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[lisa's pool]

New to Pool Forum.

[Watermom]

Hi and welcome! Did you have a question that you needed help with? Tell us about your pool and equipment.

[lisa's pool]

Yes I do. First off below are my pool specs....
15x29 size pool
10,000 gal
chlorine - sanitizer
Bioguard chemicals
6/21/14 test results from Taylor K-2006 kit
TC 3.0
FC 3.0
CYA 80
PH 7.3 (after adding PH increaser when it was 7.0)
TA 140 (Bioguard chem work better with diff TA & PH levels I'm told)
Calcium Hardness 150
Water Temp 87 degrees

My biggest problem is that my pool keeps wanting my PH level at 7.0. Bioguard chemicals suggest I keep the PH in the range of 74-76 and the TA from 125-150. My TA tends to not jump around as much normally when I have it around 150 and I have no problems getting the PH to decrease/increase when needed. My problem is every week I'm trying to increase the PH as it creeps down daily but never past 7.0 normally. I check it about twice a week. Chlorine is great and steady. I try and keep it higher since I have no cover for my pool (just a solar cover) and if it drops too low I'll get CC which I don't want. I use the Silk Chlorine Sticks that I just keep in my skimmer. Love these! A little pricy even when I buy them on PoolGeek.com but great sanitzer w/ stabilizer. My water normally looks crystal clear but this year I had to dain and fill my pool at opening when I had a ton of Ammonia in my pool after checking it with a pet store kit (got that tip for your site). I was dumping in case after case of shock from pool store and still no chlorine reading. So they suggested just drain and fill my pool so I did and $500 it cost me to do this. I got very soft water when I did this. My normal water I used to fill my pool with was very hard water. I now fill my pool a bit when it runs low with softened water from my house. One of my hoses outside is tapped into the house water now. I did check and my CYA at closing last year was 80 and the pool store said it was fine to close it like this. Every year I have problems at opening with no FC readings. Last year it only took one case of Shock Burnout 35 Bioguard to get a FC reading, but this year nothing worked. Why does my CYA creep up so much every year?? I think this is my problem from reading other Pool Forum cases like this. Let me know your thoughts. After I filled my pool up this year in May my CYA was only 39. Mid June it's already at 80. Is this okay?

My issue at hand is that this season my pool #'s are suddenly not matching the pool stores. They are usually very close. This did happen last year and after a few more tests we were matching more closely. This season it's the Calcuim Hardness, CYA (slightly off) and PH.
Pool store results:
PH 7.9
TA 150 (unadjusted 122 whatever that means)
CYA 98
Calcium Hardness 249 ( eariler readings from the pool store matched mine, around 115 and 125)
TC 3.1
FC 3.1
pool water temp 80 (they didn't ask me the temp- I know this is important it attaining an accurate saturation index #)

This was the second time in a row the pool store has not come even close to hitting the same #'s as I did. I pulled water out of my pool and put it in a bottle. I tested my water with it then gave the identical water sample to the pool store that was tested 1 hour later and this was the result. I did add some calcium increaser the night before to get it up from the 120 it was sitting at. I thought it was unsafe for it to be that low even though my PH was on the low side and my saturation index was good. But when the pool stores reading came up with very high calcium hardness and very high PH, I got concerned. Who is correct? I went with my results but wanted to check with you guys...who I trust more. The pool Store said it takes about 48 hours for this calcium to mix well in my pool and maybe that's why the results were so off. But the sample water was identical. This makes no sense to me. Can ou help me? I'm tired of talking to these people. I feel like I'm beating my head against a brick wall. They make me feel like I'm an isolated case on this stuff and everyone else's pool doesn't have these issues.

[BigDave]

... I use the Silk Chlorine Sticks that I just keep in my skimmer. ... Why does my CYA creep up so much every year?? ... After I filled my pool up this year in May my CYA was only 39. Mid June it's already at 80. CYA will climb as long as you use stabilized chlorine as the primary sanitizer.

My issue at hand is that this season my pool #'s are suddenly not matching the pool stores. They are usually very close. The machine read test strips are not accurate. ...Have a look at: Reviews-of-Bioguard-swimming-pool-chemicals (http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php/24860-Reviews-of-Bioguard-swimming-pool-chemicals#top). It explains some of your experience.

[Watermom]

Lisa, this is the second thread you have going here on the forum about the same thing. PoolDoc is already working with you in your other thread so I'm going to close this one. Please do not double post. It makes it very difficult for people to help when advised is not all in one place. Thanks. :)