New Pool Questions

[sunofthebeach]

The same thing happens to me with the Walmart 5 way test kit. I think there is something in the pool water that throws off the results and gives that pale yellow color.

Test some tap water and the test will work correctly, so its not the test.

I have not really been able to figure it out and I have seen a couple of threads on this on the old board.

[waterbear]

The same thing happens to me with the Walmart 5 way test kit. I think there is something in the pool water that throws off the results and gives that pale yellow color.

Test some tap water and the test will work correctly, so its not the test.

I have not really been able to figure it out and I have seen a couple of threads on this on the old board.

check out this thread
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=131

the walmart kit is a bit different. I have one also and sometimes get that pale yellow color. I beleive the instructions say to put 2 drops of the indicator in the water. Try putting as many as 10 drops in and I think you will find it will work. I suspect that the problem is either metals interfering with the test (they can be pre-chelated out as per the thread I posted above) or some other interference (pH maybe?) I almost believe that the walmart kit is testing total alkalinity and not calcium alkalinity since the test sample is not made very alkaline first to remove the magnesium interference, but that is just a guess on my part.

[md_rider]

Thanks, I'll give that a try tomorrow.

Can't wait to be able to turn the heater on. It was near 80 degrees today, but the water temp is still at 59. A little too cold for me.