My new house with a pool

[SBR_GUY]

I just purchased a house with a pool 10+yrs old.

Anyway My chemical levels are. Cl=2.5 , Alkalinity 165 , PH 7.5 give or take, after adding 2 quarts of acid over 2 days. I want to try the BBB method except my friend who is a pool guy came over and said HEY Pool RX is ticket and gave me one, so stupid me put it in.

So I am looking for some advice on what to do.

[PoolDoc]

1. Keep your chlorine levels above 2 ppm all the time.

2. Disconnect / remove the PoolRX -- it adds copper to your pool. You probably do NOT want to do that -- copper stains are a PAIN to remove, and there are better ways to deal with algae.

3. Order a K2006 kit -link below in my blue signature block. Accurate testing is the cornerstone of easy pool care -- and test strips are anything but accurate.

[SBR_GUY]

1. Keep your chlorine levels above 2 ppm all the time.

2. Disconnect / remove the PoolRX -- it adds copper to your pool. You probably do NOT want to do that -- copper stains are a PAIN to remove, and there are better ways to deal with algae.

3. Order a K2006 kit -link below in my blue signature block. Accurate testing is the cornerstone of easy pool care -- and test strips are anything but accurate.

I have a DPD test kit (Taylor K-1004). It has been very windy here the past few days, so I checked my Cl and PH last night. The Cl was >2 and the PH was >8. I added a quart of acid. OH by the way my pool is about 15000gal and it is plaster with a jacuzi that overflows into the pool. The pool also has the pop up heads that are suppose to clean it (this works ok, but I still brush it and skim the tumbleweeds LOL).

[PoolDoc]

OK. You need to go get a cheap OTO kit.

The Taylor DPD drops only read to about 5 ppm Cl. But, at levels around 10 - 15 ppm Cl, the reading will begin to drop, and by 25 ppm, will read 0 ppm. In this same range, the phenol red will be converted to chlorophenol red -- a different indicator -- and will read high. Unlike DPD drops, OTO will NOT bleach out. If you get an OTO orange result (not shown on the test block) you need to disregard your pH reading, until your chlorine drops below 10 ppm.

There is another alternative. Diluting pool water with distilled (not: "bottled", "spring", "artesian well", etc) water will not change the pH enough to notice. Go to Walmart, get BOTH an OTO / phenol red kit (yellow/red drops) AND a gallon of distilled water. Mix pool water 50:50 with distilled water, and retest. Your DPD reading should drop by 1/2: if it goes UP, your chlorine is very high. Your pH reading should be unchanged: if it changes, trust the diluted reading more than the original reading.

The DPD-FAS test does not suffer these problems.

You need an OTO kit for quick and dirty readings, and a DPD-FAS kit for accurate ones.

[SBR_GUY]

OK. You need to go get a cheap OTO kit.

The Taylor DPD drops only read to about 5 ppm Cl. But, at levels around 10 - 15 ppm Cl, the reading will begin to drop, and by 25 ppm, will read 0 ppm. In this same range, the phenol red will be converted to chlorophenol red -- a different indicator -- and will read high. Unlike DPD drops, OTO will NOT bleach out. If you get an OTO orange result (not shown on the test block) you need to disregard your pH reading, until your chlorine drops below 10 ppm.

There is another alternative. Diluting pool water with distilled (not: "bottled", "spring", "artesian well", etc) water will not change the pH enough to notice. Go to Walmart, get BOTH an OTO / phenol red kit (yellow/red drops) AND a gallon of distilled water. Mix pool water 50:50 with distilled water, and retest. Your DPD reading should drop by 1/2: if it goes UP, your chlorine is very high. Your pH reading should be unchanged: if it changes, trust the diluted reading more than the original reading.

The DPD-FAS test does not suffer these problems.

You need an OTO kit for quick and dirty readings, and a DPD-FAS kit for accurate ones.

OK so if I get the DPD-FAS kit (Taylor K-2006c) I should be ok?? or should I still get the OTO? Sorry for all the questions, but I want to have a trouble free pool. OH also my TA is about 160ppm.

[PoolDoc]

Get the OTO, so you can have some reliable, if not super accurate, testing now. Later, the OTO will allow you to do very quick and easy testing (almost strip-like) in between K2006 full testing.

Oh. And don't over-test CYA: the K2006 is sort of short on CYA tests. This isn't a problem for experienced users, since they know CYA doesn't change rapidly or need to be tested every time. But new users sometimes blow through all the CYA tests in their first month, and have to buy refills.

[SBR_GUY]

Get the OTO, so you can have some reliable, if not super accurate, testing now. Later, the OTO will allow you to do very quick and easy testing (almost strip-like) in between K2006 full testing.

Oh. And don't over-test CYA: the K2006 is sort of short on CYA tests. This isn't a problem for experienced users, since they know CYA doesn't change rapidly or need to be tested every time. But new users sometimes blow through all the CYA tests in their first month, and have to buy refills.

I have not tested CYA yet, but i will this weekend or tonight. The privious owner was using chlorine tabs so im sure it has some CYA in it.

So which kit the K-1000 or the K-1003

[SBR_GUY]

Now I have acsess to a HACH DR/2400 spectrophotometer. I am going to borrow it tonight to test my Cl and use the HACH handheld meter to test my PH.

[PoolDoc]

That's fine.

But make sure you do a double buffer calibration on the pH meter. Regardless of their cost, pH meters are USELESS without calibration OR if they have old or plugged electrodes.

And keep in mind that if you use the HACH DPD method . . . it is subject to the EXACT same problems as the Taylor 1004.

If you have a spec, you probably can do accurate dilutions. Test with OTO drops first: a DARK yellow OTO result is probably out of range for the HACH; orange certainly is. If you get a dark yellow or orange result, do a 1:3 dilution with distilled water, and multiply the HACH result x4 .

[BigDave]

Don't let that gizmo stop you from ordering a K-2006. The FAS-DPD titration test will give you accurate, repeatable (useful) readings. Maybe you could do a comparison and let us know how well it works.