New Pool Owner Balancing Order Questions

[Rex D.]

Hi TFP!

Firstly, thank you to everyone involved in this community - as a new pool owner the knowledge I've gained reading through the forums has been invaluable. I'm a first time pool owner with two little kids and am really concerned the pool is safe for them to swim in. I just got my TF-100 kit in, signed up for premium Pool Math and ran my tests. Based on the results I have to bring my CH up, TA down and FC up. I'm assuming bringing the TA down will mean I will then also need to increase the PH. Is there any order I should be proceeding with in making these adjustments? My TA seems really high based on the Pool Math recommendations so I'm not sure if I need to lower this piecemeal to not plummet the PH. Any help is greatly appreciated!

One other thing that keeps me up at night - there's no concern with little kids swimming in FC of 6-7 ppm?

FC - 5
CC - 0.5
PH - 7.8
TA - 130
CH - 250
CYA - 80

Thanks!
Rex

 

[HermanTX]

Welcome to TFP.
With a CYA of 80 you really need your FC at 5 to 6 and it is safe to swim. In fact you can even go to 10ppm.
FC is always the first priority, especially in summer where UV is eating away at your FC constantly.

To lower your TA, it may take days or even a week. Thus you have to keep your FC at the right level daily. And that is easy to do with your liquid chlorine (LC). For lowering your TA you would add sufficient muriatic acid (MA) to lower your pH to 7.2 then let the pH rise back up. Each dose of MA also reduces your TA in addition to your pH. When pH rises again to 7.8 then dose again with MA and repeat the process. Yo do not state if you have a spa or an overflow to the pool from the spa. You want to aerate your pool water to increase pH but it will not increase TA. A water feature, a spa spillover or just splashing in the pool will cause aeration.

You are close to minimum on CH. So you can add that in small doses as you do not want to overshoot your target CH level. Furthermore, if your fill water contains CH ( you need to test your fill water), you can add that to your pool due to evaporation and that will slowly increase your overall CH.
Good Luck and happy you found TFP.

 

[mknauss]

One other thing that keeps me up at night - there's no concern with little kids swimming in FC of 6-7 ppm?

A good write up on the FC/CYA relationship.

CYA Chlorine Relationship - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com