trichlor, ezpool, or salt?

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lucky lyn said:
Just reviewed some of the posts on not mixing chemicals. Need to ask advice. A month ago I bought some calcium chloride in big flake form. I did not have a large enough container to put the unused portions of the bag in so I put it in an old tri-chlor container. Can I still use this calcium? Do I need to contact the county for hazardous waste disposal? Glad I returned the cal-hypo the pool man wanted to sell me.

If I can use it, is it safe to add it to water 2 lbs at a time and then add to the pool?
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I don't see any reason not to use it. If it hasn't already blown up, I wouldn't think it would do anything now. I wouldn't add anything else to the bucket though. If it makes you feel better not to touch it, go ahead and dispose of it.


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Thanks for the input. It was my oversight on setting up the initial ID that left out the details on the spa. Took the advice about the wine......great suggestion. I can obsess over details especially when they have already cost me serious cash to do spa light repairs. Still trying to decide if I am going to pull the light and replace the entire thing.

I would appreciate your voice on suggestions for calcium chloride or calcium chloride dihydrate . I plan to head out tomorrow for some untainted calcium. Those videos of exploding chemicals and the picture of the burned car are etched into my memory. Tragic! I will exercise great care to never transport any angry sisters on the same run. The last form of calcium I used was straight calcium chloride, sort of flaked.What level do you think I should aim for to cover the spa? I was planning to target 250. My tap water for fill is only 40 so I will not be adding anything to raise it by sticking with the straight chlorine. I added 2lbs in solution in a gallon bucket, 4lbs every 4 hours. Is there anything that can go straight into the pool without dilution? FYI the reference to my disaster with Leslie's advice was that they told me to add pot ash directly to my pool and that the info on the container was not necessary......OMGoodness.....blue gel slime on the floor of my pool, in my pool cleaner, and in my filter. Needed to buy 4 new cartridges. I did not even want to buy pot ash....I asked for sodium bicarb...they said that would leave grit on my liner so I needed their product. Follow up complaints to management yielded only a comment that the person who advised me did not have a pool.......gee, thanks. lyn
 
Please advise. Still trying to get this pool sorted out. I believe I may still have a leak in the system somewhere. Some places state that normal evaporation is 1/4 inch a day. I am losing about an inch a day from the pool. I know because the tape I put on the pool to measure my drain against is now 4 inches above my water line. We have been dealing with unusual drainage since we purchased the property last august. The first leakage identified was in the pump area from the pvc pipes, supposedly fixed. The second leak, found this spring, was from the damaged light in the spa. The spa was losing water overnight when the system went out of pool mode. The light has been twice repaired. I remain uneasy about this light but my husband is ever so tired of pouring money into this pool. How do you recommend I address this? I will do the bucket test first to confirm but I don't think the pool will pass. The spa is still at the taped water line and not dropping like before. Only the pool level is down. In the pump area I see wet ground near both the pipes and the pool heater. No water is standing but the dampness is evident. Not sure where to start. Call for a pool leak detector to come out? Just replace the spa light I am uneasy with anyway? Your voice is appreciated.
 
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If the "better half" is irritated at the cost there are some DIY things you can try on the light fixture to see if it is the problem. :google: https://www.google.com/#q=you+tube+pool+leak+test+dye

Where the ground is wet, if you have a doubt you can put down cardboard under and as close to the pipes as possible and then check them regularly to see if anything is dripping. With leaks the problem is it might only leak with the pump on or off. It might also be at a certain temperature that a crack or seam in something will open.

Maybe some other Florida owners will chime in about what is normal for your area. 1" a day does sound like it's a bit much.
 
I continue to learn about this pool. Looks like I have been over filling the pool level according to auto controller that insists on draining things down to the near bottom of my skimmers. Well, now that things are at their normal 'low', I have re- instituted the bucket test. My husband is convicted that I can not be losing as much as I think I am from the piping. Things would be more saturated. There is clearly a leak underneath the cartridge filter but things are not wet enough to account for the 4 inch drain. More likely it is my lack of attention to where this system thinks it should be.........thanks for the help.........

.NEXT question....
I know you have addressed this again and again in the blogs.........I have been reading your responses. Chlorine consumption relative to CYA and Chlorine level. Today I fed the pool a gallon over the course of a day, after giving her dinner last night.........I have never made it to target 7.0 but this morning's read came the closest I have come yet. This morning I was at 6.20......I only had 12 oz left in the bottle, so , I added that and ran to Target. By 1 pm, I had a reading of 4.6 and added another 56 oz. At 6 pm, I had a reading of 4.2 and just added 84 oz. This is Chlorox not the cheap house brand. As I count this up, I have added 152 which is over the 121 in my gallon bottle. My CYA is 64, according to the mech read at the pool guy, so I need to keep the numbers up. We had two thunderstorms today..........your take on this. My PH this am was 7.7, TA 80, Ch 250.......my read on the cya is 55.......guess my eyes are pretty good cause I can still see that dot..........What do you think? Do I have a pending algae bloom? or is it just the Florida sunshine. We have no shade.

