Ok, so I am reading a ton in pool school, I have the test kit on order, and Im ready to get going. I am stumped about the quantities of chemicals I should purchase. Is there a general guideline?
Chemicals list and Quantities
- Thread starter Martha_D
- Start date
Can you elaborate a little on your situation? Do you have a new pool? Are you just opening it for the season? What does your water look like?
Yeah ... only buy what you need when you need it 
If you know you will need to shock ... go buy some bleach. If you have new water with no CYA ... go buy some cyanuric acid. Hard to know if you will need to raise of lower your pH until you have some numbers.
You can use the poolcalculator.com to see how much of what chemical is needed to change from your current levels (which you may not know yet) to what you want your target to be.
If you know you will need to shock ... go buy some bleach. If you have new water with no CYA ... go buy some cyanuric acid. Hard to know if you will need to raise of lower your pH until you have some numbers.
You can use the poolcalculator.com to see how much of what chemical is needed to change from your current levels (which you may not know yet) to what you want your target to be.
Martha_D said:
they really arent that expensive. You have a 34K gallon pool so expect to need about 1.5 ppm of chlorine a day. Which translates to about 3/4 gallon a day. at 2.85/182 oz bottle of bleach, it will cost about 1.50/day for bleach. If you have to shock you could need a lot more in the beginning, like 12-15 gallons. But once you are in maintenance mode it will probably be about 3/4-1 gallon.
Most other chemicals will be once or twice a season so will be pretty insignificant.
acid is the only other chemical you could need a lot of and once your pH is stabilized you shouldnt need too much - maybe half a gallon per week.
Ok, so that's almost a gallon of bleach a day... I fear I may lack the discipline to check my pool daily. I will admit I do feel a little daunted by the idea of adding and checking chemicals daily. Is there any other way of doing this other than daily? Like can I skip a few days? Also, I have 2 buckets of the 3" tablets left from the pool guy last year. Is it bad to use those for now, and switch to bleach later?
Thanks all for taking the time to answer!
Thanks all for taking the time to answer!
The tablets have CYA in them that stays in the pool even though the FC is used up ... once the CYA level gets too high, maintaining the pool can become difficult.
If you have a short pool season, and replace a lot of water throughout the year (resulting in low initial CYA levels), you may be able to get by using the tablets. The forum is about testing and understanding what you are putting into your pool and why. If you are diligent about keeping an eye on your levels (specifically CYA), then the tablets can work ... there are many reports on the forums of people successfully using the tablets when they have short swim seasons and a lot of water change due to rain/snow/and filter cleaning.
You have a good test kit on the way and that will help you know what if going on in your pool. Wait until you have a full set of test results and then we can see what may work for you.
If you have a short pool season, and replace a lot of water throughout the year (resulting in low initial CYA levels), you may be able to get by using the tablets. The forum is about testing and understanding what you are putting into your pool and why. If you are diligent about keeping an eye on your levels (specifically CYA), then the tablets can work ... there are many reports on the forums of people successfully using the tablets when they have short swim seasons and a lot of water change due to rain/snow/and filter cleaning.
You have a good test kit on the way and that will help you know what if going on in your pool. Wait until you have a full set of test results and then we can see what may work for you.
faby3003 said:
The pool is pretty old (Im guessing 80's), and I moved in last summer and broke my leg righht after moving in, so I hired someone to maintain the pool. (that and I was totally terrified to even attempts it) The water looks beautiful, aside from needing a good vacuuming.
Thank you...Im really really itching to get going on this, but will wait for my test kit as advised. :-D
