I fired our pool guy last week, mainly because we are trying to save money and decided we aren't stupid and SHOULD be able to do this ourselves. Well, week 1 and I do feel stupid. Ha. I had bought some cheap test strips at Lowe's and it said my chlorine is OK, pH and alkalinity are LOW. With the same water sample, I used my brand new handy dandy Taylor K-2006 kit. It shows Cl 3.6 with combined at 0.4, pH 7.9 and alkalinity 80. Is is that common to see such a discrepancy in test strips and the Taylor kit? I tested the numbers twice just to be sure I added the right number of drops, etc and it came out the same both times.
So other questions....seems that Cl is a touch high? Our sanitizer output was on 6/60% so I turned that down to 4/40%. Is that correct to do?
The pH is obviously too high but alkalinity seems ok. Will this correct itself or should I add muriatic acid? If so, how much in a 9K gallon pool? I know (or at least hope) this will all start to make sense after a few weeks.
Would it make sense to take a pool sample to the Pinch-a-Penny down the street to see what our water tests since it was such a difference?
Thanks so much for your guidance!
So other questions....seems that Cl is a touch high? Our sanitizer output was on 6/60% so I turned that down to 4/40%. Is that correct to do?
The pH is obviously too high but alkalinity seems ok. Will this correct itself or should I add muriatic acid? If so, how much in a 9K gallon pool? I know (or at least hope) this will all start to make sense after a few weeks.
Would it make sense to take a pool sample to the Pinch-a-Penny down the street to see what our water tests since it was such a difference?
Thanks so much for your guidance!