Tenacious Yellow Everywhere

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jfscottaz said:
Mr. Suffocatus, I learned those test strips, first of all, are not near as accurate as titration (drops). In fact, once I've used up my Taylor T100 kit, I'm going back to Ace Hardware-type 5-1 test kit (Chlorine/bromine, TA, pH, acid demand...read cheap here). It was nice pretending to be a hydrologist with the T100, but I pretty much know my pool now here at Houghton/22d. I'll use the 7-1 test strips to back up the drops, I guess, and check CYA. So, verifying TA with the drops is first thing for me, then pH and chlorine. I lower TA to 80ppm using only the 31.5% MA, no more that one pint each dose until 80 hit. Truthfully, if I overdo it with the MA and it goes lower, I don't care as pH always climbs here, y'know. I converted my pool to borate to stabilize pH, but before that had no TA problem using MA. Just make sure the other ranges are in check, like for TDS and CYA, sneaky trolls fer shore, Pard...JS
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Okay.. well I probably should add borates, but we for some crazy reason have four dogs now (long story) who all think the pool is their personal water bowls. They apparently must like the little bit of salt that's in there for the SWCG. (They are like children, you are outnumbered at #3). I am continuously pulling gravel out of the bottom of the pool and one of the other projects is coming up with something just to pull rocks out... PVC with a plunger and a check valve or something for the rocks. The little $15 WalMart Venturi vacuum on a hose works well, but it's a pain to lug the hose out almost daily....

As for Borates, I am aware that if I put the TFP recommended levels in the dogs would probably be okay, but if I can manage it otherwise I would rather avoid the risk. If I poisoned one of the dogs, it probably would be divorce time here... I might try maybe a third of the recommended levels next year and see if it makes any difference. I'll try to train the dogs not to drink out of the pool but.. good luck....

At Houghton and 22nd (I'm roughly at Houghton and Sahurita) you are on the main system which is actually slightly worse overall than the CDT system if I am to trust the reports from Tucson Water. So you are doing well.

I actually use that Ace kit (I buy refills from Ace but when I need a new plastic vial I buy the kit from Home Depot... it's the same kit)... It's just as good for pH and better for TA (purple/clear is much more readable than Red/Green is!) in my opinion than the Taylor/TF kits are. The OTO test in it is interchangeable with the Taylor... Accuracy is exactly the same. Much cheaper so I can test basic levels more without dipping into the TF-100 all the time. But yeah strips are way too vague.

I have the problem of pH not rising enough when I do MA additions here. I think I need to get better aeration (or do borates) so I am going to work on something to aerate the pool when I am off over Christmas. It probably will have to use my external utility pump but that would be okay honestly.

But even at keeping the TA at 100, my pool has *far* less tile line calcification than... well.. anyone else's pool (all but one on "Services") in the neighborhood. I am still scaling the SWCG up more than I would like so that is why I am asking. I suppose I will figure it all out next year. I am amazed that the cold snap we had here literally has made the water temperature go down 11 degrees F in three days... I don't have heat.... season's over with anyway...:) I am curious how much lower in water temp the SWCG will run.. it's still fine at 64F though... But I might start on that project sooner than I think... :)
 
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Congrats on getting rid of the iron stains..
who knew they would show up as yellow?

I'd ditch the tests strips altogether. As you've noted they're unreliable, and using them to compare to drops will drive you crazy.
 
Rattus Suffocatus said:
I actually use that Ace kit (I buy refills from Ace but when I need a new plastic vial I buy the kit from Home Depot... it's the same kit)... It's just as good for pH and better for TA (purple/clear is much more readable than Red/Green is!) in my opinion than the Taylor/TF kits are.
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Hi Fred - Do you have a link to that ACE test kit? I searched and can't find it. Seems like a good option.
 
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Ace Hardware... my local one sells the refills for $8. It's the "Poolmaster" kit which is sold under many names including Ace and HDX (home depot). The HDX kit with the vials is $14. I use it as my "basic" test not on weekends. (Weekly test is TF-100) and for TA most of the time. It works just as accurately on what it does (it's sold as a 5 in 1 kit but really it's only OTO Chlorine, pH and TA) as the Taylor kits. I've tested with both probably 25 times now and can verify that I get the same results as I do with the Taylor basic kit plus the TA test.

Blasphemy, I know, here on TFP. I get that.

