ok, more detective work tonight.

I take a sample to the pool store and they tell me I have cya of 11, fc of 4.9, cc of 0, ph of 7.5 and alk of 64. I buy 2 cya, it comes in 1.75 pound bottles.

I go home and use what I have left with Ben's kit and my new taylor k2006 kit. My reagents with Ben's kit are 2 years old.

Both kits test chlorine at 6.5 fc and .5 cc. pool store 0, me 1
PH shows color of about 7.4, close enough. pool store 1, me 1
alkaline shows 80 on Ben's kit, 90 on taylor. pool store 0, me 1

But the cya test is not so clear.


I mix the reagent and let it sit while I do all the tests. Using Ben's kit, it looks like cya = 30. I can still see a little of the black dot, but I'd say 30 is close enough.

The taylor kit goes to 100, but it tops out (bottoms out?) at 30. When I fill it and look down, even waist high, I can see the black dot. Only a little cloudy. I can't tell if I have 30, 20, or 10.

Taylor tells me I have much less than 30, Ben's old kit says about 30.

So it seems to me I have more of a testing problem than a cya problem. But I did but in 7 or 8 pounds already this year. I did not drain, but we have had rain. So that may account for some loss of cya.


I am adding about 3/4 pound cya tonight, and 1.5 gal of bleach to shock. My water is clear, but there is algae trying to grow in the folds on the bottom.