did you know that you should be adjusting your pH and chlorine at least once a week because these levels can fluctuate the most in your water and when they're off it can lead to Aly growth eye irritation and even damage your pool equipment and plumbing so how do you actually test and balance your water and what about all those other levels like curc acid or calcium hardness knowing what to test and when can save you from big pool problems in the future so here's a quick guide on how to test and balance your pool chemicals let's Dive In hey it's Matt from swim University and before we get into this video if you want more help taking care of your pool be sure to grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swim university.com Che sheet it's totally free and will help keep your pool clean and clear throughout the year and before you can balance your chemicals you'll need to test your water you can use test strips or you can use a liquid test kit you can also buy a digital reader if you have trouble reading those colors that are on the strips now test strips are easy to use and they're cheap making them an easy option for weekly maintenance cuz most test strips measure Basics like pH alkalinity and chlorine while specialty test strips measure copper iron and salt collecting a good water sample from your pool is important for accurate results using a clean cup hold it upside down so that the opening is facing the pool floor insert the cup into the water elbow deep and then turn it right side up to collect the sample just don't take your water sample near the skimmer opening or the return Jets then dip a strip into the water in and out hold it still in the air for about 15 seconds and then compare the strip to the guide on the packaging you'll want to test your pool water at least once a week and more often if the pool is getting a lot of Ed or if it's rained a lot or if you just add it fresh water or chemicals now that you've got your results here's how to read them most levels are measured in PPM or parts per million but here's what you'll find on a standard six-way test strip from top to bottom number one is calcium hardness your total hardness measures the amount of calcium in your water this level affects your pool equipment and surfaces over time your total hardness should be between 175 and 275 parts per million or PPM number two is total chlorine or total bromine your total chlorine is the amount of free chlorine and combined chlorine in your water your total chlorine should be around three parts per million and as close to your free chlorine reading as possible number three is your free chlorine your free chlorine measures the amount of chlorine that's available to actively sanitize your pool water your free chlorine should be between one and three parts per million with three parts per million being ideal now your total chlorine levels minus your free chlorine levels gives you your combined chlorine levels that's the chlorine that's being used up in your water it should be as close to zero as possible but less than 0.5 parts per million now number four is pH your pH measures how acidic or basic your pool water is when your pH is off it can damage your pool equipment it can irritate swimmer's skin and your eyes and stop your chlorine from working effectively your pH should be between 7.4 and 7.6 number five is total alkalinity your total alkalinity helps prevent your pH from fluctuating your alkalinity should be between 80 and 120 parts per million we recommend keeping it a bit bit higher than 80 since having it in the water helps keep your pH in range number six is Sinar acid also known as cya or stabilizer cic acid helps to stabilize your chlorine and protect it from being destroyed by the Sun's UV rays without it the chlorine levels in an outdoor pool will quickly drop your Sinar acid level should be between 30 and 50 parts per million okay so now that you have your test results what kind of chemicals do you need to add you you want to have the following chemicals on hand to balance your levels alkalinity increaser or baking soda pH increaser or soda ash PH decreaser or mytic acid chlorine like tablets granules or liquid chlorine chlorine stabilizer or pool stabilizer or sinic acid or cyaa calcium hardness increaser pool Shock And depending on your water you may need to also get a metal sequester all right it's time to start adding chemicals when adding adding chemicals add slowly you can always add more later and be sure that your pump and filter are running while adding chemicals it can either be on recirculate or it can be on the filter setting now be sure to wait at least 20 minutes after adding each chemical to let it circulate and dissipate and don't mix chemicals together outside of the pool because it can cause toxic gas or even explode finally here's the order to add your chemicals to the water adding chemicals in the wrong sequence can actually cause issues like cloudy water and your chemicals may not work as well so follow this sequence for the best results and if you're using a metal sequestrant use this before anything else first you want to adjust your total alkalinity alkalinity helps prevent fluctuations with your pH so adjusting your alkalinity first can help bring your pH into range if you need to raise your alkalinity you can use an alkalinity increaser or you can use baking soda if you need to lower your alkalinity you'll actually use PH decreaser or M itic acid now keep in mind that anything you add to adjust alkalinity will also impact your pH next adjust your pH this will help your chlorine work more effectively later so it's important to adjust it beforehand you can lower your pH with a PH decreaser or you can use muriatic acid to raise pH you can use a pH increaser or soda ash after adjusting your alkalinity and pH adjust your chlorine add your chlorine tablets your granules or liquid chlorine to the water and if you have a saltwater water pool make sure that you still have enough salt in the water to keep your chlorine levels in range and your salt generator working next you're going to adjust your sinic acid with a chlorine stabilizer if needed if you use dor granules or tror tablets they already contain curc acid and you don't need to add any stabilizer if you use liquid chlorine or you have a saltwater pool then you'll need to add chlorine stabilizer to help protect your chlorine from breaking down in the sunlight but but don't worry about adding cya if your pool isn't in direct sunlight finally you're going to adjust your calcium hardness levels these do more damage in the long run like eroding Parts in your pool and if you drain and refill your pool each year you don't need to worry about these levels add calcium hardness increaser if your levels are too low and if your levels are too high unfortunately the only way to bring them down is by partially draining your pool and refilling it with fresh filtered water the last chemical on our list is shock shocking your water is a great way to keep your chlorine active in the water and kill any extra contaminants non-chlorine shock AKA oxidizer helps Revitalize your free chlorine and break up any combined chlorine in the water chlorine shock like calyo shck or dor shock is more powerful and can actively kill contaminants it's a better option for problem solving larger issues like cloudy water or algae adding non-chlorine shock once a week or part of regular maintenance is is a simple way to keep your free total and combined chlorine levels in check use chlorine shock if you've had a lot of swimmers after a heavy rain to clear up cloudy water or to kill algae just be sure to balance your pH before shocking to help your shock work more effectively and shock can change your chlorine and your pH levels so be sure to retest your water after shocking if you need more help with pool care be sure to grab our free pool care cheat sheet at swim university.com sheet and if you found this video helpful be sure to subscribe and check out our channel for more tutorials that's it thanks again and happy swimming