My current pool test

[Jedisparky]

Hello all,

It's been a minute. Had a great summer of swimming and things were good for a long while. But I may have gotten a little complacent with my maintenance. I'm seeing a spike in my CH as of late and wondering how concerned I should be.


FC 4

TA 50

CH 550

CYA between 50-60 (SO hard to read when the black dot is REALLY gone)

Salt 300

Temp 69 F

I know the CYA is also low, I'll have to add some conditioner. I don't know, I just suddenly thought I needed someone to say "aw no worries you"re fine" or "what the heck is wrong with your pool!" LOL. I suspect something in between. I was also reading about CSI and am still a little confused. I get the the Lollipop-Sugar stick analogy, just cant quite figure out the formula to crunch my numbers in to get the CSI.

Anyway thanks,
Jedisparky

 

[Texas Splash]

Okay Jed, relax and let us help you a bit. First of all, how does your water look? Is it crystal clear with no signs of algae? Also, what is your pH? That is very important to help you with analyzing your overall water condition. Also, tell us if you've added ANY other chlorination products to the water other than letting the SWG work for you. Used any Cal-Hypo by chance?

Let's start there and we can help with that additional info.

 

[Jedisparky]

Oops, I'm such a rookie. PH is 7.4. Ment to put that.

 

[Jedisparky]

And the water looks great. Had an issue a month ago with whit flakes (calcium?) But they seemed to have moved on.

 

[Jedisparky]

And...nothing else added but occasional acid dose to bring down the PH when it starts to climb.

 

[Texas Splash]

Those flakes were probably coming off of the SWG cell plates which is a good thing. I entered your numbers into PoolMath and it appears your CSI is at about -0.34 give or take a few. So the lower TA and pH are helping to offset the elevated CH in your area. That's fine, but I wouldn't let the TA or pH go any lower. With a negative CSI, you should have no new scale accumulation, and we don't want your overall CSI to become corrosive. The colder the water gets, the lower the CSI will try to go as well, so keep an eye on that. Simply input all of your numbers into PoolMath and look to see if your CSI is between zero and (negative) -0.3. In that zone is good. Practice a bit with that tool by changing the pH (which has the most dramatic effect on CSI) to see what different numbers can do.

 

[Jedisparky]

Wow, that's great thanks! Ya, I guess it's the SWG but the PH is the thing that will climb if I dont watch it regularly. I'm putting about a 1/4 gallon of acid a week and just dosed it this AM it was around 8.0. and did all my testing 3 hrs latter.
I'll play around with the pool math calc. I forgot that was there. That's great.

Thanks again!

 

[Texas Splash]

Yes the SWG can contribute to pH increase a bit. But remember some pools settle better with a pH around 7.8-8.0. If it does that's okay too Don't try to fight it too much by driving the pH down too low. It may just naturally climb again. At least right now the cooler temps are working in your favor. Take it slow and just keep an eye on things.

 

[Jedisparky]

Great! Thanks.