New Pool Owner in Houston

[Taylor1584]

Hi, I have been reading for days and understand enough to know I need advice. I have never had a pool before so please realize I know nothing. I have read many of the posts but am getting so confused, not sure where to start. I would appreciate any help as I don't want to ruin the pool or poison myself. What to do simplified would help a lot. I have a medical problem and get confused easily. Here is the pool summary:

Inground, plaster, 2 waterfalls Pool built Oct. 2008
Hayward equipment (cartridge filters) recently cleaned
about 17,000 gal.
Salt Water Generator (cell cleaned and tested last week)
Test results done July 9 Leslie's Pool (not sure if they really test the copper and iron) our house water is very hard and we have a softener, I think it was around 15ppm. We are NOT (not shouting) using softener water for the pool
FAC 2
TAC 2
Salt 3200
CH 250
CYA 23
TA 130
pH 8.0
Acid 4
Copper 0
Iron 0

I am using All Clear 2 way test kit and also AquaChek Select test strips (all left by previous owner)

The pool water is clear and somewhat sparkly. The is a little whitish around the water line. And I seen the very faintest of yellow/green, very faint, looks like stain on the sides. I have used a plastic bristle brush to scrub down the sides, doesn't seem to make a difference.

Chemicals left by previous owner.
Muriatic acid
Phosfree
clor-brite

Thank you in advance for suggestions and your help.
Chris

 

[zea3]

Your levels need a little tweaking. I plugged your test results into The Pool Calculator with the following results.

Your recommended level for chlorine is 1-5 ppm. You will want to try to stay on the high end of the range so you do not drift below range when the saltwater chlorine generator is off.

Your CYA is too low. Saltwater chlorine generators need 70-80 ppm of CYA to prevent the chlorine from burning off too quickly in the sun. You need to add 107 ounces by weight of CYA to reach 70 ppm.

Your pH is too high. You need to add 30 ounces of muriatic acid to bring it down to 7.5 pH will tend to drift up in pools using saltwater chlorine generators.

 

[anonapersona]

Welcome! Looks like you got here before anything went wrong, bravo.
You will be using the muriatic acid quite frequently so learn how to do it safely. Our tap water tends to have high TA which means that when waterfalls are running that will drive pH up as it has for your pool now. So test pH frequently and adjust as needed. You will need to be careful where you store the acid, and wear eye protection.
After you get that stabilizer in the water, you may be able to turn down the SWG a bit. Do you will want to test chlorine frequently to see how it does.

 

[Taylor1584]

Thank you for the replies. I am going to add the 30 oz. of muratic acid in the morning when the pump turns on, goal is to get the pH to 7.4-7.6, is this correct. Then what should I take care of, the Total Alkalinity or or the Cyanuric Acid? And how do I do that, what is the product do I buy to add and how much? Will be posting a lower pH in the morning, hopefully.

Thanks, Chris

 

[Taylor1584]

Morning, I added the muriatic acid, about 40 oz. and have checked the pH, now at 7.4. I will move on to the CYA problem, currently at 25, and also the TA which is 130. I am checking the forums on how to do that and what to use. Any advise out there. I am keeping notes of this process so I will be able to keep up the pool.

Thanks, Chris

 

[anonapersona]

Next is the CYA, correct. As you have probably read, you can add this to a stocking and tie off at a return so the water makes it dissolve. I prefer the HTH brand from Walmart as it dissolves easily.

Don't worry about TA. As you test and adjust pH, every few days, that TA will slowly drop. You have a lot of aeration so pH will rise naturally, so if you adjust the pH to 7.2, as in How To Adjust TA, that aeration part is taken care of.

Here fill water increases TA, rain water decreases TA, and of course acid used to reduce pH decreases it. You don't have to test TA every day but do test weekly as things change. When TA gets to about 60-70 I find it takes maybe a week to shift pH much then. How nice. Then a big rain overflows the pool and I am raising TA.