New Pool and BBB Question

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You can assume your CYA is zero if you haven't added any or used any tabs. Plug that into the pool calculator to get your needed amount. Measure that out into a sock and place in pool. (In front of a return, hanging from a float/noodle, in skimmer basket, etc.) Without CYA, you will not be able to keep chlorine in the pool for long.

Oh, and make sure you are adding chlorine/bleach every day, especially with no CYA.
 
Okay, here are my first test results. I'm baffled, to say the least!

  • 7.14.11 Test Result
    Time Sample Taken: 8:15 p.m. (CST)
    Weather conditions: Stormy, approx 85 degrees

    CL: No Free/No Combined
    PH: 7.6
    TA: 18x10=180
    CH: 17x10=170 (Does the sample turn a bright red? I counted additional drops up to 34 and it stayed a light red color)
    CYA: 0 (which is NOT good argh!)

So, I go over to pool calculator and plug in everything and this is what I need to do:

  • Add 73oz of 6% bleach

    Add 17oz of muratic acid or 23oz (by weight) or 15 oz (by volume) of dry acid

    Add 67oz by weight or 54 oz by colume of calcium chloride or add 89oz by weight or 103 oz of volume of calcium chloride dihydrate

    Add 27oz by weight or 28oz by volume of stablizer

I have dry acid (lo n slow i think is the name?) that i found from when we had one of those easy set inflatable ring pools last year. Is this stuff still good? I never opened it, and it's been on the carport.

I have stabilizer, so I need to get that in the pool once this storm quits, along with my 73oz of bleach. I plan on tying it off on the ladder, which is 1/4 way from the return, is that okay? And since I can't clean my filter for a week, should I clean it tomorrow before I add the stabilizer?

The thing I don't have is Calcium Chloride? I obviously cannot get this tonight, but I can go to town and get it tomorrow, and add tomorrow night.

I've been running the filter for 12 hours at night, turns on at 8pm, turns off at 8am. I've had to add 73oz of bleach every night for the past few nights also.

So, I need reassurance. Am I doing this right? Or did I majorly screw up? My other issue is that we have had some severe torrential downpours the last week, and it has caused the pool to need to be drained every day! With these rains do I need to do something special/different?

Just when I thought I was getting comfortable and I feel like I've been thrown in the deep end!
 
Oh boy! I hope y'all don't kick me off this forum for my questions :(

So I'm reading how to lower TA, and it says that you need to aerate the water. It says to point the return towards the top, I can do that with a little attachment that the pool came with, however, I noticed when I have this attachment on, my filter seems to "bog" down. I saw about kids playing in pool. but unfortunately we have an 80% chance of severe thunderstorms all day tomorrow, but it says that rain can aerate, but how much can that really aerate?
 
You have a vinyl pool, don't worry about Calcium. Be sure to specify pool surface in the Pool Calculator.

If you're going to backwash, do it before you add stuff; there's no reason to add chemicals then flush them down the drain. You can use the dry acid, since you already have it, just check the label for active ingredient and plug that into Pool Calculator.

I'd add acid, and while that's mixing, mess around with the stabilizer and the sock. By the time all that's done, half an hour or so, you're ready to add the chlorine.

TA will come down each time you add acid; there's no reason to rush it. Get the other numbers in line, then worry about driving TA down when you run out of other stuff to mess with.
 
Thank you Richard! I'm surprised you didn't hear my "whew" all the way in CA!

I have one more question, and then I'm going to read around here for a bit...

Should I shock my pool at this point?
f you have algae, or the CC level is above 0.5, or the free chlorine (FC) level is zero, you should shock the pool
Click to expand...

Since my FC level is zero (right?) then I qualify to shock the pool. Would this be a substantial help to my pool? Because I had to leave shortly after this pool was set up, I didn't get to do but two of the days of adding the dichlor. I really need to figure out how to maintain this pool, as I do travel a lot, and I don't have anyone that I trust to test properly. I may be able to have them add a small jug of bleach, but other than that, no.
 
