New Pool - Alkalinity Off & H2O test discrepencies

[IUsedToSail]

Folks,

We bought a new house a few weeks ago that much to our childrens' delight came with a 16x36 inground pool. Pool maintenance is now my new hobby. I spent several weeks trying to balanced out the chemistry and trying to get the pump to working correctly. Week one in the new house was great - started moving in, grandparents helping out with the kids, everyone enjoying the pool, pleasant dinners on the patios with tiki torches enjoying the mild dry weather. Week two, my parents left, temperatures and humidity soared, the pool turned green, the pump started sucking air, frogs were committing suicide in the pool, and the MIL started lending her "wisdom" - basically it went from Disney Cruise to camping in the Everglades in a rain storm. I was up late every night reading about pool plumbing and ordering gear to replace all of the broken (@#$!) equipment the previous owners left behind. I made so many trips to the pool store (real fun during quarantine) that I'm now on their Christmas card list.

So in short I rebuilt the pump with all new seals, flushed the filter, and temporarily sealed up the suction side PVC joints with some "red hot" glue. The good news it is no longer sucking air (zero bubbles in the volute or from the return), pressure is good, and the pump is now really quiet.

There are several challenges that have perplexed me around the pool chemistry. I started out using the CLOROX system, mainly because it was on the shelf at Wally World. I found the 6 way test strips to be very convenient and the APP that reads and tracks the info a real help. Here enters the issue; the local pool store offers free water analysis using the BioGuard system. My CLOROX strips have been showing that my alkalinity was off the chart, so much so that I want to buy acid from the pool store to bring it down. They had previously ran a test for me and based on my first test insisted on the phone that I bring in another sample for them to run because, not sure why, but apparently I didn't give them a warm fuzzy feeling that I knew what I was doing. Anyway, the BioGuard test showed that my alkalinity was actually low, which matched up with the first test they ran from me two weeks ago.

I've got a whole other set of questions around replacing my current pump and plumbing but I'll save that for another thread and focus on the chemistry.

Here are the results from the Pool Store's BioGuard test:

Saturation Index: Low
pH: 7.5
Free Chlorine: 1.4
Total Alkalinity: 51
Total Chlorine: 1.4
TDS: 600
Calcium Hardness: 190
CYA: 150
Optimizer: 34

They wanted me to add 20lbs of Balance PAK 100 (in thirds over 6 hours) and then follow up the next day with 1.75lbs of Lo'N Slo

Here is my CLOROX 6 way strip test from yesterday:

pH: 7.8
Free Chlorine: 3.0
Total Alkalinity: 240
Total Chlorine: 3.0
TDS: 60
Calcium Hardness: 300

I suspect that everyone is going to tell me to ditch the CLOROX strips and get a real testing kit.... which I'm going to do as soon as I can get my 5 & 7yo to stop wrestling....

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

You already know the answer. Here's why we give it to you.

Clorox Pool & Spa Smart Test Strips - Save your $$

Hello all, So I'm about to go out of town, right as the thermometer toys with hitting triple-digits. To make a long story short, I have to leave my pool in the hands of someone who has little pool care experience. I use and love the TF-100, but I find the colorimetric pH and TC to require...

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Ph Strip vs drop test, severe discrepancy (pic)

Took a Ph test of my pool with both the strip and drop test and they seem to be very different. I imagine the drop test is more accurate, but why the discrepancy? If I'm matching the color right on the drop test, it looks closest to 7.5. How would you interpret the color? Also took the FC test...

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[IUsedToSail]

I'm going to order the TF-100

I have some serious color deficiency vision issues, which is why I was excited about the app.

 

[Richard320]

I'm going to order the TF-100

I have some serious color deficiency vision issues, which is why I was excited about the app.

The only one where the exact shade is critical is the pH test. So you may need to call for help on that. The rest, it's the shade shift. So long as the two colors render as different shades of grey to you, you'll be fine. And there are digital pH testers. I have no firsthand experience with them.

 

[IUsedToSail]

The only one where the exact shade is critical is the pH test. So you may need to call for help on that. The rest, it's the shade shift. So long as the two colors render as different shades of grey to you, you'll be fine. And there are digital pH testers. I have no firsthand experience with them.

I ordered the KF-100 kit... it seems like a better deal than the Taylor kit.

 

[CrystalRiver]

They wanted me to add 20lbs of Balance PAK 100 (in thirds over 6 hours) and then follow up the next day with 1.75lbs of Lo'N Slo

Pool store merry-go-round. Alkalinity up followed by acid to lower the alkalinity. Save yourself some money and just dump some salt in the pool, because that's what you are making.