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Hey Leebo! THANKS!!!

Those results are BEFORE PB chemicals...

oops, I was just doing the back of the card..
PH 7.5

FAS/dpd - The sample turned Pink/RED Yes, 19 drops of 871
TA yes, it turned green, then it took 6 drops

Thank you soooo much!
 
As far as the Poly goes.. The instructions say 8 oz per 10,000 gallons for freshly filled pools, then 2 - 4 oz weekly maintenance.

I'm going to put some in as a preventative. Would you do the full dose, or a maintenance dose? (16,000 gal pool... unknown really)

OK, I'm bringing it inside. Thank you!!!!!!!!!! :goodjob:
 
@Nikibelle - Thanks GF!! You are the BEST CHEERLEADER EVER!!! <..imagine a cheerleader smiley here...>

@Leebo... Well. The PB crew came to add "stuff." I told them I had tested the water earlier and it was fine. They said to just watch it and call them if it gets out of whack. They didn't add anything today. Meanwhile....... back at the ranch. I put the full dose of Poly in, assuming this pool is 16000 gallons. PB said between 15,000 and 18,000. It actually had a little sparkle today. :party: I made a little journal to track my numbers, and printed out bits from Pool School and cut and taped them in my book. HAHA!

I've been in it all afternoon, with my broom and hand brush, making sure I haven't missed a spot. :snorkle: Of course the house looks like a tornado went thru it! I figure.. no matter what the numbers are, it can't be any worse than some lakes I've swam in.

Should I test now?
 
The biggest item at this point is to watch your PH level. Your levels are going to go up...and you'll need to add acid to keep them in check. With a calcium level of 440ish, you are at risk for having an issue with scaling if you allow your PH to drift too high. Keep it under 7.8 at all times. The closer to 7.4 you can stay the better. For now test your FC and PH daily. Keep the FC level between 4-8 (I'd stay as close to 8 if your water is cloudy) and make sure your PH stay's below 7.8. The algaecide that you have in there now should help keep your pool from going green until you can get all your numbers dead on. After you get in the system of adding chlorine to keep your FC levels above the minimum for your CYA levels, you can stop using it. Odd's on favor say you won't need more than the one bottle you've got now. I myself only use one bottle a year...and that's during closing time.

Did the builder ever add anything to boost the TA and the PH?? A few day's ago your levels were VERY low...and today they're almost perfect? Tosses a curveball kinda.....unless they've added a dose of chemicals to boost the levels??
 
I don't know what the PB crew added the other day.. I wasn't home when they came. Mike gave them all the chemicals I had put inside. I was trying to track them. I do know the only things here were Refresh, Pristine, and dy-clor II. They brought the Alkalinity Plus with them.
Today, they told me to add 2 bags of refresh... but they hadn't tested the water. I have not done that yet.... BUT here are my results as of 5 minutes ago:

PH 7.5
FC 6 (12 drops)
CC .5
TC 6.5
TA 40 (4 drops)
CH 440 44 drops
CYA 50

Should I add anything tonite? THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Adding this - between today and yesterday I've added about 2 inches of new water. I had to backwash both days, plus 100+ temperatures. The jets in the pool are blowing now! I couldn't even tell they were on before 2 days ago.
 
If they brought TA plus then that explains that jump. As for what to add...only thing I see is your FC level dropped (as expected) and could be topped off. Use the pool calculater and bump it back up to 8.

The rest of your numbers at this point look good.
 

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Hi UWV.. :wave: I didn't add anything last night.. because I hadn't been able to use the PC due to bad numbers.. and I wanted to make sure I was using the Calculator correctly. :study:

TA was 60 in the am yesterday. During the day after backwash and evaporation, I added at least an inch of new water. The pump was turned "up a notch" or two by the PB crew. It was the first time I could actually feel the jets blow water. I know it worked, because I had to backwash again (did it the day before too) Hence the water level drop. Plus I was in the pool for several hours.. TA was 40 last night.

I can re-test right now.. Would the TA go down overnight?

Should I do all the tests? God knows I need the practice.. :hammer:
 
I'm not an expert - but I have been reading on the site and doing the care for a pool for just over a month.

My understanding is that TA doesn't change much unless you add acid to reduce it or add things like soda ash or baking soda that bring it up.

So... you don't normally need to test frequently. If you are trying to adjust it up or down then you generally do it every time you make a major adjustment - let's say you added some baking soda and waited an hour - then you might test to see if the amount you added had the expected impact. If you were aerating the water to bring pH up and planning to use acid to drive it down - you might go several days or a week of bringing up the pH and dropping it with acid before bothering to retest TA if it was sky high to start to avoid wasting time and test reagents.

The fact is that your TA is a bit low - but I haven't plugged the numbers into the poolcalculator to see what the CSI index is. Knowing that will help you determine what if anything you should do about your pH, your TA, your CH, etc.

Your CH is pretty high - which could be an issue if you don't stay on top of the CSI numbers.
 
The "jump" I was looking at was the one from 0 to 60. At a TA level of 60 you're right at the low end of range for a plaster pool. At 40 you are low and expect a rollarcoster ride for your PH soon. A drop of 20 in this case points to a questionable test result. Try to do 2 tests for your TA

1. Do a TA on your fill water
2. Do a TA test on your pool water

At this point I don't see it a huge worry, but then again I've never understood the csi thingy-a-bobber either.
 
Last night:
PH 7.5
FC 6 (12 drops)
CC .5
TC 6.5
TA 40 (4 drops)
CH 440 44 drops
CYA 50

This morning - added nothing since last night...
PH - 7.5
FC - 6.0
CC - .5
TC - 6.5
TA - 70
CH - 450
CYA - 50

So if I am doing the PC correctly, I need 96 oz bleach, 75 oz Baking Soda and add water?

Added: TA on Fill Water - 70

You're WAY more CSI than I am!! :lol:
 
OK.. That seems odd the the TA was the same.
I just retested the pool water for TA - it took 8 drops to turn it red (dark pink)

(FYI - I took your (?) advice and put my pool sample in a plastic mustard bottle so I can measure better.) You know, the picnic kind of container.
 
If the fill water is 70, no way refilling lowered your TA. Odds say a bad result at 40.

Keep in mind, the pool calculater doesn't tell you what to add to make the water perfect....only what to add to make the results match what you put in. For now I see no reason to add baking soda.
 
Well..... Pool kiddos slathered in the sun burn protection are here for the afternoon - I'll have a whole new set of issues tonite - :lol:

So what, everything is fixable... right? :mrgreen:
 
imrodee said:
So what, everything is fixable... right? :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if anything can fix Charlie Sheen's career.....does that count??

Check the FC tonight before bed. Raise it up to 8ppm after all the little ones are gone. Get ready in the next few day's to have to add some acid to lower the PH....as I'm sure it will raise soon. After you lower the PH, you're going to want to test the TA and adjust that too. Have baking soda on hand ready to add once needed.

On a side note.....when do we get pictures anyways???
 

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