On the CH test, anything in the red family, red, pink, etc is fine. Keep adding drops as long as the color continues changing. The first drop that doesn't change the color any further ends the test and does not count.

Your old dry acid should be fine.

For lowering TA, just lower the PH to 7.2 every time it gets to 7.8, as long as TA remains high, and don't worry about aeration.

You probably should shock.

Once things are stable and better understood, it is easier to handle being away from the pool. But it will always be much easier if you have someone who can take care of it, even minimally, while you are away.
 
I love y'all!!!

Please, let me ask one more question. I'm reading how to shock your pool, and it says to the chlorine/cya chart to find out the shock level. My only issue is that it starts off at 20 cya, and I am not reading any CYA. So how do I determine my shock fc level? Do I just use the the amount (10) for the CYA 20?

Seriously, I love y'all so much. The pool calculator rocks, pool school is so awesome, and this forum is just nice! a HUGE thank you from me!
 
want2swim said:
I love y'all!!!

Please, let me ask one more question. I'm reading how to shock your pool, and it says to the chlorine/cya chart to find out the shock level. My only issue is that it starts off at 20 cya, and I am not reading any CYA. So how do I determine my shock fc level? Do I just use the the amount (10) for the CYA 20?

Seriously, I love y'all so much. The pool calculator rocks, pool school is so awesome, and this forum is just nice! a HUGE thank you from me!
Click to expand...
You're going to put some CYA in the pool right away, to protect the chlorine from the sun. So...if you punch 30 on the pool calculator and add whatever amount it tells you, then use 30 as your CYA value for shocking. It won't dissolve instantly, nor will it show up on the test for roughly a week. Just assume it's in there and use the corresponding shock level.
 
Perfect!

I need a Shock level of 12, so that means I need to add 126 oz of bleach.

Hoping the rain dies down (or the lightening at least stops!) so I can get out there and get my stablizer, lo n slo, and bleach in there!
 

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What does your water look like?

Once you add enough bleach to get to shock level, wait an hour and test FC & CC again. Post the results here. If it doesn't rain tonight you can run the OCLT if you want to and that'll tell you if you're done shocking.
 
My water is not clear :( It's slightly cloudy, I can still see the bottom clearly, but it's definitely not like that water of the pool posted earlier.

I'm having issues, we are having so much rain (it's stormed last two days straight) and I cannot get a good test result. I've just added another 126oz of bleach. Stabilizer has been in the pool since yesterday morning.

Another thing, I cleaned my filter on Wednesday. Yesterday, I cleaned it again because I cannot clean it for a week due to adding the stabilizer. My filter was full of this brown junk. I cleaned the filter really good until it was shiny white again. I then soaked it in a bucket of 50/50 bleach/water and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then I put it back into the housing, added my 126oz of bleach and turned pump on.There is nothing in the pool besides a few leaves (that I just dipped out) and some bugs (that I have the skimmer running to grab now). I'm off to research what this means, but I'm assuming algae? I felt the sides of the pool and didn't feel slimy/slippery, but I didn't physically get in pool

How long after rain has stopped do I have to wait to do the oclt? We have rain the next 5 days according to weather.com. Some days it's only 30%, but most is at least 60%. Tonight is 90%, tomorrow is 60%. sigh. At this point, I can add the 126oz of bleach for the next few days, but how is the rain going to affect this?

I feel like this right now :hammer: and I know it's my own fault, it's very hectic IRL right now, and a few times the pool had to take the backseat due to much more pressing matters. Bearing unforeseen circumstances this week is 100% dedicated to this pool.
 
want2swim said:
Another thing, I cleaned my filter on Wednesday. Yesterday, I cleaned it again because I cannot clean it for a week due to adding the stabilizer. My filter was full of this brown junk. I cleaned the filter really good until it was shiny white again. I then soaked it in a bucket of 50/50 bleach/water and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Click to expand...

I'm confused, why do you feel that you can't clean the filter?