I still am all for using the Taylor kit when you have issues and post for help here to reduce variables for people trying to help you, but I find that it helps me stretch the TF-100 out to getting the full year out of a kit/refill kit and I don't think I would have made it otherwise. I know which two vials of extra stuff I have to order here now with the TF-100 refill kit in the spring, so that would help (CH test and R-871 chlorine) next time around... maybe I test too much. (Almost daily but I only Pool Math the weekly tests, I am lazy in that regard.) With a $14 kit with $8 refills that helps though.. so that is my logic here...
 
That goes for the Taylor pH test as well.

One thing that is nice about that particular kit is that chlorine neutralizer is a separate chemical in it and you can use a little more of it without effecting the result.. Someone might have verified that against his electronic meter. :) The Taylor pH test apparently has the neutralizer built in... so IMHO it's an inferior test... just like the Taylor TA test versus the above kit (which goes purple to clear instead of red to green--yuck, sorry but yuck)... but it's an agree to disagree thing, isn't it?... Maybe I'll post some of my independent experiments on this on that forum topic later.

Regardless, having an electronic meter available is a godsend when it is needed, but it's also time consuming to recalibrate (you should do it every time it is used) to the point of not being worth it in daily or normal weekly testing.
 
DanF said:
Hi Fred - Do you have a link to that ACE test kit? I searched and can't find it. Seems like a good option.
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DanF, Just go by your closest Ace to their pool section. That's how I stumbled across it. Ace ain't the greatest website, y'know. Anyway, their refill kit was $8 or so, an item Home Depot stopped carrying for some reason...JS
 
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Rattus Suffocatus said:
Okay.. well I probably should add borates, but we for some crazy reason have four dogs now (long story) who all think the pool is their personal water bowls. They apparently must like the little bit of salt that's in there for the SWCG. (They are like children, you are outnumbered at #3). I am continuously pulling gravel out of the bottom of the pool and one of the other projects is coming up with something just to pull rocks out... PVC with a plunger and a check valve or something for the rocks. The little $15 WalMart Venturi vacuum on a hose works well, but it's a pain to lug the hose out almost daily....

As for Borates, I am aware that if I put the TFP recommended levels in the dogs would probably be okay, but if I can manage it otherwise I would rather avoid the risk. If I poisoned one of the dogs, it probably would be divorce time here... I might try maybe a third of the recommended levels next year and see if it makes any difference. I'll try to train the dogs not to drink out of the pool but.. good luck....

At Houghton and 22nd (I'm roughly at Houghton and Sahurita) you are on the main system which is actually slightly worse overall than the CDT system if I am to trust the reports from Tucson Water. So you are doing well.

I actually use that Ace kit (I buy refills from Ace but when I need a new plastic vial I buy the kit from Home Depot... it's the same kit)... It's just as good for pH and better for TA (purple/clear is much more readable than Red/Green is!) in my opinion than the Taylor/TF kits are. The OTO test in it is interchangeable with the Taylor... Accuracy is exactly the same. Much cheaper so I can test basic levels more without dipping into the TF-100 all the time. But yeah strips are way too vague.

I have the problem of pH not rising enough when I do MA additions here. I think I need to get better aeration (or do borates) so I am going to work on something to aerate the pool when I am off over Christmas. It probably will have to use my external utility pump but that would be okay honestly.

But even at keeping the TA at 100, my pool has *far* less tile line calcification than... well.. anyone else's pool (all but one on "Services") in the neighborhood. I am still scaling the SWCG up more than I would like so that is why I am asking. I suppose I will figure it all out next year. I am amazed that the cold snap we had here literally has made the water temperature go down 11 degrees F in three days... I don't have heat.... season's over with anyway...:) I am curious how much lower in water temp the SWCG will run.. it's still fine at 64F though... But I might start on that project sooner than I think... :)
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Rattus, Unfortunately, my treatment for your "line calcification" is snake oil. The device is called Aqua-rex (Go here: link removed - TFP Mod) and the science is, well, still questionable. Skeptical me called the source in Vegas and managed to get one of his second hand jobbies, an affordable option (read risk) for snake oil. My scum is gone. My fellow skeptic pool owners had the same results. Leslie's carries them now or call the dude in Vegas, awful hard water there and Aqua-rex is popular. It's still snake oil...JS
 
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