Took over my pool maintenance from the Dreaded Pool Guy!

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James&Sila

James&Sila

0
Aug 23, 2016
6
Riverside, CA
Hi guys,

New to the site. I'm grateful for what I have read and learned thus far from the "Pool School." I've ordered the TF100 to be in this week. I've since had the water completely exchanged with a R/O Treatment and getting the water back to balance. I had the local pool store run a water test to see where I am. Everything was off, obviously when started after the water exchange. Here is where I am now:

FC- 5 (Just added everyday the last 3 days to get up to level, it was 0)
pH- 7.5
TA- 70 (I added product to raise 30ppm in pool a few minutes ago)
CH- 110
CYA- 32

TDS went from >2500 to now 400
No metals/phosphates in water

I am happy to start fresh now with new equipment. Biggest question is where to buy product. I will be using liquid chlorine once I use up my leftover 99% Dichloro and 73% Cal Hypo, I do have a jug of muriatic acid left. What else is needed and where to buy.

Thanks for all the knowledge!
 
Welcome to TFP! Now that you have the tools to properly maintain your pool it will be the envy of your neighborhood. Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware (or any other well stocked hardware) as well as grocery stores should have 95% of all you will need. Either the pool section or paint section of the big box stores can fulfill your requirements. Be careful of the materials that you mentioned, now that your water is getting to great shape, don't overdo it.
 
How much leftover stuff do you have? You might want to rethink using it and save it for a later time when you need to bump cya or chlorinate another way while gone for a few days. I'm sure you have read that your dichlor will add CYA, you are nearly in the correct range now if the pool store tests are even close. I would not use a lot more dichlor until you know for sure. Pool store tests are often so far off they are worthless. With a plaster pool to be concerned about, the cal-hypo will add calcium that you may not need either.

Once you get your kit you can run your own tests and know for certain, then decide whether to use it or not. No sense getting too much in there now as it would require another RO treatment or water change to fix these problems. No time like the present to just start using bleach, the chemicals you have will keep for a very long time. I have tablets that are ten years old, they still work fine and still add loads of CYA with each dose.

Many folks here just use great value bleach from WalMart, just plain simple bleach, don't get bleach with any extra stuff in it. I have found the stronger stuff (10-12.5%) sold as chlorinating liquid or liquid pool shock is often cheaper than bleach. It's a promotional item in the spring and placed on clearance later in the summer so deals can be found. Bleach just stays about the same price. The pool stuff gets hard to find here later in the season, might be different in your area.
 
dsmith99 offers very good advice. That dichlor puts back 7 ppm of CYA for every 10 ppm of chlorine. I hate that stuff for that reason. Use it carelessly and your CYA will make your pool unmanageable. Cal Hypo adds CH to your pool. It can build too high rather quickly, too.

Last, we have learned over the years that pool store testing is very wrong most of the time. Please report your tests from the TF-100. We trust that testkit and we trust you doing the testing far more than any pool store.
 
At the end of an RO treatment your CYA should have been "0". If the testing is anywhere near close then you have already added 32ppm back. How? As Dave points out DiChlor leaves huge amounts of CYA in the water.

Until you get your test kit and can verify the CYA and control additions please stick with liquid chlorine for now.
 
Thank you all for feedback! To answer some of those questions, I only have a few packs of the cal hypo and a few of the dichlor. I won't be using the dichlor up anytime soon. The cal hypo- I may as my calcium hardness is way low to TFP settings of 220-350. I was at 110-120 so I know that is off. I will verify the CYA, but conditioner was added by the R/O team to rebalance after the treatment, thus is why it is on the low end of the acceptable range 30-50.

Since speaking, I found some material at Lowe's pretty cheap- Summer discounts and was able to pick up a few things including Liquid Chlorine. 2 gallons in a box. Now with that being said it shows 10% Sodium Hypochlorite and 90% other ingredients. Main chemical of Bleach. This should work right guys? Thanks again, the test Kit should be in this week and will keep you posted!

Thanks!
 
Can you check the production date on that bleach from Lowes? I usually tell folks to avoid Lowes for liquid chlorine/bleach as they don't have a high turn over and they tend to store it outside in the sun and heat. That degrades it so you may be paying for low quality chlorine at this stage of the summer.
 
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