Newbie, first opening

[joshs2000ss]

Tested again, ran the FC and CC test twice to make sure.

Here's my results:

FC - 9 (average)
CC - .75 (average)
TC - 9.75
Ph - 7.2
TA - 100
CH - 200

According to the calculator, I need to add another 119 oz of bleach. I'm beginning to wonder if my estimated 14,400 gallons is a little low? I think I'll just add the rest of the bottle that I used just a little bit out of the first time. That should be about right.

 

[Isaac-1]

I don't mean to sound like I am nit picking here, but it does help if you tell us what you have when you talk about things like adding a bag of powdered shock as this can be dichlor, trichlor, or less commonly cal-hypo or lithium-hypo, it can even be chlorine free MPS shock, depending on brand or even with the same brand and slightly different product names (shock, super shock, shock & swim, shock n swim, etc). Also watch out for copper as an ingredient in shock products, I just caught that the other day at Lowes, they had 2 strengths of Dichlor shock, both the same brand, but the one with the slightly strongly dichlor concentration also had copper.

Ike

 

[joshs2000ss]

So far, I've only added Stabilizer (100% CYA) granules, and store brand 6% bleach. No bags of "shock."

 

[Isaac-1]

Sounds good so far, just keep boosting your FC back up to shock level, if you can't get your wife to test during the day, you may want to have her make a blind best guess dose mid day.

Ike

 

[joshs2000ss]

That's kind of what I was thinking. I'll calculate what loss I have by in the morning. Then I'll recalculate and add a little for more loss due to sun/rain in the day and the amount of time and just give her an amount to add, probably with error to the high side just to be sure.

She won't be here for part of the day tomorrow either, so this will probably be my best option.

 

[joshs2000ss]

It is encouraging to see that the CC levels are down by half already.

 

[thunderkyss]

I'm beginning to wonder if my estimated 14,400 gallons is a little low?

What number did you put in the pool calculator (at the bottom) for average depth? With an average depth of 4' it estimates 14,400 gallons. At a 5' average it estimates 18,000 gallons.

 

[joshs2000ss]

Excited to see progress.

Added the last amount of bleach at 10 p.m. last night but didn't stay up long enough to test. This morning, with quite a bit of rain and me draining an inch or more of water here are my FC and CC results.

FC - 14
CC - .5

At this point, I'm not sure where it'll be by the time I get back home tonight with all of the rain we're getting. I'll probably have my wife add a few quarts of bleach midday and we'll hope that that will work. Unless she ends up at home with enough time to test.

 

[JasonLion]

What CYA level are you targeting?

 

[joshs2000ss]

30 right now, for shocking.

 

[joshs2000ss]

I added CYA almost 48 hours ago, am I ok to backwash now? With the vacuuming and the constant pump runs (although filter pressure doesn't look like it has gone up much) I'm thinking it needs it again.

 

[Isaac-1]

If you added the CYA to the skimmer instead of the sock method you may loose some, but not a lot by backwashing now. Still it is probably better to backwash and add more CYA later if you need to.

Ike

 

[joshs2000ss]

I "broadcast" it across the surface of the pool. I read several places that it wasn't a great idea to put it in the skimmer.

 

[joshs2000ss]

Wife just tested, 9 hours after this morning's tests and the FC was at 12. I had her add 3 cups and 6 oz of bleach to bring back to 13 ppm. Looks like the levels are holding pretty well. Will check again when I get home and then tonight before bed.

Even with the shock level, I did notice a little bit of funk in some places on the bottom of the pool. Could have been debris from the high winds last night though, could have been algae, not sure. I'll see what it looks like when I get home.

 

[joshs2000ss]

When I got home, I vacuumed the pool manually. My automatic cleaner is broke and needs to go to the shop. Plan to get it there tomorrow. There was some brownish "dirt" on the bottom in a few areas. Not sure if it's actually dirt or some sort of algae. It clouds up when running the vacuum across it.

Ran chlorine tests and CYA after the vaccum.

FC - 12
CC - .5
CYA - 30 or maybe slightly less, but not much.

So I added 60 oz. of 6% bleach which should bring my FC to 14. I'm going to check it after a bit to see where it is.

Here's a couple pics of the water as it stands right now.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Looking pretty darn good. Let us know how your overnight test goes.

 

[joshs2000ss]

Tested tonight and here's my results (just did FC and CC)

FC - 14 or just slightly below (is it bad that it made me smile when my level was exactly where it was calculated to be? )
CC - .5 maybe a little less actually

Will test at 5:30 in the morning, before work, which should give it at least 8 hours to "soak." However, we are supposed to get some pretty heavy rains tonight, so that may prolong this another day. Tomorrow night it is supposed to clear off and dry up for at least 4 days.

Here's to hoping for good results. I'm ready to get that SWG going, and learning how to balance that, and then crank up the heat!!! (which I'm sure makes balancing a whole new ballgame)

 

[joshs2000ss]

Checked my levels this morning:

FC - 12 or slightly less
CC - 0

There was an additional 2 inches of water in the pool from the rain last night though. I'm going to drain some water off and add enough bleach to get back to 14 ppm. Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to keep at shock level for another day and do the overnight test again tonight since it's supposed to quit raining later today.

How bad is it for the water level to get to high in the pool?

 

[dmanb2b]

Sounds like you are on the right track As long as the water is not above your skimmer, you should be fine, but for optimal skimmer action you want the water level to be 2/3 the way up the skimmer.

 

[joshs2000ss]

My wife is draining the level down now. It had reached the top of the skimmer opening. She also said there were "a million" worms on the bottom of the pool. Is that typical? There were none last night. Of course we've gotten nearly a foot of rain over the last few days. Maybe that is what is causing the worms to dive into the pool?