Re: First steps since refilling + waterfall question
You give me a bit too much credit Carl -- I've posted on here a couple of times before. I also foolishly assumed readers would know my pool specs from those prior posts; I've now corrected that with the info in my signature.
I'm surprised by your comment about the importance of measuring CC. I naively assumed that since CC doesn't affect balance and it doesn't help sanitize the pool, it isn't all that critical to measure. What am I missing?
The point about the waterfall and aerating may be moot. I've discovered to my disappointment that I basically can't run my pool pump on high for very long if I don't also run the waterfall -- for some reason it switches to a low speed mode which seems pretty useless to me. I can just barely feel the water pulsing slowly through my Kreepy Krawly which itself doesn't run with the low pressure. So when I'm adding chemicals, my choices seem to be to run at low (useless?) speed or run with the waterfall turned on. FWIW, I asked the pool contractor who drained the pool for me about this and he said as a practical matter the waterfall shouldn't have much of an aerating effect.
My biggest problem right now is that ISTM that I'm adding an awful lot of acid and bleach without making much headway, especially in the pH / TA department. Here's the most recent history of measurements and additions (missing measurement means it wasn't measured):
Goals:
FC 4
pH 7.2 (interim goal for ratcheting down TA, ultimate goal is 7.5)
TA 80
CH 300?
CYA 30
6/25 evening:
FC 1
pH 7.9
TA 100
CH 225
CYA < 30 (still see the dot somewhat with tube completely full)
added 44 oz of 14.5% muriatic acid, no bleach (got called away)
note: acid levels added are approx 50% of pool calculator recommendation
6/26 morning:
FC 0.5
CC 0
pH 7.5
TA 100
added 26 oz of 14.5% muriatic acid, 108 oz 6% bleach
6/26 evening:
FC 2
CC 0
pH 7.6
TA 125
after dark I will add 40 oz acid, 62 oz bleach
Bather load is 0. My TA is actually rising! (To be fair, I'm using 25 ppm / drop titrations, so perhaps it is basically staying the same within the margin of error).
Should I be more aggressive with my acid additions? Should I consider adding more CYA? I hope I won't be forced to live with this level of acid / bleach consumption on an ongoing basis.
Also, I should note that I'm still trying to get the hang of properly reading the pH colors. I've now started bouncing the sunlight off my white notebook paper -- does that seem reasonable?
15000 gallon Pebble Tec with cartridge filter. Popular watering hole for local quail, doves, squirrels, &c, &c. Congregation of bees near the overflow outlet is a capital offense!
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