Need some advice

[Dregu]

Hi guys,

I've been lurking here for a few months, but this is officially my first post!

I bought a house last August that came with a 16,000 gallon in ground saltwater pool with SWG.

The pool looks great except for a little bit of algae that has started to grow after some recent very heavy rains.

I went to Amazon and picked up a FAS-DPD kit after reading some of the posts here.

Today I ran my first set of tests and I'm pretty horrified by the results.

Any advice as to what I need to do (amount of chemicals needed) to get these levels in the desired range would be much appreciated!

Here are the results...

Salt 2800
CYA 0
FC 0.5 - 1
CC 0
TA 125
PH 8.0+
CH 225

I've done enough research to know where each of those levels should be and have a rough idea of what chemicals are needed to adjust each reading, but I want to make sure I buy the right type and right amount of each and also want to make sure I adjust each level in the right order.

Thanks for reading!

Dregu

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! First use 31.5 baum Muriatic Acid to lower pH. You may need to add MA several times before you see pH drop since the test tops out at 8.0 You will need to drop pH to about 7.2 Next add enough CYA to reach 20ppm. Put it in a sock, tie off the end and place the sock in the skimmer. Keep the pump running24/7 and give the sock a few squeezes now and then until the CYA has dissolved. While the CYA is dissolving you can start the the slam process to get rid of the algae in your pool. Use unscented bleach from the laundry isle or liquid pool chlorine for the slam. When the slam is complete, raise the CYA to 70 and fire up the SWG, grab a cold one and enjoy your pool!

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

A good test kit.

Double check that CYA result. make sure the pool water is well mixed and circulating before you draw a sample. You didn't lose all your salt, so it's unlikely you lost all your CYA, either. Do the test in bright light and hold the viewer at the very top so as much light as possible enters. Repeat the test several times using the same sample until you're sure.

Back to results...
Since the pH is off the scale, you'll need to work down to the target. You could be at 8.0 or 8.5 or 9.0. Who knows? Add a quart of 31% Muriatic acid and let it circulate for half an hour or so. Brush around the pool a few times to set up some crosscurrents to really get it mixed. Then retest pH. If it' s still at 8, add another quart and repeat. At some point, the color will shift. That's when you test TA again and plug pH and TA into poolmath and get the final dose of acid to get to 7.2 pH.

If the CYA sample gets the least bit cloudy, you still have some. So call it 10 if it's below the scale. If it never gets cloudy when you mix the pool water with the R-0013, then it's zero. Of course if you get a reading, use that. Post back if you need help figuring out how to use poolmath to figure out how much CYA to add to get to 30. Later you'll want to raise it for the SWG, but not yet. Pick up two canisters of CYA granules when you're at the store. Eventually, you'll need most of it.

You'll need a lot of bleach or pool chlorine. Ten gallons or so to start. You can always go get more later if you need it.

Salt, I'd wait until the SLAM Process is done. Bleach does leave behind some salt residual, but you'll also lose some water and salt to backwashing, so the salt number is going to change. Wait and see what it ends up at before you stockpile bags of it.

 

[Dregu]

Awesome, thank you guys so much! Heading to the store now for MA, CYA granules and bleach!

 

[Dregu]

One more question. Do I completely shut off the SWG while SLAMing?

 

[Richard320]

One more question. Do I completely shut off the SWG while SLAMing?

The instructions say yes.

Myself, I think I would leave it on while I was at work. But that's just my opinion, not the official party line. The worry is that it will raise FC too high and bleach the liner or overwork the cell and shorten its lifespan or be left on by mistake during the overnight loss test at the end.