Dealing with scale problem

[PoolDoc]

What kit?

Taylor or Lamotte titration kits (drops) are OK. Some of the others -- not so much.

What you have to understand is that pool industry chemical sales DEPEND -- to the tune of $100,000,000's annually -- on inaccurate testing. And I mean that literally, not figuratively. If every pool owner had, and used, a K2006 appropriately, it would cost the pool chemical industry more than $500,000,000 each year. And again, I mean that literally; that is not an exaggerated number.

I'm not saying that everyone who contributes to bad testing is doing so maliciously, though some are. What I am saying is that accurate and valid water testing would seriously hurt EVERY pool chemical company and EVERY swimming pool dealer in the country. That kind of cuts down on their incentive to provide accurate testing, wouldn't you think?

When you add the fact that pool owners want, and ask for, easier testing methods, and the fact that they will spend money on 'cooler' test methods, like the expensive AND inaccurate electronic test strip readers, it's easy to see how the current situation developed.

NOBODY would prefer the K2006 to test strips IF the test strips were adequate. For a new pool owner, the K2006 is confusing and intimidating.

But, as Albert Einstein is reported to have said, we "try to make things as easy as possible . . . but no easier!".

The K2006 is not as easy as 90% of pool owners would like, but it IS as "easy as possible", given the need for relatively accurate testing.

[beaverplt]

I bought a HTH 6 test kit at Walmart. They did not have a K2006. I should have mentioned earlier that I have issues with my local pool stores. Both of them have always steered me to the highest price solutions to any problems I've had. For example, I used their acid reducer for the first few years of pool ownership, until one year, they were out of it. As I left the store, one of their techs caught me and told me to go to my local Ace to get a gallon of muriatic acid. I was so upset by this deception that now I only will go to them as a last resort. Anyway, I've used HTH products in the past with no problems, so I have faith this is also a good product. I'm guessing someone makes it for HTH.

I tested again this morning with the same results; PH at 7.2, TA of 80, hardness of 210. Bad news is my CA is almost 0. I added the recommended amount of stabilizer and will test that again tomorrow. My pool water is crystal clear, very cold, and has some very stubborn green and black algae clinging to the vinyl.

[PoolDoc]

The HTH 6-way is made by Taylor, and is good enough for now. The TA, CH and CYA tests are the same as the K2006, though there's less reagent.

HTH is *NOT* a trustworthy brand.

15 years ago, it was more trustworthy than any of the BioLab brands (BioGuard, HydroTech, Pool Time, Aqua Chem, Omni, etc.) but it was not profitable enough, and Olin spun it off as an independent, Arch Chemical. Several years ago, Arch hired a former Sr VP from BioLab to be the Arch CEO, and Arch / HTH has gradually become JUST as deceptive and predatory as Biolab.

Fundamentally, there are NO pool chemical brands that are genuinely worthy of trust, but BioLab set the mark in using skilled marketing and high tech methods to sell baking soda ('sodium hydrogen carbonate' => alkalinity increaser) for $2 - 3 per pound MORE than the grocery store price.

What's worse, both BioLab and Arch/HTH sell chemicals you should never, or almost never, put in your pools.

That doesn't mean that everything made, or sold, by BioLab or Arch is a bad product or a bad deal: we often recommend the HTH 6-way, made by Taylor, since it's available locally, and the K2006 is not.

[Watermom]

By CA do you mean chlorine or CYA? I think you meant the latter. If you meant chlorine is 0, get some in there! Don't retest your CYA for about a week to give it time to dissolve or else you may be wasting the reagents.

(By the way, the Taylor K2006 is not available locally anyplace that we have heard of. Has to be ordered online. )

[beaverplt]

Hi, Yes I did mean CYA. Wish I would have read this before I tested CYA again this morning. OOPs. Anyway, Now that I seem to have my chlorine, PH, TA, and hardness in line, I need to attack my algae problem. My problem is severe. All, and I mean all of the liner is covered with green, black and a yellowish green algae. It does not come off unless vigorously scrubbed. I've been running my pool cleaner as much as possible with barely any headway made. In the past if I've had issues, I've used fairly inexpensive algae guards, mostly HTH, with good results. Now after reading things on the forum along with comments on this thread, I don't want to go headlong into buying anything. Any suggestions?
BTW, thanks so much for the input thus far.

[Watermom]

Your chlorine cannot "be inline" if you are fighting algae. (I'm not sure what level that means.) The way to kill algae is to shock your pool (based on your CYA level) and hold it at that high level until it is dead. Brush the pool frequently when the chlorine is high and run your pump 24/7, cleaning your filter as needed. Take a look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature below. It shows the correlation between CYA levels and needed chlorine levels.

[beaverplt]

Hi Watermom. I'm assuming that stabilizer levels in the chart and CYA are the same thing? My test kit gives me a chlorine level over 5 ppm. My CYA is probably still low as I only added stabilizer on Saturday. Does that mean my "free chlorine" is low and therefore my chlorine is ineffective?

[PoolDoc]

stabilizer = "conditioner" (mostly in Calif) = cyanuric acid = isocyanuric acid = CYA = "CA" (some kit instructions => C.A., cyanuric acid) = etc.

Why have just one name for a chemical, when you can have a half dozen?

[Watermom]

Did you look at the Best Guess Chlorine Chart in my signature above to understand the CYA (stabilizer) and chlorine connection?

Your kit only has the capacity to measure to a chlorine reading of 5ppm which means you can't really tell what your chlorine is when it reads 5ppm. This is one of the main reasons we want people to order the K2006 as it can measure chlorine levels way higher than that.

Assuming that your CYA is still low since it was just recently added, you need to get your chlorine level up to around 10-12 and try and hold it there in order to kill the algae. Since your kit won't read higher than 5, you kind of just have to judge based on the color. Take a look at the first post in the following thread. If you click on the link in that first post, it will give you a color matching to try and decipher what various OTO colors mean in terms of chlorine levels. (Your kit uses an OTO chlorine test.) Aim to keep yours in the very dark yellow/orange level.

http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...sults-by-color

[beaverplt]

Hi again, Yes, I did look over the chlorine chart, and it makes sense. I'm not sure I understand the difference between the two "shock" columns. Looks like I need to get out to buy some more shock. Did I read in another forum that some people use regular unscented chlorine bleach instead of paying for shock? I'm assuming you need to use more due to the smaller amt of active ingredients.
One question I have is about CYA levels is the relationship between CYA levels, total chlorine levels and free chlorine levels. When CYA levels are closer to "normal" is there less of a spread between total and free chlorine levels?
Also, how long does stabilizer levels take to rise after addition to the pool?

P.S. one more name for stabilizer - clarifier.