Brand new pool owner = new to BBB method

[stslimited84]

Hey Guys,

I just stumbled upon this great website about 30 mins ago and have been eagerly reading since. Here's the long and short of it. Recently purchased my first home which came with an in ground plaster pool. The pool is currently filled with water and the owner was having a weekly pool service which stopped about a week ago. Here is the equipment list for the pool along with links for your viewing:

A.O. Smith SQ1102 Square Flange Motor - http://www.aqua-man.com/row_num.asp?Ic=1133
American Products DE 48’ sq Model # 584090
Heyward CL-220 - http://www.amazon.com/Hayward-Off-Line- ... B000NPGHFE
(attached spa) Air Supply Silencer Air Blower part # 6318120F - simliar to this http://www.amerimerc.com/air-blower~silencer.htm

Went to the Leslie's today and bought the following based upon a conservation with a friend who just started maintaining his own pool:

Leslie's 3" chlorine tablets
power powder plus
fresh n clear
DPD Deluxe Test Kit

The pool needed water, and after filling the pool to the skimmer half way point, I tested the water with the above kit and got the following results:

Ph = 8.0
Alkalinity = 110 ppm
Chlorine was 0
Temp = 84 degrees


I stumbled upon this site and quickly realized/learned i wanted to go the BBB route. The only thing Ive done thus far today is added 12 chlorine tablets to the Heyward Cl-220 but even at that point, the pump ran only about 1.5 hours. Tomorrow I want to pick up everything I need to get the pool up and running properly using the BBB method. What do I need to do/buy?

Any and all assistance you guys can provide to this novice will be greatly appreciated! Tomorrow I'll be exchanging the test kit for the complete leslie's kit listed in the guide. I'll also return both shocks if needed. I believe the pool is 30,000 gallons but I'm not positive and need to find out for certain.

Thanks in advance for the help. It'll go along way to reducing the stress of owning our first home and pool!

 

[supertune]

Welcome to TFP!
I found this site 4 months ago and started reading too. :-D
Got my TF-100 XL kit (online only) and read and re-read pool school (link at the top of page)
Followed instructions on the lid of my kit and posted my test results here (forum promotes to do it this way) use this subject for your post: TEST results
I got an overwhelming amount of help and great advice! My pool cleaned up really well and now it's just perfect everyday, (screaming for us to come swimming every minute!) with not very much work to do other than just keep up my pool balance.
1st advice: Spend the $ on the TF-100 kit as it will be your best tool in the tool box to fix everything that will come up with pool water problem (except salt testing and metal testing)
Go here:
http://tftestkits.net/splash-page.html
I got the XL kit, I wish I'd gotten the speed stir too, as I hear so much good things about using one from those who did.
I was a little slow learning so I knew I wanted to do a lot of testing, so I could understand what I was doing. :?
Pool calculator will help immensely here:
http://www.poolcalculator.com/
The Chlorine/CYA Chart here:
http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock
BBB for me and never look back.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Once you get the other kit we need to know:
pH
FC
CC
TA
CH
CYA

I'd start by buying a couple of jugs of liquid chlorine and a gallon or two of muriatic acid.

 

[stslimited84]

Once you get the other kit we need to know:
pH
FC
CC
TA
CH
CYA

I'd start by buying a couple of jugs of liquid chlorine and a gallon or two of muriatic acid.

Will do, just waiting for the kit to arrive which hopefully will be mid week. From reading on here, it seems as tho i should return all the products i bought at leslie's, correct? Tomorrow Ill pick up some bleach and muriatic acid. Anything else I should get?

Also, what should I do with the water in the meantime to prevent algae and other stuff from developing?

 

[supertune]

The first thing is to do is figure your pool size using the sizing calculator at the bottom of the pool calculator page and get your gallon size, put that # in at the top of the calculator, put in your TA # in the now column, You stated it was 110, go ahead and put in 110 for target also.
Put in your PH now as 8.0, put in 7.4 for target and make sure you set the pool calculator guides for troublefreepool.com, bleach and whatever your surface is for the calculator standards.
Then hit calculate, look at how much muriatic acid you need to add to lower the PH to 7.4
You then will need a CYA test to find out what your Cyanuric acid level is to see what level of chlorine you need for a target #.
Set pool calculator for the bleach % or liquid chlorine % your going to use.
Set FC now # at 0 and put in the target # from the CYA chart for your target #, then calculate and it will tell you how much to add.

