Where do you find what your pool should test at?

[TammyH442]

I have been reading on this site last summer and this summer, I get overwhelmed easily, because I don't see what I need, and I am a slow learner. I have not had much sucess with my pool in years, except last summer with help from someone who seen my requests posted here and emailed me personally and helped me out. I have purchased the large testing kit, and I have made many attempts to understand using it, but I don't understand what ppm and things like that mean, no matter how hard I attempt it, I just don't know what healthy water would be. I search to see if there is something on here that would tell me, what my kit results should be, so that I can try to get my numbers close to that, my kit came with nothing to aid me in this process, so I am really fumbling along. Would someone help me with this please? Even if you can direct me to the thread that I can read about, I would be happy. Thanks, Tammy

[itstoohot]

Tammy,

The forum Q&A doesn't get much traffic. You may want to move your post to one of the other forums, such as the "Testing and Adjusting Pool Water Chemistry", which will be more readily seen.

Here is a good definition listing if you're looking from some clarification:

http://www.taylortechnologies.com/learnmore_glossary.asp

[prh129]

Hi Tammy,

Here is a good thread to look at from the "Testing and Adjusting Pool Water Chemistry" section:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1113

ppm means parts per million and it is just a way of telling you how much of a given substance (chlorine, calcium etc) is in your water.

After you read the above thread, if you have further questions post them in that same thread and someone will help you out.

I would suggest you make your own note card (or electronic equivalent) with the specific information you need (like pH range should be between 7.3 and 7.8 etc.) so you have a handy reference whenever you need it.

Peter

[TammyH442]

Peter,
Thank you for responding to my posting. I had read the posting you directed me to, I went back and re-read it and even printed it off, I am aware of certain things, like that you should have proper PH levels and Chlorine levels, but where I get confused is, I bought the large test kit from the site, and thought it would help me, but I am more confused than ever, now I have all these other things I am testing for, and I have no instructions as to what the proper numbers should be to compare my testings to. I will use the print out I just made that you refered me to, to try and make some sense of things, but I am still very confused. I guess it will just take time. I wanted to say thank you any way. Tammy

[prh129]

Hi Tammy,

There is supposed to a test booklet that was shipping separately from the kit but Ben ran into problems with the test bottles so I think that has been delayed. The booklet probably has some of the information you are looking for. Here is some info that should help you:

FAS-DPD test for chlorine - you need to look at "Ben's Best Guess" table to see what your recommended free chlorine (FC) range is based on your CYA (stabilizer) level. The link is here:

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=365

For combined chlorine (CC), when that gets above 0.5ppm, that's an indication that you need to shock your pool. Again, the Best Guess chart will give you a target chlorine level to shock based on your CYA level.

CYA (stabilizer) - most people target between 30 to 50 ppm for this. CYA takes a long time to dissolve so wait at least 5 days before retesting after you put some in

OTO (little blue kit) tests - for pH, you want to be between 7.3 and 7.8. For chlorine, this test isn't as accurate as the FAS-DPD but it's very quick and easy so you could do this every day and do the FAS-DPD maybe once a week. Again the Best Guess table is your guide for chlorine.

Alkalinity - your target is between 80 and 125 ppm

Calcium - if you have a vinyl liner then you don't need to worry about this too much - you can test once just for reference

This should get you started. Let me know what other questions you might have.

Peter

[TammyH442]

Peter,
Thank you for your help, I am trying to work with it, I have help from another person also from the forum through email, and I can finally see the bottom of my pool. Only we will close it in about 30 days. I have been trying to figure out how to use the bleach calculator, it also has no instructions. I am still using 3" tablets in my skimmer, and I am told that bleach would be much better, however I cannot figure the correct way to use it??? My paperwork for the test kit from Ben never did come I ordered it late last summer, so I don't think it is going to arrive, I just have to use the help I have gotten and trial and error, which is the best way to really understand something any way I suppose.
Once again thanks for your input, I really appreciate it, one of these days I will catch on, it feels like it will just take a while, Sincerely, Tammy

[aylad]

Tammy, how many gallons does your pool hold?

Have you read through this thread?
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=1113

Janet

[sevver]

The best way to use bleach is to just pour it in the pool in front of the return water flow. Every time you use a puck you increase your CYA level which in turn increases the amount of chlorine it takes to keep your pool sanitary, eventually you end up with algae that you have to really douse with chlorine to kill. And as far as algae goes, the only algaecide that the people here use has the word polyquat (sp?) in the ingredients, any thing else just puts garbage like copper in your water. Why not post up a set of numbers so that someone can guide you, also tell how big your pool is, how many gallons etc. Good luck, once you get going it is a breeze, I just dump in around a half gallon of bleach a day basically for my pool. Also around once per week I add about two cups of Muratic Acid to lower the Ph back down. It is that simple.

[TammyH442]

I am truly sorry it has taken so long to reply to this, I have had a huge mess here at home a 100 year old tree has dropped 3 sections on my home and totalled my roof, outside and in, a real mess. I have also had a bunch of limbs, leaves and dirt in my pool, it is relatively clean compared to the mess my home will go through.
I have a 24' round above ground which I have calculated to hold 20,000 gallons. I have not tested the water in over a week due to the above. Sorry. I will do so today and get some numbers to post up here, I have never recieved a test booklet with the kit I ordered from Ben so, testing is go by the instructions, write down what I get, and not know if it is close to where it should be? Will give you those number this evening. Thanks, Tammy

[CarlD]

Tammy:
At the top of this forum topic and others, are stickied threads. Have you read them? What didn't you understand? Perhaps I can help you understand them: I wrote several. It comes down to 3 steps:

1) Keep you pH in the good range.
2) Know how much stabilizer (CYA or Cyanuric Acid) you have in your pool, measured in PPM--Parts Per Million. If you have 1 liter of stabilizer and 1 million liters of water, you have 1 PPM. If you have 1 milli-liter of CYA and you have 1,000 liters you have 1 ppm--Part Per MILLION.
3) for your level of CYA, know how much chlorine you need to keep in your pool and keep it there. It's in Ben's Best Guess table.

You do that with a clean pool and it will stay clean all summer. That's all there is.

[Watermom]

Tammy,
If you have a 24 ft above ground pool, it is nowhere near 20,000 gallons. It is more like 12,000-13,500 gallons depending on whether you have 48" wall height or 52" wall height.