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Side note: The garage is a no muriatic acid allowed zone, no exceptions.
New Overwhelmed Pool Owner
- Thread starter Bluelightnin6
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Side note: The garage is a no muriatic acid allowed zone, no exceptions.
Well, upon further research, the expert consensus is NO to long-term trichlor storage in the garage due to corrosion of metals. Corrosion on golf clubs has been observed in less than 3 years. I apologize for the last post, editing it now. Just get a plastic cabinet or big rubber tote and store in shade, careful when opening due to fume build up. Or just sell them on craigslist. Or return.
So in the bucket it is currently in, in a large plastic / rubber tote, under the back deck would be fine? There is a propane grill nearby that though... I only have like 10 of these things and will only use 1 or 2 when i'm on vacation once or twice a year so I don't even want them honestly (after reading about how they raise CYA to unwanted levels). Could I just chuck them in my garbage bin outside? That doesn't seem like safe chemical disposal at all so i'm guessing not. I don't know how much 10 of these are worth and nobody I know personally owns a pool.
with the tote lid on, yes, absolutely great location, since it is open air, doubt the grill is in jeopardy, but ya know, no guarantee.
Alternatively, if no lid, tote upsidedown over sealed bucket probably okay too.
According to PoolMath, for 13.6k gallons, each 8oz puck adds cya 2.4 - which is actually a pretty convenient amount because most pools in use see roughly 1-3ppm CYA reduction a month due to backwashes/splashout. Each puck only gives you 4 FC, but still, that's helpful on a vacation. Those amounts are once the tab is totally dissolved, of course, but if you bring pool up to shock before you leave and float some tabs, it can be surprisingly effective as long as your CYA isn't sky high.
If you wish to abandon them, in my county we have household hazardous waste collection free for residents with either drivers license or vehicle tag as proof. The do drop off sites from time to time, but 365 days a year drop off at landfill special drive through for free, including paint, batteries, lightbulbs, pool chems, cleaning chems, tvs, etc . Your county may do it differently. I've also heard of people dropping them off to pool stores who have accepted it for free...probably employee taking it home to their CYA 7000 pool, thinking it will solve their green tint....
Alternatively, if no lid, tote upsidedown over sealed bucket probably okay too.
According to PoolMath, for 13.6k gallons, each 8oz puck adds cya 2.4 - which is actually a pretty convenient amount because most pools in use see roughly 1-3ppm CYA reduction a month due to backwashes/splashout. Each puck only gives you 4 FC, but still, that's helpful on a vacation. Those amounts are once the tab is totally dissolved, of course, but if you bring pool up to shock before you leave and float some tabs, it can be surprisingly effective as long as your CYA isn't sky high.
If you wish to abandon them, in my county we have household hazardous waste collection free for residents with either drivers license or vehicle tag as proof. The do drop off sites from time to time, but 365 days a year drop off at landfill special drive through for free, including paint, batteries, lightbulbs, pool chems, cleaning chems, tvs, etc . Your county may do it differently. I've also heard of people dropping them off to pool stores who have accepted it for free...probably employee taking it home to their CYA 7000 pool, thinking it will solve their green tint....
Pucks are useful for increasing your CYA if it gets low. We are having a lot of rain here so I have to keep draining water out of the pool (causing CYA to lower) and so I've had pucks floating for weeks. Just check CYA level to be sure it's not getting high. They are also useful for lowing Ph.
Ditto just over here to your West, chipchip! Drain or overflow - just another July in Florida!
Might not have this problem in KY though...
Might not have this problem in KY though...
