Test Results: High Alkalinity, Saltwater system

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S

Sunshine Acres

0
Aug 8, 2015
9
Allegan, MI
New Intex Easy Set pool in direct sunlight, although been cloudy the past two days and raining overnight and today. Just filled in the past two days from spigot from house that has a water softener system. Using saltwater pump and standard pool filter that came with the pool. Today is 3rd day with water in. Filter/saltwater pumps have been running about 12 hours total. For size of pool, salt machine directions say we need to run it for 80 hours.
Color looks a bit off today.
Test results:
Chlorine=1
PH=7.2
Alkalinity=240
Calcium=0

Do we need to do anything or simply wait for the water to cycle for the length of time recommended?
 
No problem. You should start it up as the seasonal guide recommends. Be sure when adding the stabilizer (aka CYA or cyanuric acid) to put it into a sock or stocking and hang it in front of a return. It takes time to dissolve and if you simply dump it in the pool, it will settle on the bottom and bleach the surface of the pool. Use regular, unscented bleach to get your chlorine level to 4 ppm. It's important to get it up ASAP. If it's already cloudy, you might want to add even a bit more. Use the Pool Math link at the top of the page to figure out how much bleach to add (and CYA first) based on your pool volume. Once you get some chlorine in there, then you can add the pool salt (have you added it yet?) and start to rely on the salt water chlorine generator and adjust your pump run time to keep enough chlorine in the pool from your generator.
 
You should run the pump/filter until the CYA is dissolved. How cloudy is the pool? Can you see the bottom clearly or not? If you have a good amount of haze, you may want to bump the FC to closer to 10 for a day or 2. Without a full FAS-DPD chlorine test, you can't really properly SLAM (see link in my signature) the pool but going to an elevated FC at about 10 for a day or more can sometimes be enough if it's a mild haze. Of course, your test kit, which I'm assuming is a 3-way color match test kit, cannot test at FC levels above 5.
 
Funny thing, it's not hazy or cloudy really, but clear green. I have a 4-way test that will test up to 10 FC, 8.4 pH, 240 TA and 1000 CA.

My current readings are
FC=5
pH=6.8 (expected with what I added today, right?)
TA=160 (came down, but do I need it to come down more?)
CH=somewhere between 0-100 but test right out of the pool was 0 and 60 seconds later was somewhere in between 0-100.

Still running the filter and SWG. Should I keep the SWG and the filter pump on still?
Maybe I need a higher FC?

I'm pretty sure I need a PhD in chemistry to get this pool right. lol
Would a photo help?
 

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You don't need a degree, just a TF100 test kit. It is really easy and really accurate, a thousand times better than the 4-way strips.

Your numbers now are pretty useless.

What the TFP process does is only concentrate on the 3 most important things (CYA, chlorine ond pH) and once you get them right the rest is gravy.
 
So hubby went to the local pool company today and our water has iron in it. Softener must have been overtaxed when filling and didn't regenerate fast enough for the load. He bought some stuff that takes the iron out and a couple better filters to swap out and rinse off and the pool looks 50% better. We can't swim for a coupe days and they said by this weekend, it will be clear and iron gone.
 
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