 

[anonapersona]

On the returns.... maybe you can use some of them.

The Power Powder Plus is Cal-hypo. I like to have cal-hypo on hand to use for chlorine when CH is low as it is cheaper than getting calcium booster and a separate chlorine source. And it lasts a long time, so it is good to have on hand for emergency shocking if you don't have a ton of bleach on hand.

Do pick up a water sample bottle (free) and buy a Wall Whale brush, and be sure you have a good leaf rake, a stainless steel brush or two, muriatic acid, a hard plastic measuring cup or two (I have separate ones for acid and bleach).

I also keep the 3" chlorine tablets on hand for use during vacations. As long as CYA is not too high, I can afford to use tablets for a week or 2 knowing that the CYA will be 10 or 15 ppm higher at the end. I keep a huge bucket of them, I hope they last forever for I use maybe 15 a year.

Fresh N Clear I've never needed. Return that if allowed, trade that in for a case of 10% "Liquid Shock" which is just stronger bleach. If not, use it and don't stress over it.

The test kit from TFP is so superior, I'd return the other if possible.

 

[stslimited84]

The first thing is to do is figure your pool size using the sizing calculator at the bottom of the pool calculator page and get your gallon size, put that # in at the top of the calculator, put in your TA # in the now column, You stated it was 110, go ahead and put in 110 for target also.
Put in your PH now as 8.0, put in 7.4 for target and make sure you set the pool calculator guides for troublefreepool.com, bleach and whatever your surface is for the calculator standards.
Then hit calculate, look at how much muriatic acid you need to add to lower the PH to 7.4
You then will need a CYA test to find out what your Cyanuric acid level is to see what level of chlorine you need for a target #.
Set pool calculator for the bleach % or liquid chlorine % your going to use.
Set FC now # at 0 and put in the target # from the CYA chart for your target #, then calculate and it will tell you how much to add.

Thanks for the responses everybody. A big help to get me started. What should I do with the water in the mean time until i get the proper test kit?

 

[crabboy]

As suggested, drop you PH and add chlorine. Yes you need to know your CYA to know the proper level of chlorine needed, but you need something in there. Add enough to get the level to about 4-5, then either wait for the test kit or go back to the PS and have them test the CYA level.

 

[stslimited84]

Went shopping today guys and picked up the following:

Leslies DPD Complete Chlorine Kit
free water testing bottle
15 Gallons of Walmart brand 6% bleach
1 box of 20 mule borax
2 gallons of 31.45% muriatic acid
2 buckets and two measuring cups/buckets

While at Leslie's i had my pool water tested. Here are the results:

pH - 8.0
FC - 1
CC -
TA - 100 ppm
CH - 250 ppm
CYA - 30 ppm

I also took measurements of my pool. The deep end is 9' and the shallow end is 3'. The pool is 37'6" long. The width wasn't as straight forward since the pool is somewhat of an irregular rectangle. I took four measurements along the pool and came up with an average of 15'2" for width. Plugging those numbers into the calculator comes out to 25,600 gallons.

Per the Chlroine/CYA chart the shock level is 12. Based upon pool calculator I'm going to drop the ph to 7.5 by adding 35oz of muriatic acid. Leave the pump running for about a half hour, and then add 4 gallons 2 quarts of bleach and leave the pump running. That should bring my ph down to 7.5 and the chlorine to shock level.

Sound good? Whats next?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Sounds good. Once you start shocking you need to hold it at shock level until you pass the OCLT.

 

[stslimited84]

Sounds good. Once you start shocking you need to hold it at shock level until you pass the OCLT.

