Question about CH Test Coloration

[jmarcum]

I went to a Leslie's this am and had them do a water test. The results are nearly identical to mine and apple to oranges from the little local pool store nearby. Now I see the importance of what you guys teach here! Had I listened to that pool store I'd wasted a bunch of money and had my pool all out of whack.

[CarlD]

Numbers look really, really good.

I wouldn't mess with them--and the T/A is TECHNICALLY high, but if you don't see clouding or scaling and your pH doesn't trend up, it's too close to mess with.
TDS and Pho numbers are BS. If you had a salt water chlorine generator, the salt alone puts TDS at 3000--where it is SUPPOSED to be!

We recommend you generally do not worry about phosphates unless you have a bad algae bloom you cannot resolve and your phosphate level is very, very high (I think 3000 again is the number). But if you're NOT having algae problems you cannot control, it's irrelevant.

The Leslie Brand test kits are made by Taylor and other than costing a bit more, are the same. So their FAS-DPD Chlorine Service Test Kit is really a re-badged K-2006. Their own OTO/pH test kit is, again, the Taylor-Made OTO kit, my preferred one.