Dosing Rules and Application Rates

A rule is the one number that lets OpsVara turn a water reading or a tapped symptom into an amount of this product. A pool company calls it a dosing rule: how much of the jug moves one reading by one unit, per 10,000 gallons. An aquatic company calls it an application rate: how much goes on a treated acre, or what concentration the water should reach. Without one, the plan still lists the product, but with no amount, and the tech types what they used.

The word changes from screen to screen and the thing does not. Rule on the inventory list, Dosing Rule (pool) or Application Rate (aquatic) on the product form, and Dosing Rules or Application Rates in setup and Settings all mean this one number.

Two worked examples, so you can picture what a rule does on a visit:

• Pool. Liquid Chlorine 12.5% carries Raises free chlorine · 10.7 fl oz per 1 ppm per 10,000 gal. On a 15,000 gallon pool reading 2 ppm below target, the Dose Plan asks for 32 fl oz.
• Aquatic. Fluridone Herbicide carries 90 ppb of active ingredient · 0.087 fl oz per ppb per acre-ft. On a 2 acre pond averaging 4 ft deep, that is 8 acre-feet and the plan asks for 63 fl oz.

When you finish this article, every product we recognise carries its default rule in its own stock unit, you can see which readings or symptoms your shelf still cannot dose, and the ones a stock unit is blocking are fixed.

Inventory is included on Crew and up. The review only appears for pool and aquatic accounts; other industries do not size products by rule.

Where to find it

• SettingsSetup Wizard — the step reads Dosing Rules for pool accounts and Application Rates for aquatic accounts, in the Optimize section.
• SettingsWater Chemistry — a Dosing Rules section at the bottom, for pool accounts.
• SettingsTreatment Protocols — an Application Rates section at the top, for aquatic accounts.
• Inventory — the Rule column shows the same status on every row, and each product page shows it beside Dosing Rule or Application Rate.

All four show the same review, so nothing here is wizard-only.

What the review shows

You do not need this section to attach the defaults. It is the key to the pills and statuses on the review, for when one of them stops you.

Coverage comes first. For a pool account, one row per reading the engine adjusts — raises free chlorine, lowers pH, lowers total alkalinity, raises pH, raises total alkalinity, raises calcium hardness, raises cyanuric acid, raises salt, lowers phosphates — with the stocked product that moves it. For an aquatic account, one row per symptom under each treatment work type, with the tagged product that carries a rate. A product counts only when it is tagged for that work type and that symptom, which is how the treatment plan chooses candidates for a symptom that has no rule under SettingsTreatment Protocols. A protocol rule names its products directly and does not need the tag, so a symptom shown here as Tag a product can still be covered by a protocol rule, and then reads Covered by protocol. Products added from the setup catalog arrive tagged to the starter symptoms they treat, and Attach Recommended Rates tags any untagged catalog product in the same click.

Products follow, one row each, with a status pill:

Attach the defaults

1. 1

   Open the review

   In the setup wizard, open Dosing Rules (pool) or Application Rates (aquatic). Outside the wizard, use the section on SettingsWater Chemistry or SettingsTreatment Protocols.

2. 2

   Read the coverage list first

   Anything marked Add a product or Tag a product is a gap no button fixes. For pool accounts the row names the product to add, and Add it now opens the inventory form.

3. 3

   Attach

   Click Attach Recommended Dosing Rules or Attach Recommended Rates. The count in the button is how many products will change. Only products marked Ready to attach are touched; products with a rule, unrecognised products and unit mismatches are left alone, so clicking twice changes nothing.

   In the setup wizard the button sits in the step header, with the same count, and also marks the step reviewed.

4. 4

   Fix the units that block a rule

   Click Fix unit on a Change unit first row, change Unit on the product, and save. The row becomes Ready to attach; click Use default.

5. 5

   Enter label rates by hand

   For Enter by hand products, click Edit. Pool accounts pick a rule under Dosing Rule. Aquatic accounts tick Application Rate and choose a Rule type:

   • Per acre (linear) takes the amount per treated acre from the label, in the product's stock unit, with an optional depth-tier table.
   • Target concentration takes the rate the way a concentration label states it: Target with a ppb | ppm toggle; Label states the target as Active ingredient or Product; for an active-ingredient label, the product's strength (Liquid — lb active per gal on a volume unit, Dry — % active on a weight unit); and the band, Label min, Label max and an optional Lake ceiling. The form shows the Derived rate per ppb per acre-foot, or lets you Enter from label instead for a volumetric label, and previews the amount for the example acres and depth. A target outside the band is refused on save.

   The controls, worked numbers and what the plan does with a concentration are in Setting a Rate as a Concentration.

The unit rule

One reading of "oz" is allowed: a liquid stocked as plain oz is read as fluid ounces, because that is how trucks are labelled. A weight never becomes a volume.

What arrives with a default

New products get their default at creation — from the inventory form, the CSV import, the setup catalog and the starter items. In the setup catalog, rows that will arrive with a rule read auto-dosed (pool) or default rate (aquatic).

Pool accounts: liquid chlorine, cal-hypo, dichlor, trichlor, muriatic acid, soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, cyanuric acid, pool salt and phosphate remover. A strength in the name ("Liquid Chlorine 10%") rescales the rate. On the inventory form, Dosing Rule lists the same defaults plus Custom rule…, with Strength %, the amount per reading per 10,000 gal, and a per-visit cap, all in the stock unit.

Aquatic accounts: Fluridone Herbicide (90 ppb of active ingredient, label 45–90 ppb and 150 in lakes, 0.087 fl oz per ppb per acre-foot), Flumigard and Clipper (12 oz per acre, a per-acre rule), Copper Sulfate Algaecide (1 ppm of product, label 0.25–2 ppm, 2.72 lb per ppm per acre-foot) and Black / Blue Pond Dye (1 ppm, 0.25 gal per ppm per acre-foot). A fifth shipped rule, Flumioxazin (submersed) at 200 ppb, is offered under Use a shipped rule on a Flumigard or Clipper product and is never attached by name. The review shows the label line each one comes from under the rate. On a new product the form offers Use the default rate when the name matches, every concentration field filled; on an existing product it only suggests, never changes. Sites need Avg. depth (ft) for a concentration rule to size from anything but the 4 ft fallback, and copper products are left off a site whose Total alkalinity (ppm) is below their floor.

Verify it worked

1. Open Inventory. Every chemistry product you expected shows Has rule in the Rule column, with the rule in words.
2. Open the review again. Ready to attach is zero, and the coverage list has no Attach to cover rows.
3. On the next visit, the Dose Plan shows sized amounts for the readings that are out of range (pool), or the treatment plan shows quantities for the symptoms selected (aquatic).