Looking for direction

[mrscabrera]

Ok. I'm back from Sams/Walmart. I didn't put in any chemicals today....just did a good vac. I bought 6 gallons of 8.25% bleach, and an OTO test kit. Ph is reading 7.2 and chlorine is barely registering. Looks like about 0.5
I'm going to put the bleach in now. How long should I wait to retest?

And does water temp matter? It's still a bit chilly.

[PoolDoc]

Add bleach in 2 gallon increments; allow 2 hours of pump operation before retesting.

Water temp doesn't matter . . . unless you're planning to swim today!

[mrscabrera]

Super. Thanks! I will report back this evening with new results.

PS..as an aside, I asked at the pool store specifically "Won't doing this raise my CYA even higher?" I was told the trichlor will not raise it. Bull Hockey. Aaaannnd DONE. I was already done before, but that just was the icing on top.

[PoolDoc]

I asked at the pool store specifically "Won't doing this raise my CYA even higher?" I was told the trichlor will not raise it.

!

Just wow.

[mrscabrera]

Retested....I'm having difficulty distinguishing between the varying degrees of yellow. My eyes are crossed from staring at it so hard. Ha!

I wish I could put a picture of the test on here.

I -think- it calculates to a chlorine level of 15. But I had to dilute the sample 4:1 just to get a read. Looks like it matches most closely with 3. So I multiple that by 5, right?

[PoolDoc]

Don't worry about it too much; DARK yellow with a bit of orange should be high enough to keep you till you get the K2006 and can actually measure levels.

[mrscabrera]

Ok. I'll do my best to maintain where it is until the kit arrives.

Thank God for Amazon Prime.

[PoolDoc]

Thank God for Amazon Prime.

We got Prime when we were still home-schooling, and were ordering books constantly, and have had it ever since. Plus, it's been a lifesaver for me, since I often forgot to get gifts when I should'uv

[mrscabrera]

Okie doke. I finally got the test kit the other day. I had surgery 2 weeks ago, so I'm a bit lagging in getting this kit out and messing with it all.

The pool looks fantastic....crystal clear using only bleach. I do have some combined and my CYA, TA, and Ca+ are high. Bleh.
I'm afraid a partial drain is in my very near future.

FC is only 1.5
CC 0.75
pH 7.4
TA 280
Ca+ 685
cya 160

I anticipated Ca and CYA being high, so I used 50/50 dilution for the cya measurement and used the instructions for more concentrated sample to test hardness.

So.....where do I go first? Do I drain and handle the cya/hardness issue, and then retest and balance? I'm assuming the new fill water will alter my TA/pH, etc.
I really do need to test my tap water I think before I use it to fill....new house, etc. Maybe the water is super hard even with the softner and I'd only be adding to the problem.

[PoolDoc]

Do NOT drain a crystal clear pool!

If it's not broken, don't fix it!

You can do a 50:50 dilution with tap water for the CYA test, but not for any other test. For pH, TA, CH . . . you must dilute with DISTILLED water, which Walmart sells in gallon jugs for about a dollar.

Diluting for the pH test with distilled does NOT change the pH -- so there's no multiplier. It's just a way to get fairly accurate pH result when the chlorine is above 10 -15 ppm.

ABSOLUTELY, test your fill water BEFORE you even consider draining and refilling.

Once you have those results, you can think about options.