Another newbie with a pool filled with limeade!

[aylad]

With a CC of 0 and clear water, no excessive chlorine demand, I'd go ahead and get in it. Up your chlorine just a bit first--with a CYA of 95, if you don't keep your chlorine at least 8 ppm, it won't be long before it looks like limeade again. But keep it between 8-15 ppm and you shouldn't have a problem.
Your pH and TA can be addressed at the same time, using the information from the sticky in the "Alkalinity and Calcium" forum--but for right now, there's no reason why you can't swim in it--neither of your readings are critical.

You won't be sorry about buying the test kit, I promise--I can't tell you how much money, time, frustration, and lost swim time you're saving yourself by being able to test and control your own pool!!

Janet

[MCOAvalanche]

Added 2 gallons of chlorine and cup of muriatic acid, went to pool store and -sigh- here are my numbers:

CC - 0.0
FC - 5.0
TC - 5.0
PH - 7.8
TOT ALK - 90
CALCIUM HARDNESS - 275
STABILIZER - 100
TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS - 900

I guess my question is how can I see numbers jump around like this AND pH go up? Is it just tester error at the pool store? I really cannot wait for the Taylor test kit to show up. Hopefully it just needs to settle down but I don't get why the chlorine stayed constant and the pH went UP by adding muriatic acid.

Regardless, pool water looks beautifully clear and blue. Thanks for all the help.

[aylad]

My guess would be tester error--it's amazing that you can take the same water sample to 3 different stores and get 3 different test results. Actually, your test numbers are closer to consistent than they usually are! That's why we always recommend that you do your own testing--so you know you can trust your numbers. And if you're going to test your own water, you may as well get a comprehensive kit that tests for everything you need--hence the recommendation for the Taylor kit.

Either way, I see nothing wrong with your numbers that would prevent me swimming in the water, except that your chlorine still needs to come up a little bit.

Janet

[PoolDoc]

Hi MCO . ..

I'm not sure what you mean by your numbers jumping around. They look really stable to me.

7.4 7.8 7.7 7.7
100 90 120 100
300 275 320 330
100 100 95 100
700 900 700 700

That's very stable, and well within the limits of error for most GOOD test kits and pool test methods.

To put it another way, if you put a gallon jug of pool water in your fridge, kept it sealed, and then took a sample of the water to be tested 4 days in a row . . . you'd expect to see as much variability as you show, simply from intrinsic testing error.

Ben
"PoolDoc"