New pool....first test results

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Valentine

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Jul 20, 2011
18
Gordon, GA
I broke down and took a sample to a pool store today. I am ordering a test kit tomorrow......just couldn't get things straight with strips.

FC -4
TC- 4
PH- 7.2
TA- 30
CYA- 20
CH- 40
Salt- 3200


I have added (3 hrs ago) half of the alkaline adjuster and will add the other half in another hour or so. Is ok to add the liquid CYA stabilizer now?

Tomorrow he has me adding Hardness Plus.

When will it be ok to swim? We swam yesterday and my son's eyes burned terribly!!

Thanks!
 
You dont need Hardness increaser at all. You have a vinyl pool.

The eye burning is most likely due to a PH issue. With TA super low like that PH can bounce around a bit. PH 7.2 is pretty low so there may be some testing error there too. If the PH is lower than 7 it can be uncomfortable.

I'd wait until your test kit comes before adding too much stuff. Those pool store CYA tests can be wildly off. If you know the history of your water and know your CYA is low than go ahead and add some now.

The only hang up I see to swimming is the PH. The PH test is readily available and inexpensive (the red drops).
 
In the short term running CYA lowish is no big deal. You loose a little extra FC to sunlight for few days. You dont however want CYA 0 - the chlorine is totally unbuffered in that case.

Is the pool a new fill? If it is and you haven't added CYA or Trichlor, etc then your CYA is 0. If that is the case - add enough CYA to bring it up to 40 or so now - with the thought to bring it up a little more when you have a proper test kit.

Post a new PH test when you can. It'll help get a sense if it's bouncing around.
 
The Ph is somewhere close to the "ideal" range. The pink is the closest color to it than any of he others. The pool is a new fill. It isn't "crystal" clear, but it doesn't look bad either. It has a very slight green tint.

I added probably a fourth of a bottle of CYA liquid stabilizer last night, so yes I have added some.
 
Got it. Are you familiar with http://www.poolcalculator.com ?

You can enter in your pool data and see how much stabilizer to add to get to your ideal range. Do you know how many ounces your bottle of CYA is?

If you have a green cloudy tint then you need to shock. Without any CYA in the water the chlorine from your SWG was used up by the sun as quickly as it was generated. This would allow algae to grow - hence the color.

There are instructions for shocking in pool school. Post if you have any questions.
 
I have spent 3 days reading this board lol. I tried using the pool calculator and still can't make sense of it....yet. I need step by step instructions on how to shock the pool. I have read and read....I want to know exactly how much and what to do.

I know I sound dumb, I'm sorry :( I have never dealt with a pool before. I just know that I have a 5 yr old driving me nuts to get in!
 
kplaster said:
Boy o'Boy the pool store's are hard at work....lol....Money hungry dirt bag's....
Click to expand...

Yes, I know that. I had no choice but to have him test it today. I am returning the Hardness Plus since I haven't opened it. The alkalinity up wasn't even as expensive as the big bag of baking soda at Walmart, so I did ok on that one :wink:
 

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Valentine said:
kplaster said:
Boy o'Boy the pool store's are hard at work....lol....Money hungry dirt bag's....
Click to expand...

Yes, I know that. I had no choice but to have him test it today. I am returning the Hardness Plus since I haven't opened it. The alkalinity up wasn't even as expensive as the big bag of baking soda at Walmart, so I did ok on that one :wink:
Click to expand...
Everyone on this board has been sucker'd before :hammer: ..The thing to realize is with the help on here&study,study pool school over & over you will grasp&have a new great feeling with maintaining your water&make you feel good to show off a little... :whoot:
 
If you've added 1/4 gallon of CYA that would be approx 20ppm CYA in 5000 gallons.

That's a great number to start the shocking process.

The "Super Shock" - does it say "73% calcium hypochlorite" or something like "Sodium Dichloro etc." ? How much do you have?

Shocking is a process where you elevate your chlorine levels higher than you normally run it. You do this to kill all of the algae growing in the pool. With a CYA of 20 your shock FC level is 10ppm. Currently you can't test this high - so you'll be flying blind a little bit - but your situation doesn't sound bad so let's go for it. Do you have a yellow chlorine drop test (OTO) or just strips?

1 Gallon of 6% bleach will raise the FC level in your pool by 12ppm
1 Pound of "73% calcium hypochlorite" will raise the FC by 17ppm

So you want to raise your FC to around 10ppm - say 3/4 of a gallon of bleach. Wait a few hours and "test". If FC seems lowish add 3/4 of a gallon of bleach and wait a few hours and "test". After awhile you wont see much FC loss because you can't test so well - so then you just go off how the water looks. You should expect the green color to be replaced by grayish cloudy water - this is the algae being killed.

Keep the pump running 24/7 while you are shocking. Turn the SWG off for now and manually add chlorine - it'll help us determine how quickly your pool is using up the chlorine. Hopefully your test kit will get to you soon as it will help confirm when you are done shocking.
 
Dont use the Dichlor right now. It'll raise your CYA - which would mean a higher shock value, and in turn just make it harder to test.

Since your pool is small and your algae is light - figure it'll take you 10 gallons of bleach to get through the shock. I'm totally guessing - but 6 gallons should last a day or two to start. If you can - put the first gallon in now and plan on hitting the store soon. Keep in mind the large bleach containers are more than a gallon - look at the ounces.

Confirm the drops say "OTO" on them. They dont bleach out with high chlorine.

Have you ordered a test kit yet?
 
I'd wait on the rest of the alk up. Your pool is pretty small and typically the pool store advice is a little high on the TA.

So for now it's just bleach. Once the algae issue is taken care of we can balance the rest - it's low priority.
 
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