Newbie on SWCG - help!

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Good. See if it's come up from 50 since last tested, before you add more. One of us is confused. I thought you were adding CYA via the pucks (if they are CYA based, you are adding CYA along with the FC in the tabs, in case you didn't know that). And if you're also adding using liquid again, or granules, you gotta be careful about what the end result will be. Liquid will mix in and show up faster than granules or CYA from tabs. That's what I meant by "Depending on how you add it, the type of CYA and your circulation." Those factors determine how soon you can reliably test for CYA.
 
Dirk said:
Good. See if it's come up from 50 since last tested, before you add more. One of us is confused. I thought you were adding CYA via the pucks (if they are CYA based, you are adding CYA along with the FC in the tabs, in case you didn't know that). And if you're also adding using liquid again, or granules, you gotta be careful about what the end result will be. Liquid will mix in and show up faster than granules or CYA from tabs. That's what I meant by "Depending on how you add it, the type of CYA and your circulation." Those factors determine how soon you can reliably test for CYA.
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Ugh, lol. Darn it. Yet another learned lesson. I didn't realize that the Trichlor tabs included CYA. Blah. I know I undershot my CYA by about 30% in the first place when I added the liquid, so hopefully I didn't overshoot. I didn't realize that I needed to use Bleach or something. Well, I will go test now and see where CYA and FC are at. I had not tested CYA after I added the pucks the first time. That said, based on some preliminary calls here I think Im gonna be OK.
 
You didn't ask, but that's never stopped me before! 🤪 You should slooooooow down. Get your FC up using only liquid chlorine or bleach, wait a few days, even a week, and retest the CYA. There is no rush as long as you keep FC up. Then you'll know what CYA there actually is, and you can use Pool Math to determine how much more you'll need to get you to your target, if any. Pool Math can calculate CYA for the liquid, the granules and the pucks, too.
 
Thanks @Dirk - I thought I WAS going slow lol. Actually, I think I'm fine now.

FC is darker than the 3-6 ppm and lighter than the 5-10ppm on my test kit, so I guess I'm around... 6ppm?
pH holding at 7.1-7.2
CYA at 38ppm which is weird considering I thought I tested at 50 before and have added CYA since. I suspect I was inside the first time, and this time in full sun it was easier to see the black dot? I don't like that test, it is too subjective :)

I'll keep FC up with bleach targeting 5ppm over the next week, and slowly increase CYA with liquid after that (a week out). I'll let the pH build up to 8 and hit it with MA again to bring the TA down.
 
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Everybody hates that test! For all you know, you could have sampled a "CYA-rich" pocket of your water before it all got mixed in. More likely user test error.

I have no idea what "FC is darker than the 3-6 ppm and lighter than the 5-10ppm on my test kit, so I guess I'm around... 6ppm?" means. The K-2006's FC test is counting drops, not comparing colors. So ya lost me there. And ph 7.1 is low, you really need to look at the links I gave you. And you can't measure CYA at 38 with the 2006, so ya got me stumped there, too. If I didn't know better, I'd guess you're mixing pool store results with K-2006 results with yet some other test kit results. Which makes it near-impossible for me or Texas Splash to give you any meaningful help.

Keep studying, keep testing, keep your FC up. Gotta go...
 
Sorry @Dirk - my wife ran by the pool store with the instructions to pick up a K-2006 (Leslies 81329) but as it turns out, I just realized that what they sold her was not that. It's Leslie's "Total Poolcare DPD Test Kit" and all results have come from that (except my first post which was a test strip). My FC test is 5 drops each of 2 reagents and matching against color.

On my pH, earlier in this thread @Texas Splash advised me on my very high TA (300ppm) and the direction was to bring the pH down to around 7.2 with MA, let it rise naturally with agitation over time, rinse and repeat until TA was down to a more reasonable number. So that's why it's where it is.

On the CYA, it's the test with the black dot in the bottom of the tube, adding 7mL of water to 8mL of reagent, mixing, then adding to tube until black dot just disappears. I got 38ppm on this test which I trust more than earlier because I sampled 12" down and was just more careful, and had done it before.
 
Thanks
mknauss said:
That test kit is only good to 5 ppm FC. And even then, not accurately.
Add FAS/DPD Chlorine & CC's test
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Ah well, I'm learning multiple lessons a day here. Until 15 minutes ago I thought I was using the 2006 test kit. Well... looking now I can see why it's not very accurate compared to the 2006 test kit, but it's what I have right now and I can't get ahold of a better kit for at least a few days. So for now, if I'm showing a color darker than the 3-6ppm box but lighter than the 5-10ppm box - how should I interpret that. Thank you... o_O
 
The '6' and '10' you are referring to is if you are testing Bromine. You are not. The chlorine is 3 and 5 that you are referring to. Your FC might be about 4 ppm.
 

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Shane112358 said:
On my pH, earlier in this thread @Texas Splash advised me on my very high TA (300ppm) and the direction was to bring the pH down to around 7.2 with MA, let it rise naturally with agitation over time, rinse and repeat until TA was down to a more reasonable number. So that's why it's where it is.
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That is my bad. Do follow the advice of the experts here (not me!), especially when it comes to the chemistry. That's what I meant by "too many cooks." Texas Splash and Marty know their stuff!
 
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OK so here is where I'm at today, I had not checked it since Friday...

FC 0.5
pH 7.5
TA 200
CYA 40

On pH and TA I'm trending in the right direction. Will let pH increase again to 8 then knock it down with MA and that should bring my TA down to around 100.

On FC, gosh. So I went from 4ppm to 0.5ppm in 4 days with the SWCG running for 5 hours per day. Does that seem right?

Either way since my CYA has been consistent around 35-50 in all tests I'm going to bump it up to around 60 using 2 quarts of Liquid, and also just added ~80oz of 6% Bleach to get my FC up to 5.0.
 
Shane112358 said:
So I went from 4ppm to 0.5ppm in 4 days with the SWCG running for 5 hours per day. Does that seem right?
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Absolutely. I'm surprised you had any left at all. Keep bumping up the SWG setting, or it's runtime until it holds your FC. You can't let it go four days until you get it dialed in. Test everyday. Dose with liquid to restore FC if it's down. Adjust SWG. Repeat that everyday until FC holds.
 
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