spring startup

[Watermom]

if it's sodium dichloro.........(long, unpronounceable word), then that also contains CYA, actually more pound-per-pound than trichlor does, if I'm not mistaken.

Jan is right about that. Dichlor adds 9ppm of CYA for every 10ppm of chlorine it adds. Trichlor adds 6ppm of CYA per 10ppm of chlorine.

[PoolDoc]

Jarsh,

The bottom line is that every approach to pool chemistry is "a little complicated" till you get used to it.

I can still remember first encountering pool chemistry, when I was hired by a pool store to work for them as a plumber (which I was) and service manager (which I did rather badly). I've always had a knack for chemistry (A+ in high school chemistry, and in the honors lab class), but I didn't know pool chemistry.

There's no alternative but to work through it. Once you pick an approach, and work through it, it will become easy and familiar. But, it can't be that easy at first. We can work you through that process . . . but YOU are still the one who has to master it.

Unfortunately, shortcuts in learning pool chemistry put you at the mercy of a predatory pool retail trade. The simple fact is, pool stores staff can be honest and ignorant, and profitable. Or they can be knowledgeable and dishonest, and profitable. But there is simply no way for them to be honest AND knowledgeable . . . AND profitable! So pool stores come in three types: knowledgeable, OR honest, OR going-out-of-business.

The most knowledgeable, but dishonest, ones are too bad: they know enough to not 'pool-store' you badly enough to drive you away. That way, they can keep ripping you off for years!

[jarsch]

Thanks for all the help my PH is 7.6 my Ta is 60 ppm how can I raise the TA without raising the PH? Thanks Jerry

[aylad]

You can raise the TA by using plain Arm & Hammer baking soda, but if you're going to use unstabilized chlorine from here out, the TA is just fine at 60 ppm.

Janet

[PoolDoc]

Janet's right, of course.

But, why do you want to raise your TA? It's a fiberglass pool. With your CYA that high, you are going to have to run VERY high levels of chlorine to avoid algae. Using bleach won't lower your CYA; it will just keep it from going higher.

You'd be better off adding borates (and acid) to get additional pH stabilization in the water. LOW carbonate alkalinity -- the part of TA that baking soda raises -- inhibits algae. High borates ALSO inhibit algae. On your pool, 6 boxes of borax, plus 2 gallons of muriatic acid should get you there.

Read this thread: http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?13111 about using muriatic safely.

[jarsch]

When testing water with regents does temp ( 50 F ) affect readings Thanks Jerry

[PoolDoc]

I don't think so, but it will slow reaction times, so you may want double or triple the time you wait before reading, especially on the chlorine and CYA tests.