Opening a Pool - Initial Chemicals

horseradish1 · May 10, 2012

Hello all! I have a SWG pool which I am opening shortly, when I closed it in the fall it was an algae mess. I am a newbie so I am have a company come out to show me how to open it. So I have a couple of questions:

1) Is it necessary for me to have Cyanuric Acid on hand when I initially fill-up the rest of my pool up with water? I would imagine that the water from my spigot does not have this chemical inside of it so I should just buy ahead of time. One of the companies I contacted said wait until they do a water test, but I think waiting is pointless. I am also looking at the non-liquid type

2) What is the cheapest salt to buy, and where can I buy it

3) What other chemicals will I definitely need? I am going to buy large amounts of baking soda, borax, muriatic acid and bleach to have on hand to balance the water, anything else I need??

4) Any other things to take note of that I may not be considering when opening my pool?

march2012 · May 10, 2012

the pool company is right, you should wait to test to see what you need. CYA impacts the ability of chlorine to resist sunlight so if you have 0 CYA then your chlorine will disappear rapidly. On the other hand if your CYA is too high then your chlorine is much less active so you need a lot more of it. Get the TFT TF 100 test kit and measure things yourself. Read pool school on the forum and the chemicals section to learn how to add chemicals. There is also a section on shocking your pool to clear up a total swamp

Before you buy anything test your water.

The only thing you will definitely need is bleach.

If you are in a rush, order the kit, but have a pool store measure your water. Do not buy what they tell you to buy. Post your results here and people will tell you what you need

duraleigh · May 10, 2012

Is it necessary for me to have Cyanuric Acid on hand when I initially fill-up the rest of my pool up with water?

I can't tell if you have water left over from last year or you are starting out with all new water. Let us know.

XsAllOverIt · May 10, 2012

horseradish1 said:
2) What is the cheapest salt to buy, and where can I buy it (im in chicago)?

Home Depot or Lowes - Blue Bag of water softener salt.

Glock30 · May 10, 2012

Another suggestion on cheap salt is "Morton Pool Salt" in the white bag with blue letters.
I found it at Wal-Mart for $5.97 for 40 lbs. 99.5% salt and dissolves very quickly.
I had to put in 600+ lbs. and it is working well (making chlorine).

horseradish1 · May 11, 2012

Thanks for the recommendations, it is currently filled below the return lines.

Should I fill the pool then take the test and report my results?

I am going to have to order the cyanuric acid ahead of time so wanted to get a head start. Before I closed the pool, a pool service person told me I basically had no cyanuric acid in my water. Do I need any in my water initially to complete the shock/cleaning process reflected in the green swamp process? It was essentially green swamp before I closed it.

Speedo · May 11, 2012

If you've used pucks or any "shock" product that contains CYA, most likely they're wrong in telling you that there is none present.

Your best bet is to order a kit from TFTestkits and use it to figure out where your levels are. Most people find that the pool store's results are way off from what their kits show (which is accurate). Shipping doesn't take very long.

Cyanuric acid can be purchased at Walmart, home improvement/hardware stores, etc. I doubt you would have trouble finding it locally. Of course pool stores have it too.