Hi all 
2nd year pool owner and first time TFP poster! I used plenty of Cal Hypo last year after opening a sparkling pool in the spring (had it professionally closed previous year). Closed the pool myself last winter and believe I went short on the chlorine. I just opened it to a swampy frog heaven Its a dark green. After following your site last year and also realizing that the cal hypo along with my well water (which i use to top off the pool) is adding unwanted cal to my pool, I decided to go this route this year. I have a basic test kit which I am not crazy about. Just ordered an individual chlorine kit recommended in forums for accuracy along with a CYA tester (not strips).
Anyways my initial tests using a strip for cya and the test kit I own gave me the following:
cya - 0
FC - 0
PH - 6.5
TA - 40
My pool is 18,500 gals irregular w/ vinyl liner and inground. BTW those numbers are assumed as I never got this information from prev owner who installed, but they had a local acct at a pool store and that was found on file. I actually had the pool measured by pros for a Merlin pool cover and my wife came up with different numbers (math teacher) but for the sake of getting it done I went with the pool store's volume. Jandy DE filter (48 sq ft).
Ok...so I added soda ash overnight and got the PH to 7.8 today and been running the filter 24 hrs a day. Using the pool math calc, I added 4 lbs of cya in granular form in socks to the skimmer and added 227 oz of liq Chlorine (12.5 %) from store. Just started this 7pm est time. My basic test kit does not measure chlorine super accurate (cant stand trying to read color charts) so I'm waiting for the CL kit to arrive. Did not bother with TA as I read it can be handled after slam and algae is under control. Pool math calc actually advised cya at about 95 oz I think but I started with just 2/3rds of that since I'm using a strip to measure cya. Waiting on that test kit to arrive also as I really want accurate numbers. Tho I'm not using the best test kits, I'm hoping that, after what I read, I should see a visible improvement of some sort tomm or the next day. Was wondering how do I approach tomm as far as FC is concerned since my kit currently only reads up to 5ppm CL and FC respectively. I believe the pool calc told me to shoot for 12 ppm of chlorine to beat the algae up. Hoping someone will shed some light if I am on the correct path. thanks any and all who reply and I apologize since I know this should of only been an intro to say HI
2nd year pool owner and first time TFP poster! I used plenty of Cal Hypo last year after opening a sparkling pool in the spring (had it professionally closed previous year). Closed the pool myself last winter and believe I went short on the chlorine. I just opened it to a swampy frog heaven
Its a dark green. After following your site last year and also realizing that the cal hypo along with my well water (which i use to top off the pool) is adding unwanted cal to my pool, I decided to go this route this year. I have a basic test kit which I am not crazy about. Just ordered an individual chlorine kit recommended in forums for accuracy along with a CYA tester (not strips). Anyways my initial tests using a strip for cya and the test kit I own gave me the following:
cya - 0
FC - 0
PH - 6.5
TA - 40
My pool is 18,500 gals irregular w/ vinyl liner and inground. BTW those numbers are assumed as I never got this information from prev owner who installed, but they had a local acct at a pool store and that was found on file. I actually had the pool measured by pros for a Merlin pool cover and my wife came up with different numbers (math teacher) but for the sake of getting it done I went with the pool store's volume. Jandy DE filter (48 sq ft).
Ok...so I added soda ash overnight and got the PH to 7.8 today and been running the filter 24 hrs a day. Using the pool math calc, I added 4 lbs of cya in granular form in socks to the skimmer and added 227 oz of liq Chlorine (12.5 %) from store. Just started this 7pm est time. My basic test kit does not measure chlorine super accurate (cant stand trying to read color charts) so I'm waiting for the CL kit to arrive. Did not bother with TA as I read it can be handled after slam and algae is under control. Pool math calc actually advised cya at about 95 oz I think but I started with just 2/3rds of that since I'm using a strip to measure cya. Waiting on that test kit to arrive also as I really want accurate numbers. Tho I'm not using the best test kits, I'm hoping that, after what I read, I should see a visible improvement of some sort tomm or the next day. Was wondering how do I approach tomm as far as FC is concerned since my kit currently only reads up to 5ppm CL and FC respectively. I believe the pool calc told me to shoot for 12 ppm of chlorine to beat the algae up. Hoping someone will shed some light if I am on the correct path.
thanks any and all who reply and I apologize since I know this should of only been an intro to say HI 
Getting an early jump on your issues is no problem. We love to say "Hi" and then get to work.