Pool math "ideal range"

[Wally oasis]

Hi All, new member here.
We got tired of our pool service company and decided to do the maintenance ourselves.

So I bought a Taylor C2006 FAS-DPD test kit.

I wanted to be able to log all my testing so I can keep track of how the pool is doing.
That is how I found Pool Math and TFP.

So I have Pool Math installed and set up and now I'm finding discrepancies between PM and the Taylor users guide #2004B.
Which one do I believe? How can I change the recommended values on PM?

Examples..

Taylor says, pH ideal range 7.4 - 7.6. PM says, 7.6 - 7.8.
Taylor says, CH ideal range 150 - 400ppm. PM says, 350 - 550ppm.
Taylor says, TA ideal range 80 - 120ppm. PM says, 60 - 80ppm.

It looks like my CYA was off the charts! Well over 400. I gave up on the Taylor high scale when nothing changed. My CH was out the window too. I guess the pool company just kept adding tabs when I complained about algae.
So I'm currently doing a ~50% water change out to get the parameters correct.

HD has 2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine for just under $9.00. And lots of it too.

Thinking about adding a SWG once I get this all figured out. I don't look forward to adding chlorine.

Wally

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello Wally and welcome! For your initial question, use the PoolMath levels as they are designed to coincide with TFP. We take into account several variables that help owners across the county. If your CYA was actually as high as you anticipate, don't be surprised if you need to change wore water. A 50% exchange lowers the CYA about in half. But we'll see.

If you have any other questions just let us know.

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Wally, welcome to TFP

The thing about TFP is that we have learned thru many thousands of pools, chemists and cement research pros that our methods allow for a variance to what the pool stores say. Over time we've adjusted our recommended levels as we learned more. Because we know that all pools vary in their "personality" each one needs "balance" that may vary from a different pool.

For example, folks out west with plaster pools often have very high calcium water, evaporation and heat. We've learned that if they keep their pH lower it helps them avoid scale issues. Temperature of water and other factors weigh in to a CSI reading that can be important to those folks where as folks in New York may never need to deal with the same issues.

Pool stores also don't recognize the relationship between CYA and FC, and often tell folks to run the CYA high and FC low. We know *that* doesn't work, does it!?

So you have to decide for yourself which recommendations you are going to follow. I can tell you that in 10 years of pool ownership I've never once had algae, and I've followed TFP since early on.

Maddie

 

[DeanP66]

Also, trouble free pool advocates to avoid using tablets and all forms of hard chlorine as their regular form of chlorine dosing, so a lower TA (50-80) is just fine and helps buffer the pH from rising too quickly.

People that use pucks probably want to keep their TA in the higher range like Taylor says because those pucks are very acidic and tend to crash the pH and the TA if overused.