1st Test, 1st steps

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FC - 1.5
CC - Didn't test yet.
pH - 7.2
TA - 110
CH - 175
CYA - Didn't test yet.

Step 1: Adding another 30oz of liquid chlorine to bring it to 3ppm.
Step 2: Acid to lower TA?
Step 3: Aerate overnight to raise pH back up?
 
ramahon said:
Step 1: Adding another 30oz of liquid chlorine to bring it to 3ppm.
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Target 6 ppm. You should lose 2-4 ppm per day. By this time tomorrow, you'll see how much you lost. Then target 6 ppm again.
ramahon said:
Step 2: Acid to lower TA?
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Use muriatic acid to control pH. Its too low to add MA now. When pH gets up to 8 ppm, drop to 7.5. This will lower TA incrementally. With CH in the low range, you don't want your pH too low.
ramahon said:
Step 3: Aerate overnight to raise pH back up?
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No hurry. pH will rise on its own.

You should consider increasing CH by 50 ppm. It will rise on its own with evaporation and top offs, but its a bit low now.

Make sure you track CSI in Pool Math. Try to keep CSI in the 0.0 to -0.30 range.

www.troublefreepool.com

Calcium Saturation Index (CSI)

How is CSI calculated? Very simple – use our PoolMath tool. To ensure long plaster life and save money, click here to learn more.
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
Get you FC up to about 6 and do an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test tonight.
If you don't pass the OCLT then you need to SLAM Process.
If you do pass the OCLT, increase your CYA to about 50 and adjust FC to the top end of the target range for CYA 50.

It's supposed to approaxh or exceed 110 degrees later this week. At CYA 30, you FC will burn off fast.
When I used liquid chlorine, I kept my CYA at 50 or 60 in the summer.
 
Rancho Cost-a-Lotta said:
@proavia

You're from The general area. Would you recommend increasing CH to 225 or will that happen soon enough? It looks like the CH of his fill water is about 175 ppm.
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I "might" increase the CH to 200-225. But we are in that time of year where we will lose 1/2" to 1" of water to evaporation daily. On the cautious side, increasing the CH a little would be good..
BUT, did the OP take the CH (and TA) test to its actual endpoint or did they stop adding drops too soon?

@ramahon - for the CH and TA tests, continue adding drops until the last drop does NOT change the color any further and then subtract that last drop that didn't change the color further.
CH test endpoint should be baby blue
TA test endpoint should be barbie pink
The above colors are to my eyes - yours may be slightly different. The important part is taking the test to its endpoint.

@Rancho Cost-a-Lotta - Mike
My CH out of the tap is a bit higher at 200-250 (based on time of year and city water source) - so even at 200 this time of year, I wouldn't add any CH. But I would keep pH in the high 7's to keep CSI in the 0.00 to -0.30 range.
 
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proavia said:
My CH out of the tap is a bit higher at 200-250 (based on time of year and city water source) - so even at 200 this time of year, I wouldn't add any CH. But I would keep pH in the high 7's to keep CSI in the 0.00 to -0.30 range.
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Thanks Gene. These were my thoughts also.
 
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Appreciate the dialogue on thread. Nice to read through everyone’s thought process. I’ll get FC to 6ppm tonight and then do a full test. I’m fairly certain I took both to the end but we shall see. Testing for OCLT just needs to be after sun down and before sun up, correct?
 

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ramahon said:
FC - 1.5
CC - 0
pH - 8.2+
A - 200
CYA - 0
CH - 1200

I just got my TF-Pro kit. Tested CYA twice. All last year I used 73% hypo to chlorinate the pool and very rarely used pucks. Uneducated decision which led to the CH being sky high. I have been dealing with a yellowish algae, only kept away when adding ~ 80oz of 10% liquid chlorine a day. With my CYA at zero, this now makes sense.

Given no recourse but draining for CH, I’ve drained about 80% of my pool. What would the experts suggest next? Anything I should do while I have the pool mostly drained to set myself up for success?
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Hi Ramahon,

Forgive me for not answering your ultimate question and for asking a question in return, but can you help me understand why you see using 73% cal hypo to predominantly chlorinate as a bad idea? Is my biggest risk if that high Calcium Hardness?

My CH is presently quite low, and I was about to add 60 lb of calcium carbonat, to raise the CH. Maybe should I add less CH Up and just keep using my cal hypo to chlorinate?

Thanks for considering this!
 
Calcium hypochlorite is not necessarily bad. However, consistent use is usually not sustainable as CH levels will rise well beyond recommended levels. This can lead to scaling and cloudy water.. As long as CH levels are monitored, there's nothing wrong with using calhypo.
 
Alright - Most recent test. I ran pH, TA and CH twice. Had my wife act as another set of eyes on the pH. Clearly I misread the first round and appears I didn’t take TA to the end as well.
------------------------------------------
Test Results 06-03-2024 @ 08:36 PM
------------------------------------------
Free Chlorine: 6.0
Combined Chlorine: 6.5
pH: 7.8
Total Alkalinity: 130
Calcium Hardness: 175
Temperature: 83°F
CSI: 0.23
 
All is well. Keep CH as is. It will rise with top offs. In Pool Math, see how low you can go with pH to keep CSI above -0.30. As mentioned, TA will come down as you add MA to keep pH in range. You'll prolly be good to drop pH down to 7.2.
 
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