful for the FC, CC, CH and TA tests.

The CYA test is always more challenging.
This is what I do and find it provides a more consistent result.

Rather than looking down the tube at the black dot and pouring your mixed solution. I suggest you squirt enough in your tube to a specific mark - such a 100. Then look in the tube for the black dot. If you see it, then squirt in more mixture to the 90 mark, then look in the tube for the black dot. Continue this for each decade graduation (i.e. 80, 70, etc.)
On the one you cannot see the dot then the previous mark is your CYA level. So if you saw the black dot at 50 but not at the 40 mark then your CYA is 50. This way you are never putting the solution between 2 graduation marks. You are only looking at the bottom for the black dot at defined graduations.

Furthermore, you are not staring at the black dot constantly and seeing it regardless. I remember my teacher in grade school had us stare at a black dot for 60 secs and then look up and we saw that black dot everywhere we looked - it’s the same effect if you stare down that tube. So the glancing method is much better. Trust your own test results.
Hope this helps.
View attachment 374059

I also noticed my water goes clear for one drop before the color change with TA and CH. should that be my number? 1 drop after that I'll see the color change and 1 drop more makes it solid color change. should the last one be my number?

 

[Sunnydaze]

I also noticed my water goes clear for one drop before the color change with TA and CH. should that be my number? 1 drop after that I'll see the color change and 1 drop more makes it solid color change. should the last one be my number?

You keep adding drops until the last drop made no further difference in color. Then don't count that one.

 

[Mdragger88]

Here are videos of how to perform each test.

TF100TestKit

The TF-100 sets the standard for excellence in Pool Testing Kits. It contains 7 separate tests to give you accurate readings on each important pool water par...

m.youtube.com

 

[mrjetson707]

I was watching videos online and the CYA test they have has a bottle they fill to 7.5 with sample water, then fill to 14 with r-0013. my instructions say fill to bottom of label and then top of label but it's listed at 30 mL. can someone clarify what I need to do? this picture just has sample water in it. do I fil to the 15mL or 30mL mark with r-0013?

 

[mknauss]

Do you have the larger CYA test tube from the TF100 or the smaller CYA test tube from the TF Pro?

 

[mrjetson707]

Do you have the larger CYA test tube from the TF100 or the smaller CYA test tube from the TF Pro?

tf-100

 

[mknauss]

Then fill your mix bottle to the 15 line with pool water and the 30 line with R0013.

 

[mrjetson707]

This is a follow up from yesterday.
I tested my water for the first time at home yesterday. I think I did a couple things wrong.. Here's my results for today.. What advice do you guys have based on my levels here..

FC-6
CC-0 (No color change)
pH-7.5
TA-180
CH-640
CyA-120

 

[mknauss]

Do a drain/exchange of at least 75% of your pool volume to lower the CYA. Or manage it with elevated FC and use winter rains to drain and refill.

 

[mrjetson707]

Do a drain/exchange of at least 75% of your pool volume to lower the CYA. Or manage it with elevated FC and use winter rains to drain and refill.

I'm in CA. We're in a drought so draining and filling isn't really an option. also idk if we'll get winter rains lol

 

[mknauss]

Like I said, then manage your FC at the levels needed. Minimum would be 7.5% of CYA and target is 10% of CYA. If you see rain coming, lower the water level several inches with a submersible pump. Use rain cachement methods like diverters from the roof gutters, etc. Do what you can. In your climate, a CYA of 40-50 ppm is good. Also, what is your tap water CH? Test that.

If you are currently watering any lawns or plants, use pool water when you can for that. Then fill the pool back up with tap water. Do not exclusively water your plants with pool water as the salinity of it might harm the plants, but doing it every other time or so will not hurt them.

 

[an1vrsy]

Is there any chance you have a whole house water softener? Or have you priced getting one, if not? Because you can add soft water as your make up water if you did.

 

[mrjetson707]

Like I said, then manage your FC at the levels needed. Minimum would be 7.5% of CYA and target is 10% of CYA. If you see rain coming, lower the water level several inches with a submersible pump. Use rain cachement methods like diverters from the roof gutters, etc. Do what you can. In your climate, a CYA of 40-50 ppm is good. Also, what is your tap water CH? Test that.

I'll test my tap later today. I am concerned about that cya/fc chart. it says 8ppm minimum but I have a 3yo that loves to swim. how safe will 10ppm be for her being so young?

 

[mknauss]

It is safe to swim in a pool as long as the FC is above minimum and below SLAM level. Your minimum is 9 ppm FC and SLAM level is 47 ppm FC. Anywhere between there is safe to swim in.