New water startup

[CarlD]

Hi Tommy,
First, raise pH with the borax. Start with half a box and wait an hour to test it. You should see TA come up some. When your pH is right, you may see that TA is around 100--and that's fine. I am currently running a TA of 60-70, but my pH didn't move for 7 weeks. Now, I've put in some tri-chlor (I want the CYA) so I've had to compensate for lowering pH. I'm doing it the simplest way--Aeration. If I need to raise TA later, I will.

Your pH is being depressed by the Tri-Chlor tabs. They are extremely acid. So you have to compensate. Borax is good for that as it will add some to TA. You can use Washing Soda as well...it adds more to TA than Borax.

Carl

[madwil]

As far as the cl level- depends on your CYA. If you have < 30, cl of 2 or 3 is fine, as your cya gets higher so should your FC
See the best guess chart to find your goal FC level...

[aylad]

The "best guess chart" madwil is referring to can be found in the link in my sig....