Got my tf-100 today . Water is still crystal clear but I work evenings and can only run the pump a couple hours before heading to work. I'm afraid of leaving it on when I'm not home.. here are the results i got.
total chlorine - 1
ph 7.5 - not sure how accurate this is, the colors still look the same to me except the very bottom and top of the scale
ta 200 - took 20 drops to change to pink at the 25 ml mark
cya <20 - did this twice and both times the dot was visible until the cylinder was overflowing
ch - didn't test since you said it's not needed for my pool
did I miss anything?
total chlorine - 1
ph 7.5 - not sure how accurate this is, the colors still look the same to me except the very bottom and top of the scale
ta 200 - took 20 drops to change to pink at the 25 ml mark
cya <20 - did this twice and both times the dot was visible until the cylinder was overflowing
ch - didn't test since you said it's not needed for my pool
did I miss anything?
Congratulations!
I'll run these one at a time, but nothing is life or death! YAY!
TC - two things - one here and one at the end - you need to add bleach I suggest 60oz when you next have time, we'll retest according to instructions at the end of this post later.
PH - GREAT! No change needed. - since everything 7.2-7.8 is perfect, you're really just making sure it is in that range, exactly what it is, doesn't so much matter (except in advanced cases, which you aren't at the moment)
TA - Totally fine, no change is needed at the moment - you can do this with the 10mL sample size and drop instructions now that we have a good read on it
CH - go ahead and do this one whenever you have time just to make sure you're not out of the okay range - also, on this and the TA test, you keep going until a drop doesn't make it any darker (then you don't count that drop that caused no change). Test isn't done until it does not get darker color change. ( i did it wrong for weeks lol, stopping at first drop of color change)
CYA - YAY! No surprises, I love it! PoolMath said the 2lbs you added would bring you to 18, plus any trichlor or dichlor you used, so we're where we expected! So, in order to have more protection from the sun burning up your FC, we want to ADD STABILIZER if you have any left, or if you want to buy some, or if you don't have any and want to use up some of the pucks, 5 pucks can go in the floater, if you have one, but not in the skimmer. I buy the HTH 4lb stabilizer jug at walmart for like $13-16 bucks before tax. You'll want to add maybe 1.5 lbs if you go stabilizer route, which is what I'd do since it dissolves in hours not days like the pucks, and the pucks will drop pH too, but in your pool I think you'll get away with it since you have high TA and we can aerate for free PH up if needed. I wrote too much. Just to be clear, not life or death but we do want to get CYA up to 30-40 to save you money on bleach.
So back to TC:
You got two different tests that test chlorine - OTO and FAS-DPD. We need the FAS-DPD one done now please, which will give you:
FC:
CC:
here are the extended instructions and the VIDEO on how to get them. You can use the 10mL water sample size and instructions to save money! Yay!
I'll run these one at a time, but nothing is life or death! YAY!
TC - two things - one here and one at the end - you need to add bleach I suggest 60oz when you next have time, we'll retest according to instructions at the end of this post later.
PH - GREAT! No change needed. - since everything 7.2-7.8 is perfect, you're really just making sure it is in that range, exactly what it is, doesn't so much matter (except in advanced cases, which you aren't at the moment)
TA - Totally fine, no change is needed at the moment - you can do this with the 10mL sample size and drop instructions now that we have a good read on it
CH - go ahead and do this one whenever you have time just to make sure you're not out of the okay range - also, on this and the TA test, you keep going until a drop doesn't make it any darker (then you don't count that drop that caused no change). Test isn't done until it does not get darker color change. ( i did it wrong for weeks lol, stopping at first drop of color change)
CYA - YAY! No surprises, I love it! PoolMath said the 2lbs you added would bring you to 18, plus any trichlor or dichlor you used, so we're where we expected! So, in order to have more protection from the sun burning up your FC, we want to ADD STABILIZER if you have any left, or if you want to buy some, or if you don't have any and want to use up some of the pucks, 5 pucks can go in the floater, if you have one, but not in the skimmer. I buy the HTH 4lb stabilizer jug at walmart for like $13-16 bucks before tax. You'll want to add maybe 1.5 lbs if you go stabilizer route, which is what I'd do since it dissolves in hours not days like the pucks, and the pucks will drop pH too, but in your pool I think you'll get away with it since you have high TA and we can aerate for free PH up if needed. I wrote too much. Just to be clear, not life or death but we do want to get CYA up to 30-40 to save you money on bleach.
