another newbie found this great site.

[badfish]

Hi all,

I'm new. Just bought a house in AZ, and it has a pool. This is my first pool. The house we rented for a year previously had a pool, but since I wasn't the owner, I didn't maintain it.

I bought a test kit from TFtestkits, and did my first set of tests last night. I tried to put this into the calculator, but can't really tell where to go next.

I have read through pool school, and "get" most of it, but am looking for your help in validating my direction.

Here are the numbers:

FC 10.5
CC .5
TC 11
pH 7.5
T/A 110
CH 550
CYA 55

I have no documentation on the pool, so I'm only guessing at Gallons, but I think it's around 50,000 gallons. It's probably 8-10 feet wide and 20-30 feet long. Most of the pool is fairly shallow but in the deepest part it goes to about 5.5 feet deep.

It's a sort of kidney shaped pool with a section of very shallow sitting area about 6 feet long and 10 feet wide.

Until now, I've been using the hockey pucks, and have been keeping the bin loaded because when we moved in there was some green around the top line of the pool.

I've been running the pump quite a bit, and scrubbing daily. Most of the algae is now gray and it's slowly but surely going away.

Any advice on what to put into the pool, or trouble areas I am overlooking would be helpful.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP!


You probably want more chlorine to help get rid of the algae. 20ppm or a little more is about right with your CYA.

You are probably off on the gallons. A 20'X30'X8.5ft deep pools is only going to be in the 25,000 gallon range.

If you have algae, run your pump continuously to speed up the process.

Forget the pucks, your CYA is near the top end of the "Easy to deal with" range.

 

[duraleigh]

Hey, welcome to the forum.

John is right. 50k is too big for the dimensions you gave. The first item I would suggest is to get a tape measure and measure the dimensions. If you can convert the pool to cubic feet, multiply that by 7.48 to get gallons. somewhere in the 20-25k range sounds closer.

You really need to know that because you have the ability to test very accurately and now you need the ability to dose accurately as well. Obtaining your gallonage is the first step. Post that result or ask for help with it and we'll get your pool cleared up.....most surely with chlorine as John said.

 

[badfish]

I'll definitely get out the tape measure and figure it out. On the pool calculator, I put in my dimensions and got somewhere between 10,000-12,000 gallons, so I guess I was WWWWAY off.

I'm not at home, and want to pick up some supplies on the way home...

so...
using those numbers (I used the 11,000 gallon estimate), I think I would want to add about:

256 Oz of 6% bleach

to get to 18.7 FC to get the FC to shock level and kill the algae (which adds 14 salt)

BTW, the test kit doesn't have a measurement for salt. Is there any number I should start to worry about?

 

[anonapersona]

I found that I could use the Pool Calculator to fine tune the size of my pool. Actual results matched the calculator better after I added 1000 gallons to the specs I saw on the reciept for the pool installation. I suppose that was the added vloume of the spa and piping.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Is there any number I should start to worry about?

No. Don't worry about your salt level. Your numbers look fine. You just need to finish the procedure of shocking, and you should be fine the rest of the summer, using bleach daily to keep the FC levels up.

Avoid using cal-hypo chlorine, your CH level is high. Keep the PH under 7.8 and it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Butterfly]

Hi badfish,

When you get a moment, please add your pool and equipment specs in your sig.
Go to User Control Panel (upper left under TFP logo) and select Profile, then select Edit Sig.

Please post all your questions concerning clearing and balancing your pool in this thread.

Can we see a pic of that pool? :-D

Welcome to the forum