Newbie with an old pool

[gmor]

I'm a new pool owner, first post. I can't make a signature since I'm on mobile but will put my specs at the end of the post.

My new house came with a 1968 era plaster pool that hadn't had water changed in 15+ years so I had it drained refilled and balanced by a pool company (1 month ago) and now I'm on my own. Here are my numbers as of this a.m.:
FC 4.5
CC: 0.5 (last night I got 1 but retested today and got 0.5 ... Tube was almost imperceptibly faint pink and added 1 drop to clear)
pH 7.2 (was at 8 and added muriatic 2 days ago to bring down)
TA 100 (was at 160 but came down with pH)
CH: between 175 and 200 (turned blue at 175 but after a minute went back to pink)
CYA 25

Just wanted to see how those numbers look to you all... I've got a floater with a couple of max blue 3" trichlor tabs in it that came with the pool, not sure if I should keep using or not. I've been adding plain chlorox or HDX chlorinating liquid(Home Depot) as needed. Back washed and added DE last week.

15000 gal in ground plaster pool (original late 60's plaster), Pentair FNS plus 48 sq ft DE filter, Pentair 1HP 1.65 sq ft pump. No heater. No pool sweep (yet! Any advice on a lesser expensive one?)

 

[atttech-2]

Looks good, CH is a little on the low side might want to bring it up 100 or so. Once the pH comes up a bit you can stick with the tabs for a while till your CYA hits around 40 each one is 8oz and you can use the effects of adding chemicals option at the bottom of pool math to see about when you should stop.

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome! I agree. Increase CYA a bit and keep an eye on that CH to protect your plaster. Remember the pucks are acidic so they tend to pull-down pH and TA while increasing CYA. Testing on your own was the best thing you could do. For bleach, checkout your local grocery stores too for any regular (generic) 8.25% bleach. Wal-Mart always has either Great Value or their new 10% Pool Chlorine at a good price. Great to have you with us.

 

[gmor]

Hi and thanks for the tips! Things are going well but I'm having really rapid FC LOSS now, and it looks like rapid pH rise too. Here are my latest numbers and what I've added. I took out the pucks/floater last week, but just put them back in tonight:

6/5:
FC quick:5
pH: 7.5
FC full test = 5ppm CC=0
CH= 9 drops x25= 225
TA= 100
CYA = 30-35
So everything was looking perfect on the 6th... Then...
6/6:
FC quick=1. Added 100 oz bleach 8.5% to bring to 6ppm. Why did I lose 4 ppm in 30 hrs? Is that a normal rate? So I did an overnight loss check, and on 6/7 early am FC=5 quick check method, so lost ~1ppm overnight.

6/7 9pm: FC=2. Lost 3ppm during daytime hours. is that Normal? But now the pH rose to 8.2?? How/why did it rise so fast?
So I just Added 80oz bleach tonight to bring FC back to 6. And I threw the pucks back in ... Figured it might up my CYA a bit more and keep pH down? I'm in southern CA and it's been between 90-100 the last couple days and pool temp is around 82F.

Also, I noticed I'm getting this white sand on the bottom of the pool... To coarse to be DE. Last week I totally opened up the filter and did a manual cleaning/check of the screens and all looked good and no cloud coming out when I added DE(8 full scoops). The "sand" was coarse enough to get caught in my pool net when I dove down with it and manually picked up some debris. Wondering if it could be plaster?! I know my CH is a tiny bit low, but I didn't think enough to do any plaster damage. And our water here is high in Calcium so I figured I'd let it come up as I refill which it has been doing.

So anyways, main question is why such rapid FC loss or is that normal in these conditions? And what's up with the white sand? I hope don't have to be adding 80-100 oz bleach daily!

Thanks for any replies!



15000 gal in ground plaster pool (original late 60's plaster), Pentair FNS plus 48 sq ft DE filter, Pentair 1HP 1.65 sq ft pump. No heater. No pool sweep (yet! Any advice on a lesser expensive one?)

 

[kimkats]

It is normal to lose 3-4 ppm of FC each day. The sun and higher temps do it. You can bring your CYA up some to help "sunscreen" your FC. I keep mine at around 50 here in FL.

Kim:cat: