Fine Tuning a Salt Water Pool

[Watermom]

Total chlorine and Combined chlorine are not the same thing. TC is the sum of the FC plus the CC. FC is the chlorine that is available to sanitize the water. CC is the chlorine that has already been "used up" sanitizing something in the water. TC is the total chlorine. You want CC to be 0, BTW and therefore, you want your FC to be equal to your TC. (That is kind of a simplified version of each.)

Kind of funny that that online pool store ran out of kits. (Not funny if you are someone waiting for yours, however. ) What do you bet that Pool Forum had something to do with that lack of available kits! Somebody should tell them they have us to thank for their good business and how about a donation to PF!

[BigTallGuy]

O.K. Mom, to the best of my knowledge, every test I had done whether it was my own feable attempt at pool wizardry or tests performed the pool store said that my Total Chlorine and my Free chlorine were the same reading. I don't know if the pool store ever did a CC test. I assume that the Test Kit you recommend will have a CC test.

I was a little confused by the instructions in my own kit. If I do the first part of the test using tablet #1, the sample turns a pinkish color and is read on the scale next to the water sample. Here is where I am confused. If I am reading it correctly, it says to put a tablet marked #3 into the pink solution and compare the first reading with the new reading, which will only be readible if the sample got darker. Now, I would have thought that you would start with a fresh sample of water THEN drop tablet #3 into it to compare the reading.

Now you know how I got my name. Sorry Mom