Tested my brother in laws pool....

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kenmar

kenmar

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LifeTime Supporter
Apr 13, 2009
288
Schnecksville, PA
Hi All,

Under the guise of wanting to test out my fancy TFP test kit, I asked my brother in law if I could test his pool water.
I actually was curious to see for myself what readings a "3" tab/Non-BBB user" would have in their pool.

He has a circular Ag pool of unknown gallonage.
To be fair, he told me has has done nothing with it this year (because it has been so cool and rainy in northeast PA)

Here are my test results:

FC: 0 I have never seen this before, at least in my pool
CC: 0
PH: 6.8 or lower As soon as the drops hit the water, they turned yellow
TA: ??? I have never seen this either, the green drops turned red as soon as I added them
CYA: >100


OK, even though I am a noob, I think his pool is in serious trouble.
What should I suggest to him? (other then sending him a link to this site :))


-Ken-
 
get some soda ash in the pool ASAP before he ruins his liner (will raise both TA and pH), drain out at least half the water and refill to get the CYA down to below 60 ppm. and get some chlorine in the pool in that order. Oh yeah, get a decent test kit and ditch the trichlor!
 
kenmar said:
TA: ??? I have never seen this either, the green drops turned red as soon as I added them
Click to expand...

Like I said, I have not seen this before.... what does this mean?

-Ken-
Click to expand...
It means that TA is 0 ppm. TA is the meaurable part of the carbonic acid/bicarbonate/ carbonate buffer in the water. At normal pool pH there is practically no carbonate, and a balance between bicarbonate and carbonic acid. When the pH is very low there is no bicarbonate and only carbonic acid in the water and since only the bicarbonate and carbonate are measurable and are what we call TA it means the TA is 0 ppm. It is actually quite common on pools run on trichlor when there is not proper water tesing going on and pH and TA are not being monitored. Trichlor is very acidic and 'eats up' TA and causes pH to drop. The low pH and 0 ppm TA go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.

BTW, I can tell you the pH is WAY below 6.8 but that is the lowest that phenol red can measure. pH is probably closer to 4 and the liner is in grave danger if immediate action is not taken.
 
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