TA and CSI adjustment

[Jeremy R]

FC 4.5
pH 7.6
TA 60
CH 360
CYA 60
CSI -0.37
BOR 50
Temp 71

Just wanted to get some more eyes on my numbers and make sure I’m on the right track. Pool was built about 8 months ago and I’ve been taking care of it since. It’s my first pool so I’ve been learning as I go, but I found TFP very quickly. I’m in SW Florida and we are starting to come out of our “winter” where my water has been low to mid 60s for a couple of months. CSI has been hovering around 0 for a while but I did some experiments plugging higher temps into pool math and that pushed the number up quite a bit. My logic is that since TA is the number that’s harder to change I should lower that a little to give myself a little buffer, especially since I’ll be increasing the production of my SWCG as the sun gets more intense. Does all of this seem to make sense and would you guys suggest a different plan?

My testing routine is to check fc, ph, and TA a couple of times per week and log those into pool math with the temp. I do ch and cya less regularly since they are pretty predictable. I bought pool math and started logging there a couple of months ago, before that I was using pool math as a calculator without the subscription. Test kit is a K2005 that I got the first week before I discovered TFP, and have added items to make it fall in line with the TF test kit

 

[Texas Splash]

Jeremy, honestly your numbers look great, and your proactive owner-management is outstanding. I wouldn't change anything right now. Your water levels are in a good place. You already know that as the water temp increases, so will the CSI, but it's not a huge deal right now. Other things could change between now and April which might require other changes, so you don't want to find yourself in a yo-yo game with chemicals or CSI. Let the water remain stable for now. You have plenty of time for fine-tuning. Good work.

 

[Newdude]

+1. Also a suggestion that you keep the FC in a higher operating range. With 60 CYA your min is 5 and there are plenty of logs below min, or dancing the line. Having cold water / mostly dormant algae sure helps some, but it's only a matter of time until it bites you.

When its cold and the SWG may not be working, you need to follow the LC chart.
FC/CYA Levels

 

[Jeremy R]

Jeremy, honestly your numbers look great, and your proactive owner-management is outstanding. I wouldn't change anything right now. Your water levels are in a good place. You already know that as the water temp increases, so will the CSI, but it's not a huge deal right now. Other things could change between now and April which might require other changes, so you don't want to find yourself in a yo-yo game with chemicals or CSI. Let the water remain stable for now. You have plenty of time for fine-tuning. Good work.

Right on. The part that I forgot to mention is that I already went through the process of lowering TA. I was getting measurement alternating between 80 and 90, which says to me that it was somewhere in between.

 

[Jeremy R]

+1. Also a suggestion that you keep the FC in a higher operating range. With 60 CYA your min is 5 and there are plenty of logs below min, or dancing the line. Having cold water / mostly dormant algae sure helps some, but it's only a matter of time until it bites you.

FC/CYA Levels

Will do. Thanks for that

 

[Newdude]

Will do. Thanks for that

I edited the above too late to explain that when it's cold and the SWG may be off, you need to follow the LC side of the chart. Or pay close attention to ensure the SWG is working all week. If it shuts off, you lose the benefit of stable FC and it will swing more like a liquid chlorine pool.

 

[PoolStored]

My logic is that since TA is the number that’s harder to change I should lower that a little to give myself a little buffer, especially since I’ll be increasing the production of my SWCG as the sun gets more intense. Does all of this seem to make sense and would you guys suggest a different plan?

I would not lower TA any more. With a TA of 60 and 50 BOR, your TA should be very stable. 60 is a fine number.