You can soak the filters in dishwasher soap and water, I've also used Dawn on mine. Rinses out nicely.

I can't answer about rain, I haven't considered it an issue w/OCLT but I also try to ignore rain if I possibly can. Plus we rarely get "inches" in a day. It just kinda pizzes... (like today). If the pool fills up a whole inch, it could affect CL levels but IME not so much, maybe 1ppm or so.

Got any new test results?
 
I can't clean the filter because I just added my stabilizer, and I thought I read in Pool School to avoid backwash/clean the filter for one week. Since I added mine yesterday (Friday), then I can't backwash/clean filter until next Friday.

Thanks for the tip on Dawn, I'll try that next time. It came off pretty easily with the hot water and sprayer attachment from my sink.

I'll get the test result notebook and post in just a few minutes!
 
The cartridge filters aren't backwashed. Taking them out and cleaning any time you like is just fine.

I also don't really see how backwashing a sand filter would affect CYA levels either. Unless you backwashed a lot out and then refilled. It might go down a tad if this happened but I know that I've drained 10% before and it hardly touched the CYA level.

(not a sand filter expert either, in fact... never used one... gimme a week on that one)
 
Test Results from 7/15/11
Time Taken: 813p.m.
Weather (73, stormy, heavy rain)

FC -sample did not turn pink, so no FC ARGH!
CC- 4 drops needed to change sample from pink to clear
PH- 7.6

Oh! Okay, thanks! I was concerned with not cleaning my filter, so good! I like to clean it because I read that the dirtier it is, the more strain it puts on the pump. I know this pump is just a cheap pump, so I'd like to not put any additional stress on it. Thanks frog!

P.S- I haven't tested water yet today, and I realized I added the bleach without testing, so there is a huge facepalm on that idiotic move right now!

PPS- Test results were before adding 128oz more of bleach, and adding stabilizer.

Edit- My other question, does bleach go bad? We bought 30 gallons of clorox splashless bleach while we were doing a household project last year, and I'm using leftover. It's been on the carport through 100+ temps and low teen temps. I'm headed back to town tomorrow, so I can grab a few new gallons of bleach if that makes a difference.
 
Tip the pump every now and then so that the outlet is higher than the inlet, if it cavitates there's air in it. Doing it for a short time, a few times is best because cavitation can ruin the seal.

Or you can shut it off and bleed out the top, I still find there's a bit of air in the pump even when I do that so I tip and purge anyway.

Clogged filter will draw more air into the pump. If you get air a lot and after purged, the skimmer isn't swirling much... time to clean. Sometimes I purge multiple times a day even with clean filters. Swimmers tend to suspend air bubbles which then go into the pumps from the water itself.

Adding a skimmer sock also tends to increase air. I took it out... (again, dunno why I keep trying it, it hasn't captured enough to justify needing to purge so much).
 
Oh crud! I just re-read the shocking process, and somehow I misunderstood adding the bleach. I thought I was supposed to test twice per day, but it's adding bleach at least twice.

Ok, please someone smack me?

It says as frequently as practical. So I can add 128oz here in a few more minutes, then test in an hour, and then probably another 128oz before I go to bed. After that I will be out of bleach, provided that this bleach is not gone bad and still usable. In the morning I can run to town, grab more bleach, and come home and add bleach every hour. Is this going to be overkill?
 
Oh dear no. Crud, I've added like 10 gallons of this splashless

Ugh, Let me call and see if my local grocery store is open and go get some regular bleach, see if i live way out in the middle of no where, and its at least an hour to town. it's too late for me to make that trip right now.

Store is still open! I'm throwing on some clothes and running up there now to get some regular bleach. I feel like the biggest idiot right now, and every one of these setbacks have been 100% my fault. It even said not to use additive or special features, but I never put the two together. I thought just didn't want lemon scented, or something like that.

Is the stuff from the splashless bleach going to harm my pool? I'm not using anymore, so I hope that I have caught it in time.
 

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