Pool Help, Please!

Watermom-- Yes we have been "pool-stored," but the Taylor K-2006 kit was ordered last night so hopefully we're headed in the right direction now. After reading your post and waterbear's post, we have learned more in a day than we have in a month!! So, thank you.

Waterbearer--Yes, the test kit was the Wal-Mart HTH kit.

So today, I'm going to get diluted water to do the shot glass test and add borax to the skimmer. (My last trip to Wal-Mart I didn't see any, so hopefully I can find a place that has some.) Should I do the shot-glass test before I add the borax or should I test the chlorine and pH levels tomorrow after adding the borax?

-----
Just an FYI if anyone is having trouble finding borax, the company's website has a store locator within a radius of your zipcode (sorry if someone else already posted this). For the brand select laundry care: http://www.henkelna.com/henkel-store-locator-9949.htm

Whether you do the chlorine test before or after the Borax doesn't matter, the Borax won't interfere with it. I would wait until after the Borax has been in for a couple of hours before retesting pH, but keep in mind that if the Chlorine is still higher than 10 ppm you're still likely to get a falsely high pH reading.....

Janet

Glad we can help. I have found that borax is often sold out and does not come in for several weeks so I pick up a box or two to keep on hand when I see it. (We use it for LOTS of things around the house. It truly is a miracle product!)

BTW, the name is waterbear, not waterbearer!;) Google it!:D

Waterbear--my apologies...I must have read waterbearer in my haste :)

So yesterday around 6pm I added a half box of borax. I can already see further down past the ladder than I did yesterday. About 5 minutes ago I tested pH and chlorine:

With the shot glass method I had to do 2 shots of distilled water and 1 shot pool water. With that I got 5...making it 15

For pH it looks to be about 7-7.2

Also, how much water loss/evaporation should I be experiencing each day? From yesterday to today we lost about an inch. Yesterday was about 90 degrees. We’ve been in the upper 90s-100 all week. So is this normal?

You're going to want to add more Borax to get the pH up some more...

What part of the country are you in? Water loss in normal, but I'm not sure about a full inch in 24 hrs, I'm sure others will chime and and give you a sense as to if that's normal or not. I only loose an inch a month due mainly to splash out as my pool is covered when it's not in use.

Meg,
One inch in 24 hours is excessive. I know it's been hot in that area but that is still excessive. How long has this loss been going on? I helps to get as accurate loss measurement as possible. Use a ruler to measure the water level from a known, consistant point like the same place on a step, top of the skimmer opening, or any other reference. I assume with that kind of a drop that you have been adding water unless it just started. The RATE of loss vs. level is valuable info. If it is indeed a leak, as the level approaches the leak, the rate will slow down and eventually stop. If the leak is at the deep end, as was mine, the rate never changes measureably.

Some common leak points are the skimmer area, return plumbing below water level, but the best one is the area around the stairs where the liner is pinched by the retaining strips. If you have an underwater light that is another favorite. If, with accurate measurements, we decide it is a leak then there are ways to find it and fix it.

Hope you're off on your estimates and it is just evaporation that was overestimated.
Al

We live in Maryland.

We usually add more water to the pool every day or every other day depending how much it goes down. We'll check the water level tonight as see if it goes down any tomorrow and by how much.

I have the same size pool as you, and I agree that 1 inch daily is excessive, just for reference...

Janet

I believe you can try the old bucket trick. You fill, say, a five gallon bucket with enough water to fill it pretty deeply, about the same as the pool, but not enough to sink. You can tie it to a ladder or something. Measure the water and the water in your pool. If, 24 hours later, there is an inch loss in the pool AND in the bucket, your pool is not leaking (unless there's a hole in the bucket!:eek: ). If, however, the bucket level has not gone down but the pool has, start searching for a leak somewhere.

We added a 1/2 box borax around 8 am and after testing added the other half since pH is low. We received the Taylor K-2006 kit in the mail today, so here are the results after testing with it:

pH= 7.0
cya= 80
alkalinity= 150
free chlorine= 8 (10 mL sample, 16 drops * 0.5)
when we tested for combined chlorine in step 5 after adding the 5 drops of R-0003, the sample never turned pink it stayed clear. should I add more drops until it does turn pink or this won't happen because chlorine is too high?