Ta - should I bother reducing?

[novice123]

Post a picture of your pool from the outdoors. There is no need for UV in an outdoor pool. With indoor pool, it will help you clear CC. With an indoor pool, I'd take clearing CC over a bit of FC loss.

Be interesting to see your setup. It may be that you get enough UV with the acrylic enclosure, that you don't need it. Or not.

I would experiment. When you smell "chlorine" is not chlorine, it is the chloramines. I would run it enough so that it eliminates the chorine smell. If you have to add a bit more chlorine, so be it!

My garden is north facing which means it doesn’t get sun throughout the day. Add to that the acrylic enclosure which inhibits uv rays from the sun to an extant I’m thinking maybe it has its use. But after the slam I’ll keep it off but keep my nose on to see if I can smell the chloramines (normally with the uv you can’t). Based on that I’ll make a decision. Just worried the study said the uv depleted up to 90% of the free chlorine!

 

[PoolStored]

Yeah, but that is lab based. Real world is different.

Experiment and report back.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

I just wanted to share with you a couple of active members from the UK, @jakeblat and @SteveSwims. I'm sure there are more, but these guys were involved in a discussion earlier. Might be helpful in the future if you're in need of resources.

Moved House - Now Have A Pool

 

[jakeblat]

It's worth mentioning if you're planning to try to bring your TA down you can't really buy muriatic acid (normally called hydrochloric acid here) in the UK as it's a regulated substance these days (the laws were brought in after a spate of attacks with corrosive substances). It's possible if you obtain a licence but I've not gone down that route Licensing for home users of poisons and explosive precursors

I've previously used "Blue Horizons Total Alkalinity Reducer" (which is approx 10% hydrochloric acid) but I can now see that also falls under the same rules and requires an EEP licence.

 

[novice123]

It's worth mentioning if you're planning to try to bring your TA down you can't really buy muriatic acid (normally called hydrochloric acid here) in the UK as it's a regulated substance these days (the laws were brought in after a spate of attacks with corrosive substances). It's possible if you obtain a licence but I've not gone down that route Licensing for home users of poisons and explosive precursors

I've previously used "Blue Horizons Total Alkalinity Reducer" (which is approx 10% hydrochloric acid) but I can now see that also falls under the same rules and requires an EEP licence.

Ahh I remember those attacks! So have you found a solution?

I’ve got ph minus which will do the same job I guess.

 

[jakeblat]

pH minus (dry acid) is readily available in the UK and is the easiest option here to decrease TA unless you're willing to go through the EPP licence process. You will see a lot of advice on here to only use muriatic acid but we've got to work with what's actually available here.

I've got the PoolLab 2.0 and you should be aware of the testing limitations (all the test ranges are clearly noted in the manual) with it as it's easy to go out of FC range if you need to SLAM. The maximum FC is 6ppm with the standard test tablets. That means you will have trouble testing in SLAM if your CYA is above 0. There is a spreadsheet someone linked to in my UK Pool Test Kits thread linked below that will allow you to extend this range a bit on the standard DPD tablets.

There are high range chlorine test tablets available for it but I've not tried them. HappyHotTubs sell them but they're not cheap PoolLab Chlorine High Reading Pack (50 x Chlorine HR (KI) + Acidifying GP Powder Pillow).

Personally I took a gamble and bought a Taylor K2006 on Amazon but it's definitely not a cheap option because it's got a smaller set of test reagents and buying from amazon.com and hoping for the best is the only option to get refills. I've got an old thread where I looked at various options here UK Pool Test Kits

 

[novice123]

I have the poollab 2.0 too. As you said the issue is when doing the SLAM which I worked around using distilled water. Funnily enough I was just looking at the high range chlorine tablets just now. It's also a little annoying that the test for hardness doesn't come readily with the pack, which means another purchase but not sure if I should bother as Essex/London has notoriously high levels.

I had several leaks in the pool which I just had fixed recently. Needed a new pump again due to it leaking. The thing is my swim jet isn't turning on atm. The button feels harder to depress. Any ideas what that could be?

 

[jakeblat]

You can always do a quick check of water hardness by looking at the test reports on your water supplier website (they're obligated to make these available).

This is my local one



Might be best to post about the swim jet issue in a separate thread with as much detail and photos as you can, not something I know much about.