Tested the water tonight around 8:45 pm. The Ph is 7.6 and the chlorine reading was at 1.5 ppm. Earlier I put the dosage for shock in at about 3:45 pm. I know its best to put in at night to prevent sun exposure from diminishing the chlorine, but I wanted to get it in asap due to the unknown amount of time that had passed without it. Would the sun have brought the chlorine level down that quickly or was it more of a combo of sun plus whatever gunk was swimming in the pool...and if that is the case, would it have brought it back down to 1.5 ppm? There were 3 of the 3" pucks in the chlorinator I mentioned earlier but that wouldnt have lowered the amount, right?

So after seeing the chlorine level was back to low levels, i put the same shock dosage i used earlier into the pool at 9:00 pm and set the pump to run keep running until 1:00 am.

Whats the story?

 

[Richard320]

What's the story? You're shocking! This is what you do! Bring the level up and keep it up until the water is clear, CC is less than .5 and overnight loss is less than 1 ppm. It's a process, not a one-time shot.

 

[anonapersona]

You need to KEEP the pool above 12 ppm free chlorine. That will mean adding bleach, circulate an hour, retest, add more bleach to keep above shock level, repeat until you go to sleep, wake up early and repeat.
This is war, man.

 

[stslimited84]

What's the story? You're shocking! This is what you do! Bring the level up and keep it up until the water is clear, CC is less than .5 and overnight loss is less than 1 ppm. It's a process, not a one-time shot.

You need to KEEP the pool above 12 ppm free chlorine. That will mean adding bleach, circulate an hour, retest, add more bleach to keep above shock level, repeat until you go to sleep, wake up early and repeat.
This is war, man.

ah, my mistake fellas. I knew it was not a one time deal, but was not clear that it was every hour during the day until it finishes. Thanks for clearing that up. First thing tomorrow morning I'll be on it like clockwork. While doing this process, the pump should be running 24 hours essentially then?

I know each pool is different, but what would you say an average time for this process to complete is?

thanks for all of the help so far guys. Ill be donating and becoming a life time member

 

[Richard320]

There are too many variables to predict the time. A lot of those variables are under your control, however. Keeping the levels up by frequent replenishing and brushing speeds it along. I've seen reports from 3 days to a month here.

 

[dattia]

Don't worry, it is probably the most common mistake made around here, myself included. The length of time really depends on the condition of the water and your diligence in keeping with the process. It took me over a month to clean my "swamp"... black to sparkly. Some people can accomplish this in a matter of days. Definitely make sure you are at shock level or a little above at night... without the sun on the pool, all the chlorine can be working on the organics in your pool.

 

[stslimited84]

Don't worry, it is probably the most common mistake made around here, myself included. The length of time really depends on the condition of the water and your diligence in keeping with the process. It took me over a month to clean my "swamp"... black to sparkly. Some people can accomplish this in a matter of days. Definitely make sure you are at shock level or a little above at night... without the sun on the pool, all the chlorine can be working on the organics in your pool.

Well needless to say I'm hoping its on the much shorter time span end. The pool was under some sort of pool maintenance by a pool service so hopefully its not too far off. The water was pretty clear. That being said, how does one keep up on the shock stage (such as hourly dosing) when work and vacations are involved?

What should my pump run time duration be?

 

[supertune]

Generally you should run the pump 24/7 while in the shocking process.
This can speed up the process most of the time.

 

[anonapersona]

Work is what can slow it down. You would try to get a feel for how much chlorine the algae will consume in that time you are away and add enough so you have a chance at staying above shock level the entire time. You can go all the way to mustard algae shock level if you want. You will want to wake very early to brush pool, clean filter, and add bleach. Get home promptly to repeat.
Vacation at home makes it easy, vacation away makes it impossible. If you cannot finish it, don't start, it would be a waste of bleach since any algae left will multiply wildly in the days it is left intended.

 

[BadOleRoss]

The first time I shocked it took 2 weeks to get it under control. I think I brought a lot of that on myself but not keeping my FC up to shock level. When you start shocking you really need to hit it hard right off the bat and stick with it. The 2nd time I had to shock it only took 2 days. BBB is a breeze once you get going and understand your pool.