So back to TC:
You got two different tests that test chlorine - OTO and FAS-DPD. We need the FAS-DPD one done now please, which will give you:
FC:
CC:
here are the extended instructions and the VIDEO on how to get them. You can use the 10mL water sample size and instructions to save money! Yay!
You have been such a huge help to me! I was panicking over the TA at 200, i thought it was supposed to be at 150 and I really didn't want to buy muratic acid. That stuff seems extremely dangerous and I'm a little on the accident prone side, plus I have nowhere to store it (safely). As I said, I work evening shift so I'm actually at work right now (shhhhhhh... ). I am going to test all of these again tomorrow (mostly for practice, also to ensure accuracy). I didn't realize the kit had 2 chlorine tests, I used the one in the blue box. I don't have a floater device so I'll just get the HTH stabilizer from wal-mart...and a pair of white socks I guess , I only have black socks lol I'll post all results again tomorrow some time. Thanks again!
). I am going to test all of these again tomorrow (mostly for practice, also to ensure accuracy). I didn't realize the kit had 2 chlorine tests, I used the one in the blue box. I don't have a floater device so I'll just get the HTH stabilizer from wal-mart...and a pair of white socks I guess , I only have black socks lol I'll post all results again tomorrow some time. Thanks again!
So i've been reading and seeing my TA should be around 100, not 200. Should I not worry about lowering it?
Black socks work fine, might be slightly bleached, or degraded, don't know. Only used old ones myself.
TA isn't inherently evil or anything, but the higher the TA the more common it is to have PH that rises above 7.8, requiring acid additions to keep in the ideal swim and sanitizer friendly range if 7.2-7.8. If you don't have high PH issues, and your CSI value on PoolMath is between -.3 and .3 then TA isn't hurting anyone. We'll get to CSI after we get your CYA and FC right.
Your TA could be fine, or we might suggest acid, dry or MA, to reduce. If there isn't a reason for you to spend money, no one here will suggest you spend it just for numbers to be "perfect." Good enough is good enough. Right now, it is good enough.
The OTO test is a nice thing to have on hand for certain situations, but not yours right now Right now we just need the FAS-DPD results for FC and CC when you next test. Be sure to have the pump running 20-30 mins before testing.
TA isn't inherently evil or anything, but the higher the TA the more common it is to have PH that rises above 7.8, requiring acid additions to keep in the ideal swim and sanitizer friendly range if 7.2-7.8. If you don't have high PH issues, and your CSI value on PoolMath is between -.3 and .3 then TA isn't hurting anyone. We'll get to CSI after we get your CYA and FC right.
Your TA could be fine, or we might suggest acid, dry or MA, to reduce. If there isn't a reason for you to spend money, no one here will suggest you spend it just for numbers to be "perfect." Good enough is good enough. Right now, it is good enough.
The OTO test is a nice thing to have on hand for certain situations, but not yours right now
Right now we just need the FAS-DPD results for FC and CC when you next test. Be sure to have the pump running 20-30 mins before testing.
I tested before turning the pump on earlier today so maybe those numbers were inaccurate. Nonetheless, I will be testing again tomorrow. I'm off on weekends so I'll have all weekend to play with my new chemistry set, hopefully I won't have to practice too much and use up a bunch of the testing chemicals before I get the hang of it.
Practice using 10mL sample size on CH, TA, and FC - not 25mL.
When doing CYA test, you can pour back from test tube back into mixing bottle and retest the cya reading using the same water over and over. You can keep sample for up (maybe over) a week in case it isn't sunny when you take the sample. Mix one batch, re-test 100 times!
You can practice the OTO test too. It and PH are probably the cheapest to refill.
