First Test Results with Taylor Kit

[sunNfun]

Our Taylor test kit finally arrived yesterday. Our first test results were as follows:

11.5ppm free chlorine
0.5 ppm combined chlorine
7.6 ph
< 30 CYA
310 ppm TA
270 ppm calcium

We have an Intex pool with SWG.
The weather has been cool :( and we have not been swimming. The pool has been sitting with solar cover on it. Have been running filter 7 hrs a day and SWG 6 hrs a day.
The water is clear and lovely looking.

Thoughts, suggestions...
Thanks!
Jennifer

[Watermom]

Your chlorine is a little high for such a low CYA , but it will come down quickly. When was the last time you added any CYA or used any stabilized form of chlorine meaning trichlor pucks or dichlor shock powder?

Your pH is ok at 7.6 but your TA is really high. You'll need to lower it. More info about how to do that can be found at this link:

http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/lowering-swimming-pool-alkalinity-step-by-step.html

You must have been using some cal-hypo since your calcium reading is at 270. I would just stick with bleach instead of cal0hypo. With high hardness and high TA, your pool may get cloudy. Lower alk and then use bleach to avoid that problem. If you tell us the volume of the pool, we can help with dosing amounts for bleach.

[waterbear]

You must have been using some cal-hypo since your calcium reading is at 270. I would just stick with bleach instead of cal0hypo.

OR you live in an area with hard water! Many areas have CH of 600 ppm or higher out of the tap!

[sunNfun]

Thanks for the replies. We opened the pool about two weeks ago and tested with strips while we waited for the Taylor to arrive. At that time, it was suggested to add some bleach and muratic acid. We added these items one time according to suggestions. We have not used anything else; no pucks, shocks, or cal-hypo. Yes, our water must be very hard out of the tap.

We also added the CYA two weeks ago when we opened the pool, according to what is suggested for an 8000 gal. pool.

My husband got the kids to go in the pool with him this evening and they are playing "whirlpool" ie kicking and splashing to aerate, if an effort to start lowering the TA.

We are thinking about leaving the solar cover off and not running the SWG to see if we can get some of the chlorine to evaporate.????

[Watermom]

You could do those two things but although it is a little high, it isn't a big problem. It's gonna come down on its own pretty quick with little CYA in there.