Test Results - Please Review

[Watermom]

Sorry for the late reply, but the answer was "yes." Any time you are trying to clear a pool, you should always run the pump 24/7.

[Jacob99]

No worries...i did lower it and pump has been running. Gonna go test again in a little bit. I have to say I'm kind of enjoying it so far considering I haven't used the pool yet. Will I get over it? LoL

[Jacob99]

Got my new readings...chlorine low again...damn my lack of stabilizer!

FC: 1.8
CC: 0.2

pH: 8.0 (I really don't understand how this is possible. I was at 7.0 yesterday. I added 1 gallon of liquid stabilizer, 1 gallon of liquid chlorine, and one 76oz box of Borax. According to the pool calculators, I needed 169oz of Borax to raise my level to 7.4. I used less than half of that because that's all I had on hand, and it raised it to 8.0. Very strange. So one drop of the R005 turned it to the desired color of pH, so I will need 22oz of Muriatic acid to get back down to a 7.5 pH reading. (I think)

TA: 50 (the Taylor kit says it'll turn from green to red, but it's more of a pink, right?)

CYA: I didn't even notice that the lowest level on the tube is 30, and I already knew I would only have around 15 so I guess I just wasted my drops. Oh well, won't be doing that again. I have some HTH stabilizer that I'll be putting in over the next couple of days to raise up my CYA.

I guess I'm just concerned with the pH. Did I do something wrong?

Edit: I just checked and I have no idea where I got 169oz from? I guess I should double check my numbers before adding chemicals. Regardless, to get from 7.0 to 7.5 it says I needed 95oz of Borax and I only put 76oz, so I still don't understand how I got from 7.0 to 8.0.

[PoolDoc]

I'm about at the point of encouraging people to ignore the "add this much, to get X change in pH" part of the PoolCalcultor. In my opinion, it causes more trouble than it's worth. It's much better simply to add a basic dose, wait, and the recheck the pH.

Or, if you REALLY just have to single-shot the pH adjustment, you can use the acid or base demand tables in the K2006. I guess, if there's enough demand, we could cobble together a basic borax addition table for that test.

Here's general rule: simple calculated doses to change pH by 0.X pH units are NOT reliable. Just use a basic dose (1/2 box borax; 1/4 gallon of muriatic) on your pool, when you need to make a change. Add, wait, retest -- and repeat if needed!

But, in this case, adding too much borax is not bad. Having a 50+ ppm borates residual will make your pool somewhat more resistant to algae, and your water a bit more 'sparkle-y'. A LOT of people do this deliberately.

Do you have a Sams Club in your area? If you do, you might want to make a run, and pick up 50# of "PoolBrand Chlorinating Granules" for $105. (That's what it costs, in Chattanooga, anyhow.) Using it will
1. raise your chlorine
2. raise your stabilizer
3. lower your pH.

You probably won't be want to use it exclusively -- if you do, and use it all up this season, you'll end up with a CYA level near 130 ppm. You can do that, but you have to make some modifications. But, it would get you into range very quickly right now, and make the next month, very easy. After that, you'll have to switch to using bleach or cal hypo some of the time, instead of just dichlor.

Do NOT buy dichlor from Walmart or Costco -- they've 'gone over to the dark side' and are selling hodge-podge dichlor + mystery goo blends. Locations like Lowes, Home Depot or Ace Hardware may have the plain dichlor OR they may have the pool version of chemical hobo soup. If you try to buy there, may sure you can read the chemical labels correctly. Otherwise, if you want a smaller quantity, you can get it from Amazon:

Kem-Tek Dichlor 12lbs
Kem-Tek Dichlor 22.5lbs

If you buy the 12lb size, you'll have 36 ppm stabilizer in your pool when it's gone. With the 22lb size, you'll have about 66 ppm.

[Jacob99]

I already added about 2 lbs of stabilizer today (dissolved pretty quickly in front of my return - about 1 hour per pound). That being said, after this I think my CYA level will be around 25 or so by tomorrow.

Won't stabilizer lower my pH a little? I plan on testing tomorrow then putting in another 2 lbs of stabilizer which should bring my CYA up to 35 or so which was my target. If my pH comes down to say 7.8 or so with the stabilizer then I should be good right? I would rather not buy the dichlor if I don't have to. I've spent enough money this week...lol.

[PoolDoc]

Won't stabilizer lower my pH a little?

Not much.

If you've already got stabilizer to add, and want to continue add bleach in the evenings, that will work OK, too.

[Jacob99]

Thanks. I have been adding only in the evenings. Do you think I should add a few ounces of Muriatic Acid, or just wait it out to see where it's at after I get the CYA to my target level. Also, do you think 35 is a good target (for CYA), or should it be a little higher?

[PoolDoc]

I'd rather you get 2 consecutive days of chlorine AND pH results, and let me see what they are, before you start pouring in acid. Low pH can damage pool liners. High pH is not good, either, but the effects are much slower.

[Jacob99]

I'd rather you get 2 consecutive days of chlorine AND pH results, and let me see what they are, before you start pouring in acid. Low pH can damage pool liners. High pH is not good, either, but the effects are much slower.

Great. Thank you. I'll report back later on.

[Jacob99]

Unfortunately I didn't get to test yesterday. I was way too busy. I did add another pound of stabilizer yesterday though. I tested first thing this morning, and these are the results:

FC: 2.4
CC: 0.4
pH: 7.3 (didn't put any acid it - not sure why pH has been so jumpy)
TA: 60
CYA: 55!!

How the heck did my CYA get up to 55? The only thing I've put in is liquid chlorine, stabilizer, and a box of Borax (the one from 2 days ago). I put in a gallon of liquid stabilizer which was suppose to raise 30ppm for 10,000 gallons, I have almost 24,000 gallons so we'll call that less than 15ppm that I should've gained. Then I only added 3 of the 4 lbs of HTH powdered stabilizer. According to the label of the HTH stabilizer for a 20ppm increase in 20,000 gallons I should use 4lbs and I only used 3 of the 4 like I said. So, 20ppm plus the 15ppm of the liquid stabilizer = 35ppm which are the same numbers I got using the pool calculator, and since I only used 3 of the 4 lbs I should be under 35ppm. I'm confused where this extra 20+ppm came from. Is it possible that the water I had trucked in had some CYA in it already? I wish I had tested yesterday before adding that 3rd pound!

Another thing, I've been running my pump 24x7 the last 3-4 days since I've been putting in stabilizer, Borax, etc. It's been running on low, and I've noticed a decrease in pump pressure. On low, it was previously just under 10psi, but now it's under 5psi. What would cause that?