Testing Water today

[propjetprop]

I have received my Taylor 2006C. The new pool will be filled starting Tuesday from the garden hose off the house. I am going to test the tap water with my new kit... Any advice on what to test/look for?

Again.. this is just the test of the water before begining the fill process..

Thanks

 

[pooldv]

Test everything except CYA. Knowing the CH and TA level of your fill water is the most important thing to know.

 

[propjetprop]

Tap Water Test

Hi all.. I posted in the members section, but figured I might get a bit more exposure here...

We are filling our new construction pool this week, and I received my Taylor K2006C testing kit from Amazon. I wanted to test the tap water as this is how we are filling the pool.

Any recommendations for this process? Is there anything I should be looking for when testing the tap water? Am I wasting my time by doing this?

Thanks

Jeff


mod note: merged threads asking same question.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Re: Tap Water Test

Not at all! Knowing what your fill water is like helps give you a heads up about potential problems or needs. For example, you'd like to know if your water was extremely hard or soft so you could be prepared to work with that.

Do a full set of tests except don't bother with the CYA, as city/well water would never have that in there. That is something strictly added by pool owners.

My water in Augusta is very soft, so I'm curious how yours is?

Maddie

 

[propjetprop]

Ok... Just finished testing the tap water at the house... Here is what I have:

CH - 70ppm
TA - 30ppm
PH - off the chart see pics
FC - .06
CC - .04

There should not be any chlorine in my tap water right? I am so confused?????

The PH was wicked purple at first.. then I did one drop of acid demand reagent and the sample went yellow... Pics

The sample was different shades depending on what angle I held the tube to the light... If i held it straight, eye level, that one drop of Acid demand reagent mad the PH go below the 7.0 on the scale.

Is there anything else I should test for? How can you tell the hardness of the water?

Thanks

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Your hardness is the calcium. And just like mine, you're pretty soft.

You will need to add some calcium to your pool and bring it up to about 350 once filled. You only lose calcium with splash out or draining, and it can increase on its own via evaporation.

I would re-test the pH once the water is in the pool and see how it looks again. That TA is pretty low, and yet the pH appears high.

Pay attention to what the pool builder adds (or tries to add) so you don't duplicate efforts.

Maddie

 

[Richard320]

If your water comes from a municipal source and not your own personal well, it's treated with chlorine. No mystery there.

You have extremely soft water -- it didn't come out of a water softener, did it?

If that's what comes out of the hose untreated, then you'll need to add some Calcium to protect your fancy pebbletec finish and some baking soda to raise TA to roughly 60. It doesn't have to be exact -- if it comes out to 9 lbs and you buy it in a 10 lb package, add it all. If it calls for 11 and you have 10, close enough. After that's had a chance to mix, then adjust pH using acid. As you've seen, small acid additions make huge pH changes when the alkalinity is low like yours. And then of course, CYA and chlorine need to be added. And then when everything is nicely balanced, you can add salt. Lastly you turn on the SWG. But this is all if. Make sure that the fill water isn't going through the softener, because if it is, the softener won't be able to sustain the flow to fill the whole pool.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

I"m tellin' ya Richard, if only I could bottle this stuff up in a big tanker, we could sell it to y'all out west. We've got some softtttt water here in Georgia! Mine is 40ppm, even less than the OP!

Maddie

 

[Dirk]

If your water comes from a municipal source and not your own personal well, it's treated with chlorine. No mystery there.

You have extremely soft water -- it didn't come out of a water softener, did it?

If that's what comes out of the hose untreated, then you'll need to add some Calcium to protect your fancy pebbletec finish and some baking soda to raise TA to roughly 60. It doesn't have to be exact -- if it comes out to 9 lbs and you buy it in a 10 lb package, add it all. If it calls for 11 and you have 10, close enough. After that's had a chance to mix, then adjust pH using acid. As you've seen, small acid additions make huge pH changes when the alkalinity is low like yours. And then of course, CYA and chlorine need to be added. And then when everything is nicely balanced, you can add salt. Lastly you turn on the SWG. But this is all if. Make sure that the fill water isn't going through the softener, because if it is, the softener won't be able to sustain the flow to fill the whole pool.

Be sure to follow your PB's lead on adding chemicals. Your pool will eventually get all the chemicals as advised above, but the timing is important, and so is your warranty, which you want to protect, so don't go over the PB's head, so to speak. Monitoring what he's doing is critical, because some of these guys do some crazy things at start up time. Or turn it over to a "pool guy" that may or may not know what he's doing. And to make matters worse, there seems to be some conflicting consensus on best-practice pool startup, so double check what's happening. Generally, you don't add chlorine immediately, but the delay is only like a day or two. And the prevailing consensus is not to add salt for at least 30 days (some here are adamant about that), but we've heard of PBs that dump it in on day one.

We have a member here who's brand new surface has been compromised because the PB didn't really do the startup correctly, and the owner kinda dropped the ball by not eagle-eyeing the PB, all the while thinking the PB knew what he was doing! (That was the PB turning pool over to pool guy story.)

If possible, see if your PB will partner with you about what goes into your pool, and when. If it were my pool, I'd want 100% control. And I'd want to add to the pool only what was absolutely necessary. Your PB might not go for that. See if he'll work with you on your startup plan: what chemicals will be added when, what the testing procedures will be, who's responsible for doing either, etc. Communication with him will be in your pool's best interest. Post everything here. TFP experts will advise you about the plan's validity. Doing this during startup is not ideal, the plan should be in place and understood by all before the water goes in. Over the life of your pool, the chemicals you add (or neglect to add) will affect the finish, both how it looks and how long it'll last. At no other point in time will that be more important, or more critical, or more damaging if done wrong, than these first few weeks of curing...