Opening help and general maintenance for a newbie

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ksstahler73

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May 1, 2012
8
Springfield, MO
Long story short, bought a house with a pool last August and got the pool closed okay last fall, but have "opened it" now and have some questions.

Have a 33' round above ground pool, that I have been told, holds 27,900 gal. It has a Sta-Rite Sand Filter and 1.5 HP pump. It has a Mineral Springs SWG (which I love and is one reason why we bought the house), but I don't like to be over charged for things I can purchase cheaper and with as few chemicals as possible. We have had the cover off of the pool for about a week and the water was clear when we took it off. We ran the Dolphin several times to get the stuff off of the bottom. I tested the water yesterday (after letting the pump/filter run for several days) with the Taylor K-2006 test kit and the Taylor K-1766 salt water test kit and here are my results:

FC: no reading (didn't register)
CC: no reading (same as above)
PH: 7.6
TA: 100 ppm
CH: 120 ppm
CYA: no reading (didn't register)
Salt: 2400ppm

I would really like to know how much of what products (BBB) I need to add especially now that the water has gone to a cloudy green in the last 24 hours. I live in Nixa, MO (southwest MO). Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated, we are really new to this and want to do it right! :-D Would also like to know what I should do for general maintenance throughout the season. Thanks again!
 
You should double check that CH level. If your CH level is actually 1200 you need to bring it way down. It would also be good to know the CH level of your fill water. Make sure you are confident in the CH level before proceeding, as CH around 1200 calls for replacing most of your water, or getting a reverse osmosis treatment, before continuing.

If that wasn't an issue, you only really need chlorine and CYA.
 
Looks like you fixed the CH number.

What is the water temperature?
What does your water look like? Do you think you need to shock it?

You need to add stabilizer (CYA) and chlorine to start with. And probably need some salt too.

Can't recommend levels really without knowing if you just need to go into maintenance mode or shock mode.
 
Just checked water temp and it is 62 degree F, which has gone up 4 degree since Saturday afternoon. The water is getting increasingly cloudy and green (which is freakin me out a little, I won't lie). As I statd in my original post, we are completely new at this, so I'm not sure if it needs to be shocked ot not. My best guess would be that it should be. I'm just not sure what to add or how much.
 
OK, if you see green you need to shock.

Read Turning Your Green Swamp Back into a Sparkling Oasis and Shocking Your Pool

You have a good test kit so that is a start.

You will want to bump your CYA level up to around 20-30ppm. You can buy the granules or liquid stabilizer.
You will then lower your pH to around 7.3ish (you may not need to actually do this)
You will then start adding liquid chlorine/bleach as described in the links above. At first this will require testing and adding pretty often.

You can add the salt whenever you like, but the water may be too cold still for the SWG, so you may as well just leave it off until you have completed the shocking process.

EDIT: After the shocking is done, you will want to adjust your CYA to a higher level and maybe make some other adjustments, but at this point the focus in on clearing the pool.
 
Thanks for all of your help Jason! Pool is shocked, but unfortunately I listened to a "pool store guy" and am feeling regretful now. My FC went up (added Chlor-Brite and conditioner (CYA) this morning around 10:30am, FC and CYA were both at 0 prior to adding) to 14 (as of 4 pm today) and CYA is at 100. The CYA level is kind of concerning me. Should I be concerned and, if so, what should I do to remedy it. Mind you, I had done this before I had thoroughly read the articles about removing the green from the pool. So, this is what I have, what should I do, if anything? Thanks for any assistance!

FC 14ppm
CC 0
CYA 100ppm
PH 7.6
TA 110ppm
Salt 2600ppm
CH 120ppm
 
How did you test the CYA the first time...what about the second?? One of the tests were a wrong reading I'd bet.

unless you added a TON of conditioner??
 
The CYA was unreadable, the dot never disappeared, on both readings. The "pool store guy" stated that I needed 3 gal. of conditioner because of the green in my pool and because the pool is 32000 gal. We back washed the filter prior to adding the conditioner and still need to add water to the pool to bring the water level back up to where it needs to be, but it's only 2-3 inches short of that. The green in the pool went away really quickly and is back to a sparkling blue (little to no cloudiness), but the levels are bothering me. Do I retest tomorrow, after it's been 24 hours, to see if anything has has gone down? Should I act now to lower the CYA or wait it out a few days and see what happens? Since it doesn't say in my signiture (I thought I had included it), I do have an SWG, in case that makes a difference (which I don't think it does).
 
So where did you get the CYA reading of 100ppm? You just said the dot never disappeared.

3 gallons of liquid stabilizer in a 32k gallon pool will raise CYA by 35ppm ... so that is not bad BUT, the Chlor-Brite also adds CYA because it is dichlor ... how much did you add???

BTW, re-read the links I posted before .. you are NOT done shocking just by throwing some of this Crud in the pool. It is a process that requires you to test and add correct amounts of chlorine to maintain your shock level ... although we have to figure out your CYA level first.
 
If you added 7 pounds of Chlor-Brite it should raise your FC around 15. It also would only raise cya by 13....still WELL below your level you tested at?? They messed up one of the two tests....
 

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Ok, the CYA 0 reading was the pre shock reading 24 hours prior to the pool truning green. I shocked this morning around 10:30 am CST, and the CYA 100ppm reading was taken this afternoon around 4pm CST - after shock. Pool store guy said to put the whole tub of Chlor-Bright in - so 8 lbs. I tested the levels in the water with my Taylor K-2006 kit. I performed the test twice just in case I did it wrong because the number was so high. Does it make a difference where in the pool I get the water to test? The reason I ask is because I was taking water from around the jet; so should I take it from somewhere else? I try to get it from as deep as possible (which is hard to do since I can't get in the pool and my arms are only so long). Should I add water or bleach or both?
 
So,
3 gallons stabilizer = 35ppm CYA [this should show up pretty quickly]
8 lbs dichlor = 15ppm CYA & 17ppm FC [not sure how fast this CYA shows up]

That would be 50ppm of CYA ... something still does not make sense how you jumped from 0 to 100.

I guess I would start using liquid chlorine to maintain shock level, but at a loss whether to use 50 or 100ppm CYA to determine that level.

EDIT: What is the water temp? Was the sample at room temp when you did the tests?
 
The water temp is 64 degrees F, and no I didn't know to test it at room temp. I think I do rememeber reading something about that now, but thought it pertained to something else. I could go back out tonight and get a sample and let it get to room temp. if that would help matters. I am up for everything at this point, just wanting to get it right. Oh, and my FC was at 14ppm when I tested the water 6 hours after original shock, so should I go ahead and add some liquid chlorine or wait until tomorrow. It's pretty well dark here now, so there would be less burn off overnight.
 
Thank you Linen! I think these instructions will help. It looks like I was doing some things wrong, like not letting the water get to room temp before testing and holding the test tube at about waist level (mine was at chest level roughly, too close to my face obviously!). I wi ll do these tests again tomorrow and see what comes up! I will keep this thread updated as to my results.
 
ksstahler73 said:
What about phosphates? Are we concerned about those and should we use a preventative? Just something else my "pool store guy" told me.
Click to expand...
Don't worry about phosphates. A properly chlorinated pool can have very high phosphate levels and not have problems (use the google search in lower left corner of the page to hear more about that). The pool store guy wants you to worry about phosphates because he can separate you from your money if you use the phosphate remover.
 
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