To rework my numbers, just to return to this morning's read of 6.2 and not to try and reach a target of 7, my pool has consumed 127 ounces of bleach........6ounces over a gallon., about 10 oz an hour..
 
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Update . At 10:00 this am, it is the first time I have begun the day at a FC read of 7.0. Other readings as follows: PH 7.9, TA 80, Ch 255. Added 6oz acid to pull down my PH. Today is supposed to be sunny. Will recheck the levels this evening and note the fall in FC/over 8 hours and add the required amount to pull her back up.
 
lucky lyn said:
Update . At 10:00 this am, it is the first time I have begun the day at a FC read of 7.0. Other readings as follows: PH 7.9, TA 80, Ch 255. Added 6oz acid to pull down my PH. Today is supposed to be sunny. Will recheck the levels this evening and note the fall in FC/over 8 hours and add the required amount to pull her back up.
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Great! You are getting the hang of it and getting a handle on the ebb and flow of your pool.
 
Whoohoo! Readings this evening were FC 5.6, PH 7.75, TA 80, Ch 255. My CSI is currently at .12. I only dropped 1.4ppm so I added 39oz bleach. It will have all night to work her magic and then I will check her
out in the morning. Granted, today has been milder than some of the recent days but we did have several showers. If I had an algae problem, my consumption would probably have been higher than 1.4 ppm esp since I
am running a higher chlorine target because of my CYA. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! You all have worked your magic once again.
 

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lucky lyn said:
.........my pool has consumed 127 ounces of bleach........6ounces over a gallon., about 10 oz an hour..
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Forgive my if I come off as overly pedantic, but, a gallon is 128 ounces. These 121 ounce bottles are smaller than a gallon.


Also, I think you're probably trying too hard - or perhaps I'm not trying hard enough - or both :) I dump a gallon of 10% (a real gallon :) ) in about every other day. I've slacked off on testing to about twice a week. There's only a couple possible reasons you're chlorine additions aren't getting you to target - bad assumptions (pool size, measuring cup size, or bleach strength) or something consuming it. Either way, the fix is simple - add more and relax.

-Denny
 
Yes, the party is tomorrow.......go get your tickets! I have the wine. This pool is good to go. And yes, it is my flaw to try too hard and be somewhat OCD...that is why I love the wine....my children lovingly nicknamed me MONK-Ma because I used to keep a mop bucket next to my front door when we lived in Rhode Island to mop up their mess.....we lived in govt housing with tile floors that dirtied easily and were dangerous when sloppy. The name stuck. Probably because I organized their toys into color coded bins, stacked them in their closet on a shelf, and insisted they make their beds...on the weekends. ( and any toys not collected made their way to my locked, out of use, freezer.) Back to the pool....

Have a bit of a revelation to share about bleach. They are NOT all created equal and sometimes labels do not tell the unvarnished truth. I was careful and looked for solution that rolled in at 8.25% hypochlorite.........but I am a couponer........a cartwheeler, ( men may not get these associations), a home goods , wayfair, zulilly addict, my zones for sin are many, but they are all below market........my husband says I can make a nickle scream and still get free shipping..... I avoid paying full price for anything that I can get at a better deal........until........the quality degrades. Such was the insight this week. Couldn't get the pool stable....tried and tried and tried again. All the other chemical elements were falling into place except my daily free chlorine read. It was discouraging. So I wondered, not everyone tells the truth. What if the store bottles are not the concentration they say they are. Who is checking? Well, this time I bought Chlorox. I paid the extra 60 cents for my almost gallon ( love the note above).....and given one day to stabilize the other totally weak solution, I now am losing less than 1ppm in full sunlight...........when I was losing up to 5ppm before. Tonight I did not feed the pool. She is 7.0. Reading labels only works when people tell the truth. If you are monitoring and things are still a challenge.......before resorting to a shock process.......try the name brand.
 
We have met the enemy and he is us.

You are not the first person to cause their own problems by trying to save a buck. I resemble that remark myself. :)

A couple thoughts.
Yes, you will find outright lies on packaging. But as you've probably read by now, bleach degrades with time and faster at higher temperatures. So even if the manufacturer was "honest", you could still get old stock and have it at less than label strength. Poke around the forum and there's a thread or two that explain the date coding on the bottles. There's also a thread talking about measuring the strength of bleach with your FAS/DPD chlorine test (TF1000 test kit). From memory (so don't quote me) it involves diluting a sample with distilled water by 1:10,000 and testing just like you do pool water.

