Hi everyone,
We installed an inground pool late in the season last year and closed before we had a chance to use it. The pool company did the full opening a couple of weeks ago, shocking the pool and adding salt, hooking up all equipment, installing auto cover etc. Yesterday I had not yet added anything to the pool and took in a water sample. Without going into details and reliving my frustration , I now can fully appreciate why I want to test my own water. Here are the stats of my pool:
Zodiac Nature2 SWG
14 x 30 vinyl liner
11,700 US Gal/44,300 Litres
Filter cartridge
Before going to the pool store I tested with a 2 way kit that came with the pool (only thing I had on hand). My chlorine appeared to be around 4, and pH seemed a bit high around 8. I live in Canada, Taylor test kits are a pain to locate here, so I thought I'd get a test at the store before deep diving into my own testing. Regrets...
It had been raining quite a bit here the past couple days but I have an auto cover. I had the pump running on top of the cover so I only opened the pool enough to grab a water sample by the stairs - I realize that this was likely not the ideal spot for the sample. Previously I had been testing with my 2 way in middle of pool away from return valves.
Pool store results came back:
FC 0.5
TC 0.5
CC 0
PH 8
Hardness 100
Alkalinity 80
CYA not run (she ran out of water from my test sample so did not run anything else, she was new, wasted a bunch of the test sample, etc. )
They told me my salt was at 2000 however my readout at home is closer to 3200. The pool store tester had never done a salt water test before, she needed help, had to do it twice, and I'm still still not sure she knew what she was doing. As salt had just been added to our pool, I wanted to test myself before dumping in more salt.
She had me purchase pH minus (sodium bisulfate), Alkalinity plus, Cal plus and liquid chlorine.
After mixing the first of three increments of dry acid (220g) with water and dumping in the deep end I started to get concerned about all the information I was given so started reading. I opened the manual for my Jandy and of course then learned muriatic acid should be used not dry acid. I'm not going to stress about this as I don't think I added that much dry acid at this point and I don't live in an arid climate here. I will not add any further dry acid going forward.
Next steps -
I ordered the following from a company in Ontario with an estimated delivery date of next Wednesday
Taylor K-2006 plus add on of the following:
2oz R-0013
2oz R-0871
10g R-0870
Aquachek White Salt test strips
First question - what should I do before my test kit arrives? Can I just leave the pool for now as is, or should I buy some test strips in the interim to monitor the chlorine, or just continue using the 2 way test that came with the pool?
Second question - do I worry about low hardness if my pool has a vinyl liner? We have stamped concrete as our pool deck.
Thank you so much for reading and any assistance you can offer!
Cindy
We installed an inground pool late in the season last year and closed before we had a chance to use it. The pool company did the full opening a couple of weeks ago, shocking the pool and adding salt, hooking up all equipment, installing auto cover etc. Yesterday I had not yet added anything to the pool and took in a water sample. Without going into details and reliving my frustration , I now can fully appreciate why I want to test my own water. Here are the stats of my pool:
Zodiac Nature2 SWG
14 x 30 vinyl liner
11,700 US Gal/44,300 Litres
Filter cartridge
Before going to the pool store I tested with a 2 way kit that came with the pool (only thing I had on hand). My chlorine appeared to be around 4, and pH seemed a bit high around 8. I live in Canada, Taylor test kits are a pain to locate here, so I thought I'd get a test at the store before deep diving into my own testing. Regrets...
It had been raining quite a bit here the past couple days but I have an auto cover. I had the pump running on top of the cover so I only opened the pool enough to grab a water sample by the stairs - I realize that this was likely not the ideal spot for the sample. Previously I had been testing with my 2 way in middle of pool away from return valves.
Pool store results came back:
FC 0.5
TC 0.5
CC 0
PH 8
Hardness 100
Alkalinity 80
CYA not run (she ran out of water from my test sample so did not run anything else, she was new, wasted a bunch of the test sample, etc. )
They told me my salt was at 2000 however my readout at home is closer to 3200. The pool store tester had never done a salt water test before, she needed help, had to do it twice, and I'm still still not sure she knew what she was doing. As salt had just been added to our pool, I wanted to test myself before dumping in more salt.
She had me purchase pH minus (sodium bisulfate), Alkalinity plus, Cal plus and liquid chlorine.
After mixing the first of three increments of dry acid (220g) with water and dumping in the deep end I started to get concerned about all the information I was given so started reading. I opened the manual for my Jandy and of course then learned muriatic acid should be used not dry acid. I'm not going to stress about this as I don't think I added that much dry acid at this point and I don't live in an arid climate here. I will not add any further dry acid going forward.
Next steps -
I ordered the following from a company in Ontario with an estimated delivery date of next Wednesday
Taylor K-2006 plus add on of the following:
2oz R-0013
2oz R-0871
10g R-0870
Aquachek White Salt test strips
First question - what should I do before my test kit arrives? Can I just leave the pool for now as is, or should I buy some test strips in the interim to monitor the chlorine, or just continue using the 2 way test that came with the pool?
Second question - do I worry about low hardness if my pool has a vinyl liner? We have stamped concrete as our pool deck.
Thank you so much for reading and any assistance you can offer!
Cindy
