Light green water

[PoolDoc]

Is he swimming USS? My older son swam USS from 5 - 16; both sons now swim Masters, though my 16 year old isn't old enough to be official, yet. They both love practices where, as my younger son notes "nobody is whining about wanting to leave". In Masters, if they don't want to come, they don't.

But, back to our regularly scheduled pool:

Huskerdee . . . you are going to have to tell us what's going on with testing. I'm not willing to continue working blind. Sorry.

[BigDave]

BigDave, check your email -- Ben

[Huskerdee]

The PH is down to 7.0, the chlorine is too high to read on the test kit. After heavily chlorinating last night I think it's around 20 or so as the color is orange. The CYA I test with strips because that isn't included in the kit, but it's around 40 according to the strips. The way the pool holds chlorine it must be accurate. I have not checked alkalinity or done acid test since PH is good and you said not to worry about alkalinity.
My son is nine and has been on the local swim team for two years now. He's a little fish. This year he broke a record at the state meet. This weeken we have regionals. He qualified in three events. So far he has a ton of gold medals and some silver and bronze. I hope he continues and the coaches believe he really has potential and could go as far as he wants. Maybe I have a little Olympian on my hands, lol.

[PoolDoc]

OK, but I *still* need to know what kit you have.

If you've got any OTO/phenol red kit EXCEPT a Taylor kit . . . your pH reading is not trustworthy with OTO at orange.

I need specific brand names on the test materials you are using, so I can tell what sort of info we have. I cannot work with you, without reliable information. If you can't tell me what you've got -- for whatever reason -- we just need to call it a day.

[Huskerdee]

There's no reason I can't tell you what kind, just didn't know you wanted brand name. It's a Slimline 8440 test kit.

[waterbear]

Your test kit is an inexpensive (and not very good) 4 way test kit sold under the Hydro Tools brand name. The same kit is sold under different brand names (for example, it's the same as the Ace Hardware 4 way test kit). It does NOT measure up to 12ppm chlorine. The pH reagent is not a blended one and requires the addition of chlorine neutralizer, so pH readings can be suspect. The Acid Demand test is not very accurate at all and practically useless. The Total Alkainity test uses a very dilute bromothymol blue indicator (color change of pale blue to almost colorless yellow) so it is very difficult to see the endpoint of the titration (drop count)compared to the blended indicators used in better kits from Taylor and Lamotte that change from a deep and distinct green to red) If I am not mistaken the kit comes from China (as is most of the stuff imported by Swimline Corp, the parent company of Hydrotools) and , IMHO, is not worth the price of the plastic case it comes in.

I would STRONGLY suggest that you get a Taylor K-2006. There is NO comparision to the ease of use and precision of the Taylor kit compared to what you currently have!

I suspect I know how you are getting the reading of 12ppm . Many comparators have two scales, one for chlorine and one for bromine side by side. Bromine readingss are twice the chlorine reading. so the scale will say 1 on one side and 2 on the other and you are reading that as 12. The other possibility is that your comparator goes up to 6 ppm chlorine and 12 ppm bromine and you are reading the bromine scale.
I used to work with a CPO (Certified Pool Operator) that kept writing down a chlorine reading of 3.6 in the pool logs. I asked how he got that type of precision with the kit we were using (Taylor K-2005)when he tested our two commercial swimming pools where we worked. He showed me the 3 and the 6 on the comparator. I explained that the chlorine was 3 ppm, that the other set of numbers was for bromine, and then had a LONG talk with our boss!

[Huskerdee]

I ordered one fyom a place close to here so should have the new kit by Monday. I'm curious to test it against this one to see how close or off things are, lol. When I compare the numbers like ph and alkalinity against Aquacheck strips they are pretty similar. Anyway, will just wait to get this one. Thank you.

[PoolDoc]

I used to work with a CPO (Certified Pool Operator) that kept writing down a chlorine reading of 3.6 in the pool logs. I asked how he got that type of precision with the kit we were using (Taylor K-2005)when he tested our two commercial swimming pools where we worked.

Too funny . . . and nice detective work! I'm hoping to get my color-blind-vs-color-dumb page, complete with 'stories' posted this year!

[Huskerdee]

After much filtering and back washing my water is crystal clear; however, I have no chlorine levels. Should I add more of the calcium and metal remover before chlorinating? I have a lot of algaecide 60 in to prevent algae while I was awaiting my new test kit. I think all the back washing took my CYA way down. Anyway here are my readings.

Water temp - 69
PH - 7.3
Alk. - 200
CH - 400
CYA - undetectable
FC - 0
CC - 0
Saturation Index - 1.0

Oh yeah, my acid demand test was 2.

[PoolDoc]

No! Don't add any more of the Metal product (20% HEDP)

How did you get such high calcium levels? Is that much calcium present in your fill water?

You have a sand filter, right? If so the best way to run your pool might be with calcium hypochlorite and high stabilizer. I've been working a chemical guide page, and was very surprised to discover this AM that cal hypo can be purchased fairly economically at Amazon . . . if you know what to order.

The benefit, for you, is that doing it this way -- with a sand filter -- would allow you to continuously remove iron from your water. You'll end up with a manually dosed pool running with high calcium, moderate alkalinity, fairly high pH and high stabilizer. It won't be hard or expensive at all -- just a little different. If you get a K2006 (yeah, I'm still on that track!) you'll probably be able to work up to dosing just 1x per week, plus whenever you have to add water.

You could also use dichlor, and wouldn't have to add stabilizer manually. It will be more work to control the metals, whenever you have to add water, if you go that way.

MEANWHILE, add bleach in the evening, 1/2 gallon at a time to maintain your pool while you decide. But, the first time you add, add 1 whole gallon of 6% plain bleach, close to sunset. Test the water first thing in the morning, and again in the evening with OTO, not DPD. Let me know what you find.