Main Chemicals To Test Weekly
FC – Free Chlorine – A sanitizer which keeps your pool water safe and free of germs. Chlorine must be constantly replenished. (level depends on CYA)
PH – Acidity/Basicity – Needs to be kept in balance to prevent irritation and protect the pool equipment. (7.2 to 8.0)
TA – Total Alkalinity – Appropriate levels help keep the pH in balance. High levels can cause pH to rise. (50 to 90ppm, sometimes higher)
CH – Calcium Hardness – Appropriate levels help prevent plaster damage. High levels can cause calcium scaling. (250 to 650ppm, vinyl lower)
CYA – Cyanuric Acid – Protects chlorine from sunlight and determines the required FC level. (outdoors 30 to 60ppm, SWG 60 to 90ppm, indoors 0 to 20ppm)
Additional Chemicals
CC – Combined Chlorine – CC over 0.5ppm indicates a problem.
Salt – Required with a SWG (Salt Water Chlorine Generator), otherwise an optional enhancement.
Borate – An optional enhancement.
Phosphate – Doesn’t matter, despite pool store claims otherwise.
All nine are described in more detail below.
FC- Free Chlorine
Maintaining an appropriate FC level is the most important part of keeping your water in balance. It is important that you do not allow FC to get too low, or you run the risk of getting algae. If FC gets down to zero, or you have algae, the pool is not safe to swim in.
Free chlorine shows the level of disinfecting chlorine available (active plus reserve) to keep your pool sanitary. FC should be tested, and chlorine added daily. If you have an automatic feeder or SWG, you can test it every couple of days. FC is consumed by sunlight, and by breaking down organic material in your pool. The level of FC you need to maintain depends on your CYA level and how much you use the pool. See the Chlorine / CYA Chart for guidelines on the appropriate FC level to maintain based on your CYA level.
Recommended ways to raise FC include: household bleach, liquid chlorine, and salt water chlorine generators (SWG).
CC- Combined Chlorine
Combined chlorine is an intermediate breakdown product created in the process of sanitizing the pool. CC causes the “chlorine” smell many people associate with chlorine pools. If CC is above 0.5ppm, you should SLAM your pool. CC indicates that there is something in the water that the FC is in the process of breaking down. In an outdoor pool, CC will normally stay at or near zero as long as you maintain an appropriate FC level and the pool gets some direct sunlight.
Potassium monopersulfate (a common non-chlorine shock) will show up on FAS-DPD chlorine tests as CC. There is a special reagent you can get to neutralize the potassium monopersulfate so you can get a true CC reading.
PH – Acidity/Basicity
PH indicates how acidic or basic the water is. PH should be tested daily at first. Once you gain experience with your pool, less frequent monitoring may be appropriate, depending on your pool’s typical rate of PH change. A PH level of 7.6 to 7.8 is ideal, but really anything between 7.2 and 8.0 is doing fine.
PH levels below 7.2 tend to make eyes sting or burn. PH below 6.8 can cause damage to metal parts, particularly pool heaters with copper heat exchange coils. High PH can lead to calcium scaling.
Many pools will drift up towards higher PH over time. This is particularly true for fresh plaster (particularly in the first month and continuing for perhaps a year) or when TA is high and the water is being aerated (because of a spa, waterfall, fountain, SWG, rain, kids splashing in the pool, etc).
For lowering PH use either muriatic acid (preferred) or dry acid. To raise PH use borax or soda ash.
TA – Total Alkalinity
Total alkalinity indicates the water’s ability to buffer PH changes. Buffering means you need to use a larger quantity of a chemical to change the PH. At low TA levels, the PH tends to swing around wildly. At high TA levels, the PH tends to drift up.
You can raise TA with baking soda. It is often best to make large TA adjustments in a couple of steps, testing the water after each one, as adding large quantities of baking soda can raise the PH a little and you don’t want the PH going out of range. If you need to lower your TA level, see How To Lower Total Alkalinity.
CH – Calcium Hardness
Calcium hardness indicates the amount of calcium in the water. Over time, water with low calcium levels will tend to dissolve calcium out of plaster, pebble, tile, stone, concrete, and to some extent fiberglass surfaces. You can prevent this from happening by keeping the water saturated with calcium. In a vinyl liner pool there is no need for calcium, though high levels can still cause problems. A plaster pool or Fiberglass pool should attempt to keep their Calcium between 250 and 650 parts per million. If you have a spa you might want to keep CH at at least 100 to 150 to reduce foaming.
You increase CH with calcium chloride, sold as a deicer and by pool stores, or calcium chloride dihydrate, sold by pools stores for increasing calcium. You lower calcium by replacing water or using a reverse osmosis water treatment.
CYA – Cyanuric Acid
Cyanuric acid, often called stabilizer or conditioner, both protects FC from sunlight and lowers the effective strength of the FC (by holding some of the FC in reserve). The higher your CYA level, the more FC you need to use to get the same effect. It is important to know your CYA level so you can figure out what FC level to aim for. If you don’t have a SWG, CYA is typically kept between 30 and 60ppm. If you have a SWG, CYA is typically kept between 60 and 90ppm.
CYA can be raised with cyanuric acid. Cyanuric acid is sold under a variety of names, including Stabilizer, Conditioner, Instant Pool Water Conditioner, Stabilizer 100, Stabilizer & Conditioner, etc. Instant Pool Water Conditioner is a liquid product which is significantly more expensive than the other forms.
