Newbie looking for advice

[kellerman84]

Hi all,

I just recently took over my pool from my builder and am working on getting the water chemistry correct. I am new to this and have read the ABC's (still a little confusing to me). I have the TF pool kit and tested my water for the first time last week. Since I am new to this I took my time. I was curious to see how close I was at testing my own water so I also took a sample to my local Leslies pools and had them do a test as well. Here are the results.

Test I did on 3/29/2020
FC - 5
TA - 200 ppm
CH - 350 ppm
Salt -2800 ppm
CYA - 0
pH 7.8
TC- 5

Leslies pool results
FC - 3ppm
TA - 120
CH - 140
Salt - 2800 ppm
CYA - 0
pH - 7.6
TC - 3

Results i did myself on 4/6/2020
FC - 9.5
TA - 140 ppm
CH - 450 ppm
Salt 3200 ppm
CYA - 0
pH - 8.2
TC - 10
On Leslies pool printout it recommended that I add Calcium hardness plus, some pool conditioner for the CYA, and some salt to get my PPM up. The only thing I have added was a 40lb bag of salt. The leslie pool said the CYA wasnt as critical and recommends only adding it to outdoor uncovered pools( mine is covered when not in use),and 1 lb chlora brite shock since we have swam in it a few times. Any advice or things I can do to make sure I am doing my tests properly. Also on one of the tests(I believe the alkilinity) it says to drop the drops until the color changes to red. my color changes to a pinkish color, would that be the stopping point.

 

[Texas Splash]

First thing to remember .... avoid pol store testing. Their results will only confuse and baffle you. No kidding. Its's amazing the things they come up with. If your number are the ones on the right, then I would say the following:
- Get CYA in there ASAP. You need some stabilizer, even if the pool is covered. Chlorine with no CYA is extremely harsh. You have a salt pool, but the water temp may still be below 60? Or is the SWG running? Either way, let the FC fall a bit to about 5-6. If you do not have the SWG running, increase the CYA to 30. If the SWG is running, increase the CYA to about 40-50 for now. You'll probably want a CYA of 70 in the summer. Maybe 50-60 if the pool is covered most of the time. But for now, at least 30.

You don't need anymore calcium in that pool. There's no plaster to erode in your pool and you don't want scale on the SWG or pool shell. Lower the pH to about 7.6. You should also work on bringing the TA down a bit to about 70 or so, but you can work on that slowly in time. Not a big rush. Hope that helps. Next time, just post your own numbers and it will be easier for us to read. Let us know if you have any questions at all.

 

[kellerman84]

I do have a salt pool and it is currently running. Good to know. I tried to have them spaced out more but it looks like it combined them. I didn't even realize that until you said something. is there something that will decrease the calcium hardness. How do you tell how much CYA to add?

 

[kellerman84]

Also should I go by the manufactures recommended levels or the recommended levels of TFP? Their recommended levels are closer to the minimum levels on TFP. It is a fiberglass leisure pool.

 

[Texas Splash]

So here's the deal on recommended levels. Most FG manufactures publish a standard levels chart. It's very basic and certainly does not account for variables that impact a pool. It's just a cookie-cutter standard. You will find that TFP recommended levels are slightly different because we tailor those levels for each pool type, method of chlorination, etc. I can also tell you that you'll be hard-pressed to find a FG manufacture that will honor their warranty, especially if you don't have consistent testing from a pool store (which we know are useless). But they have to cover their interests, I get that. So if you chose to get store testing for your warranty records, fine, but don't take their advice. Otherwise they'll tell you to add calcium to a FG pool that doesn't need it, or to use tabs/pucks until your CYA is out of control, or use pH Down or Alkalinity Up which are over-priced and often times not required.

As for CH specifically, it can only be lowered by changing water. If we split the difference of your two tests, it's around 400. That's plenty and still manageable. Over time with water exchanges from splashout, heavy rain/monsoon season, and/or winter accumulations, it will slowly fall as long as your local fill water isn't too hard. With an SWG, just make sure to test pH every 2-3 days to ensure the pH hasn't reached 8.0 or above in the swimming season. An elevated pH can result in scale. If you use the PoolMath tool or APP, it will help as well.

Feel free to fire-back ANY questions you have. We'll coach you through it and can show you more pages here on TFP that speak about a specific topic.

 

[kellerman84]

Thank you so much! I've been reading alot and at first it is all overwhelming. I know with this forum I hopefully get the hang of it.

 

[Texas Splash]

I know with this forum I hopefully get the hang of it.

You will. Give all this a few days and you'll be good in no time.

 

[mknauss]

Looking at a city of St George water analysis your water is considered 'hard'. Appears to be around 16gpg. That is about 250 ppm CH. Give or take.

Your CH level will rise as you fill the pool due to evaporation. You can manage this up to a CH of 800 or a little higher. Then you will need to do a full exchange of your pool water to fresh.

 

[kellerman84]

Looking at a city of St George water analysis your water is considered 'hard'. Appears to be around 16gpg. That is about 250 ppm CH. Give or take.

Your CH level will rise as you fill the pool due to evaporation. You can manage this up to a CH of 800 or a little higher. Then you will need to do a full exchange of your pool water to fresh.

As in a drain and refill kind of exchange?

 

[kellerman84]

As far as testing for the calcium. With my TF test kit it wants you to change the color from red to blue. When I test it it changes from red to a purplish blue color then to blue...is it suppose to do that or do I stop when it changes to the purplish blue.

 

[mknauss]

Yes. I do an exchange of my pool water to fresh about every 16-18 months. Your evaporation should not be quite as high, but with your hot days and cooler nights, you may find you do have significant evaporation. I use a solar cover in April/May and Sept/Oct when the pool water is warmer than the overnight temperatures.

You go until the color changes to blue. See the Note on Fading Endpoint in Calcium Hardness - Trouble Free Pool

 

[kellerman84]

Thanks I dont remember reading that fading endpoint. I will try that tomorrow.

 

[kellerman84]

Can you add cya and muric acid at same time? If not how long should I wait in between?