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Ok. I'm back from Sams/Walmart. I didn't put in any chemicals today....just did a good vac. I bought 6 gallons of 8.25% bleach, and an OTO test kit. Ph is reading 7.2 and chlorine is barely registering. Looks like about 0.5
I'm going to put the bleach in now. How long should I wait to retest?
And does water temp matter? It's still a bit chilly.
Add bleach in 2 gallon increments; allow 2 hours of pump operation before retesting.
Water temp doesn't matter . . . unless you're planning to swim today! ;)
Super. Thanks! I will report back this evening with new results.
PS..as an aside, I asked at the pool store specifically "Won't doing this raise my CYA even higher?" I was told the trichlor will not raise it. Bull Hockey. Aaaannnd DONE. I was already done before, but that just was the icing on top.
!Quote:
Originally Posted by mrscabrera
Just wow.
Retested....I'm having difficulty distinguishing between the varying degrees of yellow. My eyes are crossed from staring at it so hard. Ha!
I wish I could put a picture of the test on here.
I -think- it calculates to a chlorine level of 15. But I had to dilute the sample 4:1 just to get a read. Looks like it matches most closely with 3. So I multiple that by 5, right?
Don't worry about it too much; DARK yellow with a bit of orange should be high enough to keep you till you get the K2006 and can actually measure levels.
Ok. I'll do my best to maintain where it is until the kit arrives.
Thank God for Amazon Prime.
We got Prime when we were still home-schooling, and were ordering books constantly, and have had it ever since. Plus, it's been a lifesaver for me, since I often forgot to get gifts when I should'uv ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by mrscabrera
Okie doke. I finally got the test kit the other day. I had surgery 2 weeks ago, so I'm a bit lagging in getting this kit out and messing with it all.
The pool looks fantastic....crystal clear using only bleach. I do have some combined and my CYA, TA, and Ca+ are high. Bleh.
I'm afraid a partial drain is in my very near future.
FC is only 1.5
CC 0.75
pH 7.4
TA 280
Ca+ 685
cya 160
I anticipated Ca and CYA being high, so I used 50/50 dilution for the cya measurement and used the instructions for more concentrated sample to test hardness.
So.....where do I go first? Do I drain and handle the cya/hardness issue, and then retest and balance? I'm assuming the new fill water will alter my TA/pH, etc.
I really do need to test my tap water I think before I use it to fill....new house, etc. Maybe the water is super hard even with the softner and I'd only be adding to the problem.
Do NOT drain a crystal clear pool!
If it's not broken, don't fix it!
You can do a 50:50 dilution with tap water for the CYA test, but not for any other test. For pH, TA, CH . . . you must dilute with DISTILLED water, which Walmart sells in gallon jugs for about a dollar.
Diluting for the pH test with distilled does NOT change the pH -- so there's no multiplier. It's just a way to get fairly accurate pH result when the chlorine is above 10 -15 ppm.
ABSOLUTELY, test your fill water BEFORE you even consider draining and refilling.
Once you have those results, you can think about options.