Solid/granular cyanuric acid (CYA) should be placed in a sock and the sock put in the skimmer basket or suspended in front of a pool return. After adding CYA you should leave the pump running for 24 hours and not backwash/clean the filter for a week. Squeezing the sock periodically will help it to dissolve faster. Test and dose chemicals in your pool assuming the amount of CYA added is in the pool according to Pool Math. CYA can be tested the day after it is fully dissolved from the sock.
In nearly all cases the best way to lower CYA is to replace water. If replacement water is extremely expensive you might want to look into a reverse osmosis water treatment.
Salt
Salt is required with a SWG. Salt can also be added to the water to enhance the subjective feel of the water. For a SWG, check the manual for the correct salt level for your unit. This level will typically around 3,000, but different models vary. For improved water feel without a SWG, try levels around 2,000ppm. These levels are less then one tenth of the salt level in ocean water, which has around 35,000 ppm of salt. People vary in their ability to taste low levels of salt. A few people can taste salt levels as low as 1,000ppm, others not until 3,500ppm or more.
Salt can be added using solar salt, sold for use in water softeners (sodium chloride). You want the kind that is 99.4% pure or better and which doesn’t have any rust inhibitor or other additives. Crystals are fine. Pellets will work but dissolve slightly more slowly. Pool store salt generally costs more and is more finely ground, but even pellets dissolve quickly enough so that isn’t really any advantage.
Borate
Borates are an optional enhancement that helps control PH drift and provides various subjective water quality/feel improvements. If you are not intentionally using borates there is no need to test for them. When using borates, the recommended level is between 30 and 50 ppm.
Phosphate
Phosphates are sometimes removed from the pool as a way of keeping algae in check. Since chlorine is required anyway, and chlorine alone can keep algae in check (even at very high phosphate levels), and since phosphate remover can be rather expensive and annoying to use, it doesn’t make much sense to use phosphate remover except in rare and unusual situations.
Yes, we are insured. We will provide proof of insurance upon request. We are required to have Limited Liability Insurance as well as Workers’ Compensation Insurance.
Salt pools contain a salt water chlorine generator which breaks down the salt into sodium hydroxide and hypochlorous acid. This causes the ph level to rise, which is then adjusted using muriatic acid. The reduction in ph turns these chemicals back into salt to start the process over again.
You are still responsible to check and maintain free chlorine, ph, alkalinity, calcium hardness and cyanuric acid levels.
Over time, additional salt will need to be added to compensate for backwashing, splashing and winterization.
When the pressure gauge rises 8-10 pounds above normal operating level on your sand or diatomaceous earth filter, it is time for a backwash.
To perform a backwash, shut off the pump and move the multiport valve to the backwash position.
Run the pump for about a minute or until the sight glass runs clear.
Shut off the pump and move the multiport valve to the rinse position.
Run the pump for about 15 seconds or until the sight glass runs clear.
For diatomaceous earth filters, repeat the backwash/rinse cycle 3 times.
Return the multiport valve to the filter position and run the pump. Your backwash is now complete.
For diatomaceous earth filters, you need to replenish the diatomaceous earth powder washed away from the backwash. For regular backwashes as explained above, 3-4 pounds of diatomaceous earth powder must be put into any skimmer and swirled until fully dissolved. For new installations or after the filter has been taken apart and cleaned, divide the square footage of the filter by 7 to calculate how many pounds of diatomaceous earth powder is required and dose accordingly.
To calculate how many gallons your pool is, multiply the length, width and average depth of your pool by 7.5.
For example, an 18×36 swimming pool with an average depth of 5 feet yields 24,300 gallons.
Pools will typically lose some water over time due to evaporation, splashing and backwashing. Due to a difference in temperature between the water and air, evaporation may be more prevelant on heated pools mixed with cool nights.
If you feel your pool is losing more water than normal, it’s best to perform a bucket test.
Place a 5 gallon bucket on the top step of your pool and fill it up to the same level as the water inside the pool. Refrain from swimming and backwashing until your test is complete. Observe the bucket over the next 2 days to make sure both levels remain the same. Should the water in the pool drop lower than the water in the bucket, the pool is leaking.
No. There is no chemical which changes color when someone urinates in a swimming pool.
There are dyes which could cloud, change color, or produce a color in response to urine, but these chemicals would also be activated by other compounds, producing embarrassing false-positives.
FREE CHLORINE
ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM: 1
IDEAL: 2-4
ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM: 8
PH
ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM: 7.2
IDEAL: 7.6-7.8
ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM: 8.0
TOTAL ALKALINITY
ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM: 50-60
IDEAL: 60-80
ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM: 80-90
CALCIUM
ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM: 250-350
IDEAL: 350-550
ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM: 550-650
CYANURIC ACID
ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM: 30-40
IDEAL: 40-50
ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM: 50-60
SALT
ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM: 0
IDEAL: 3,600
ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM: 4,500
We recommend opening your pool in April or May. Pools opened earlier allow us time to diagnose and repair any potential issues from winter. Pools opened later may contain more algae and thus become more costly to balance. Please schedule with us at least 30 days prior to your intended opening date to ensure availability.
We recommend winterizing your pool in late September or October. Pools closed earlier may contain more algae and thus become more costly to balance in spring. Please schedule with us at least 30 days prior to your intended closing date to ensure availability.