Glad you figured out the issue, now go have another glass of wine and enjoy the pool.


BTW, I'm a guy and I do get the "cartwheeler" reference, but I'll confess that "zulilly" is a mystery. :)
 
Its November......new question........same pool......should I start a new thread or give the latest readings from the 'pool people' that don't jive with mine ( ph/ta,cya)........need advice as to how to begin to address deficits..........I do not understand 'borates'...........knew my calcium level was low........no idea the cyanuric acid that I have struggled with all year had dropped to this level, I measured them at 50, so I have held my chlorine between 5-7.............. My husband tells me I am over concerned. Please weigh in.
Here are the numbers.
Read: FC 7.71 ( been keeping it high because the last cya measure was 69 by them in August/ 55 by me in September............today......33. I have not dumped water.????)
TC: 7.71/CC 0. PH 8. Hardness176. Alkalinity 69ppm. CYA 33ppm???????! Copper .2ppm. Iron .1ppm. Borate 12ppm. Total dissolved solids 312ppm.

Knew the calcium would be low..........which issue should I address next? PH? . What are your recommendations for my suggested levels and for my directed action? lyn
 
This has run four pages and you said you purchased a K-2006 BUT those numbers sure don't look like your numbers. They look like pool store numbers, are they ??

It's also much easier to "look" at them if you post them like this:

FC
CC
pH
CYA
TA
CH
 
You need to ignore the pool store readings and do your own tests and use that info to control the pool.

Borates are an extra. You don't need them and before you try them you should get the pool under control and feel fully confident in your own testing and results and ability to adjust/correct things.
 
First you need to lower the pH to 7.5, if the current pH is truly 8.0. Your test results look odd to us since the K2006 test kit would not give results that precise. Whether you use a 10ml or 25ml sample the result should be expressed with only one digit to the right of the decimal, if you are conducting the tests correctly.

Do not worry about raising the calcium. According to your signature line you have a vinyl liner pool and they do not require nearly as much calcium as a plaster pool. 176ppm is more than adequate.

If you have had significant rainfall that can account for the drop in the CYA reading, although testing error is the most common cause of test discrepancies. Also the CYA test is very subjective to read and it is best if you can keep testing conditions as similar as possible for each test. For example, the test is best performed on a sunny day while you stand with your back to the sun holding the viewing tube at waist level. You can pour the testing solution back into the mixing bottle and read the test several times to get an average for the result.
 
zea3 said:
First you need to lower the pH to 7.5, if the current pH is truly 8.0. Your test results look odd to us since the K2006 test kit would not give results that precise. Whether you use a 10ml or 25ml sample the result should be expressed with only one digit to the right of the decimal, if you are conducting the tests correctly.

Do not worry about raising the calcium. According to your signature line you have a vinyl liner pool and they do not require nearly as much calcium as a plaster pool. 176ppm is more than adequate.

If you have had significant rainfall that can account for the drop in the CYA reading, although testing error is the most common cause of test discrepancies. Also the CYA test is very subjective to read and it is best if you can keep testing conditions as similar as possible for each test. For example, the test is best performed on a sunny day while you stand with your back to the sun holding the viewing tube at waist level. You can pour the testing solution back into the mixing bottle and read the test several times to get an average for the result.
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Thank you for responding. The readings given were from the pool store because I was awaiting delivery of chemicals for my test kit. I expected my calcium to be low as it has been trending that way. I would not worry about the level except for my fiberglass spa that spills into the pool. The readings I get look different
from the pool store concentrating on the CYA, CH, and PH. Sure the chlorine came down by itself as I have not added any to the pool.
FC 6.6 (store reading 2 days ago 7.71)
PH 7.7 (store reading 8 )
TA 65 (store reading 69 )
CH 150 (store reading 176 )
CYA 50 (store reading 33 )

The CYA reading tracks with the slightly declining read that I have had across the summer. My last read on CYA in mid October was 55. I have held my FC high because the pool store's last read in September was still 69, mine was holding at 55. I have no ability to test for borates or metals. My TA has not been this low since May. We have had some heavy rains. Shall I start correcting with the TA? My PH normally runs around 7.6-7.7. If Borates are not important, why do they test for them? Should I be testing for Phosphates?
 
Forget phosphates. Trust your own test results.

The TA is fine, being a little lower may allow the pH to stabilize.

Use a 10ml water sample for the FAS-DPD tests so each drop is 0.5ppm, that is accurate enough.

There is nothing wrong with any of your numbers.
 

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