Hi all, I'm totally new to this forum. In all honestly I stumbled across this forum by accident. I literally googled pool frog forums and it took me to former posts from this website. From the former posts, I am fully aware that this is a community of pool owners, operators and people in the pool business who are NOT fans of the Pool Frog tender system. With that being said... please allow me to explain my situation and after that I'm all open ears as far as advice.
Purchased a 27' ft round above ground pool a few months ago from the pool factory. It's technically a saltwater pool (model is actually the saltwater 8000) although I was advised by a friend not to go saltwater with an above ground pool. Pool is 54" inches deep and holds approximately 17,500 gallons of water. I'm running a Aquapro 2 speed cartridge/pump filter system with the pool frog tender system at the outlet.
Please bare with me as this is my first time owning a pool and I've had everyone outside the internet giving me advice.
I come here a bit stumped. Our pool was installed about five weeks ago in June. I have been running the pool frog from day one of filling the pool. I decided to purchase the Taylor K-2006 as a friend recommended it for more accurate testing, rather than using test strips.
Okay so here we go with test results from the K-2006
I started with the CYA followed instructions to a tee. Could not view black dot anymore at 30ppm. So 30 ppm from my understanding is perfect.
Next I tested free chlorine (please keep in mind the kit I purchased I can only test free and combined chlorine with the DPD) by placing 2 dippers of the R-0870 in which the 25ml pool water turned pink. I then added one drop at a time of the R-0871 until the water turned clear. 11 drops total. So from my calculations that's 2.2 ppm of free chlorine correct?
I then added 5 drops of R-0003 to check for combined chlorine. It barely turned pink, so I added 1 drop of R-0871 in which the water turned clear again. So by Taylor's calculation that is 0.2 ppm (if even that) of Combined chlorine. Which again from my understanding is all good.
Did the PH test added 5 drops of R-0004 to 44ml water. PH came back at roughly 7.4
Tested for total alkalinity 11 drops total to get from green to red water so that gave me 110 ppm alkalinity.
Since the Taylor kit I purchased didn't come with the drops to test Total Cholrine I used Aquachek test strips. Which came back at 3 ppm.
BTW the Aquachek test strips were pretty Dang accurate in comparison to the Taylor tests. CYA on the strip also showed 30-50 ppm. The total alkalinity was spot on as well as the PH and the free chlorine.
So here's where I'm baffled. My understanding from my short reads on this forum about the frog system. Is that it is no good because it uses too little chlorine as well as the tablets are trichlor and also uses minerals correct...? As well as increases CYA to very high levels. Again, I'm new to this pool stuff. I talked to my neighbor who has had the same oval AGP going on 19 years. He says he has always used 3" trichlor tablets and shock every 2-3 weeks because of grandkids etc in the pool often. He said he has NEVER had algae or any water related problems. He says I'm overthinking it.
Says he has never used any fancy test kits like the one I bought
I know I'm going to get a lot of responses saying trichlor is no good and it will eventually increase CYA to a unfixable level. My neighbor has been using it for 19 years? So what gives?
Again, I'm open minded. So I'm all ears.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond to my post!
Oh a big FYI as I'm sure many of you know the frog has a dial from 0-10 for the dispense chamber. I've had it set to 3 for a few days here in NY. Today's test results with the K-2006 were done in sunny 80° degree weather.
Purchased a 27' ft round above ground pool a few months ago from the pool factory. It's technically a saltwater pool (model is actually the saltwater 8000) although I was advised by a friend not to go saltwater with an above ground pool. Pool is 54" inches deep and holds approximately 17,500 gallons of water. I'm running a Aquapro 2 speed cartridge/pump filter system with the pool frog tender system at the outlet.
Please bare with me as this is my first time owning a pool and I've had everyone outside the internet giving me advice.
I come here a bit stumped. Our pool was installed about five weeks ago in June. I have been running the pool frog from day one of filling the pool. I decided to purchase the Taylor K-2006 as a friend recommended it for more accurate testing, rather than using test strips.
Okay so here we go with test results from the K-2006
I started with the CYA followed instructions to a tee. Could not view black dot anymore at 30ppm. So 30 ppm from my understanding is perfect.
Next I tested free chlorine (please keep in mind the kit I purchased I can only test free and combined chlorine with the DPD) by placing 2 dippers of the R-0870 in which the 25ml pool water turned pink. I then added one drop at a time of the R-0871 until the water turned clear. 11 drops total. So from my calculations that's 2.2 ppm of free chlorine correct?
I then added 5 drops of R-0003 to check for combined chlorine. It barely turned pink, so I added 1 drop of R-0871 in which the water turned clear again. So by Taylor's calculation that is 0.2 ppm (if even that) of Combined chlorine. Which again from my understanding is all good.
Did the PH test added 5 drops of R-0004 to 44ml water. PH came back at roughly 7.4
Tested for total alkalinity 11 drops total to get from green to red water so that gave me 110 ppm alkalinity.
Since the Taylor kit I purchased didn't come with the drops to test Total Cholrine I used Aquachek test strips. Which came back at 3 ppm.
BTW the Aquachek test strips were pretty Dang accurate in comparison to the Taylor tests. CYA on the strip also showed 30-50 ppm. The total alkalinity was spot on as well as the PH and the free chlorine.
So here's where I'm baffled. My understanding from my short reads on this forum about the frog system. Is that it is no good because it uses too little chlorine as well as the tablets are trichlor and also uses minerals correct...? As well as increases CYA to very high levels. Again, I'm new to this pool stuff. I talked to my neighbor who has had the same oval AGP going on 19 years. He says he has always used 3" trichlor tablets and shock every 2-3 weeks because of grandkids etc in the pool often. He said he has NEVER had algae or any water related problems. He says I'm overthinking it.
Says he has never used any fancy test kits like the one I bought
I know I'm going to get a lot of responses saying trichlor is no good and it will eventually increase CYA to a unfixable level. My neighbor has been using it for 19 years? So what gives?
Again, I'm open minded. So I'm all ears.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond to my post!
Oh a big FYI as I'm sure many of you know the frog has a dial from 0-10 for the dispense chamber. I've had it set to 3 for a few days here in NY. Today's test results with the K-2006 were done in sunny 80° degree weather.
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