First steps since refilling + waterfall question

[Watermom]

I wouldn't add any more cya yet. You just added it yesterday if I am reading your post above correctly. It will take about a week for it to dissolve so if you add more now, you may overshoot your target. Wait awhile until you retest cya so you don't waste your reagents.

Go ahead and add a bit more acid at a time to get the pH down to 7.2. Closely monitor the pH and if you accidentally take it too low, just add some Borax.

The reason we want to see a CC reading is to help us see if something is brewing in the water. Often, before you can see anything green or cloudy, you'll have a CC reading and that is a red flag to alert you to step up the chlorine. That is why Carl asked for it.

Sounds like you are doing well learning how to handle the pool. Good job and keep us posted how things are going.

Oh --- one more thing --- the white paper behind the tester is a good idea. Hope this helps!

[laughingboy]

I think I screwed up the timeframe for adding the CYA on my other post -- I actually added it the night of the 23rd, so it's been about three full days, but in any event I take your point. The CYA test is especially expensive in terms of reagents -- it uses 7 ml each time along with 7 ml of water. I've maybe tested 3 times and I'm already about halfway through my supply.

I suppose you could mix up less as long as it was 50/50 if your CYA level was high. That doesn't do me any good right now. They really need to make a more sensitive reagent :-)

[CarlD]

The CYA test is intensive. I actually have a pint bottle of the reagent in a closet to refill the little bottles in the kits.

Unless your waterfall is a dribble, it will aerate your pool. Hate to say it, but the builder is probably wrong. Even pointing your returns at the surface aerates. On one of the few times I needed to lower TA, I used a cheap fountain sprayer the screws into the return. It was a lot of fun for the kids and worked very rapidly to raise pH.

As Watermom said, CC is a bell-weather. If you have a measurable level of Combined Chloramines, it means your chlorine is working to metabolize something, so you may have to shock your pool to get rid of that "something".