CH test is similar to TA test as far as until the color doesn't get darker, then minus the last drop that didn't make it darker, so CH test kinda counts as practicing TA test
Instead of doing FC/CC test over and over, just do it every 30 mins or 2 hrs - then add enough bleach to top it off, if any is needed....you can kind of tell yourself it serves a purpose
When doing CYA test, you can pour back from test tube back into mixing bottle and retest the cya reading using the same water over and over. You can keep sample for up (maybe over) a week in case it isn't sunny when you take the sample. Mix one batch, re-test 100 times!
You can practice the OTO test too. It and PH are probably the cheapest to refill.
CH test is similar to TA test as far as until the color doesn't get darker, then minus the last drop that didn't make it darker, so CH test kinda counts as practicing TA test
Instead of doing FC/CC test over and over, just do it every 30 mins or 2 hrs - then add enough bleach to top it off, if any is needed....you can kind of tell yourself it serves a purpose
So at 10 ml how many drops do I use ? Are there instructions anywhere for 10ml? The laminated instructions that came with the kit say 25ml on all the test instructions.
I love Pool School! So much great stuff! Each test has its own page with extended directions, should you wish to go from newbie to master!
https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/213-extended-test-kit-directions
https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/213-extended-test-kit-directions
I was never good with reading directions �� Found it soon as I asked lol
Here are are the results , 1 hour after adding 121oz 8.25% bleach with pump running. TA is 50 less today, is that because the pump wasn't running yesterday before I took the sample??
FC 5.5
CC 0
CH 200
TA 150
PH 7.5
CYA same (20 or less), haven't added stabilizer yet
Can me and my nephew swim today?! Water is so clear and weather is perfect!
EDIT FOR ADDITION: pool math app says my CSI is 0.04
Here are are the results , 1 hour after adding 121oz 8.25% bleach with pump running. TA is 50 less today, is that because the pump wasn't running yesterday before I took the sample??
FC 5.5
CC 0
CH 200
TA 150
PH 7.5
CYA same (20 or less), haven't added stabilizer yet
Can me and my nephew swim today?! Water is so clear and weather is perfect!
EDIT FOR ADDITION: pool math app says my CSI is 0.04
You can do anything you set your mind to - decide to get good and don't negotiate about it! You got this!
Samples often don't represent the entire pool unless the water has been circulating for 20-30 minutes, depending on circulation of the given pool. When in doubt, 30mins, and always trust results of a well circulated pool.
PH is in range, water is crystal clear and sparkling, FC is above min and below shock for cya, you can see the bottom of the pool everywhere, and it has been 20-30 mins since last addition of acid or bleach
In my non expert opinion, but with the full confidence of my opinion, I hereby declare it swim time! Get that SPF 30+ sunscreen on, wait 15 mins, and get in that pool!
If you only have one skimmer basket, be sure no one completely blocks it, for motor health and human safety
common sense, but hey, worth a mention.
I've been enjoying watching the diamonds dance along the bottom of my pool , knowing I can safely swim literally anytime I want to is such an amazing feeling! I'll be donating to TFP soon as payday rolls around lol now that I have the good self experience , looks like my monthly cost is around $25 a month for chlorine , that's keeping it at 3.5 to 4 each day. I can easily live with that ! I added 2 lbs of stabilizer 2 days ago and tested today. It's higher than it was (less than 20) but it's still only showing around 25 to 30 (that's when the dot is completely gone, back towards sun). Should I give it a few more days then test again? I sure don't want high CYA levels so I'm not adding anymore at this time.
now that I have the good self experience , looks like my monthly cost is around $25 a month for chlorine , that's keeping it at 3.5 to 4 each day. I can easily live with that ! I added 2 lbs of stabilizer 2 days ago and tested today. It's higher than it was (less than 20) but it's still only showing around 25 to 30 (that's when the dot is completely gone, back towards sun). Should I give it a few more days then test again? I sure don't want high CYA levels so I'm not adding anymore at this time.Similar threads
