New! Just tested water! Now what?

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Okay, it's 12:33am est and I just checked the levels. The TA went up to 90 (I check it twice). Is this concerning? What is a good normal range?

The pH is probably at about a 7.0. I will only need to add a little more borax to get it in the 7.2 range. I will start shocking the pool tomorrow morning.

I just want someone to verify my numbers, so I don't screw this up! Using the pool calculator, my pool is 7600 gallons. Using the CYA/Chlorine chart (btw should I recheck my CYA??) I'm about at a 30-35ppm of CYA, so my shock level should be about 12-15. I would like to go with 15 to be safe.

Tomorrow morning I will need to add enough bleach ( currenly at 0 chlorine, want to be at 15ppm). The pool calculator says to add "1 gallon 3 quarts 2 cups or 2.5 (96 oz) jugs". Is this correct?

Also, to be sure I know what I'm doing, I am supposed to measure the levels every hour (which is what I have allotted myself). The Minimum free chlorine for my CYA levels is between 2 and 3 and the target is between 4 and 5. I haven't done this part yet (adding the chlorine) so I may not know what I'm talking about, but is it possible to shock the pool, get it to 15ppm but not have the correct FC?

I am supposed to check every hour and bring it back up to shock value, scrub the pool, and probably need to spray the filter tomorrow. The pump is running 24/7. I will repeat this process until I measure the FC level after sunset and then measure it again very early in the morning. If the FC remained stable (within 0.5 of the same reading) overnight, and the CC level is 0.5 or lower then all of the algae is gone.

I also read that it can take up to a week for the filter to get out all the dead algae?

Correct? Thanks so much guys!
 
Hi there , I was seeing ur questions on how to drain, i handset up and had meltdowns 3times in 2 weeks, with draining and leveling, I finally had a Mildly redneck moment and had a old sump pump in my garage and a 5 gallon bucket ,hhahaa I drilled large holes on bottom and sides of the bucket,and put the sump pump inside. Hose and cord and let it hang safely off the ladder rail so it wouldn't touch the sides, or actually sit on liner floor, it worked like a charm down to the 1/8inch in the corners of water ... total items cost was 37$ good luck !!!!!!
 
Thanks for the pointer. I'll definitely write that down/save it for another time. I'm already past that point. I did it with a simple water hose. Left the spray nozzle on one end, sprayed water until all the air was out of the line, unscrewed the hose from the faucet, immediately raised the hose in the air and covered it with my hand, then put the same end into the pool without letting my hand off of it. Once I got that in the pool, I unscrewed the nozzle from the other end of the hose, and it worked like a charm! I'm sure when I have to drain all the way and get every bit, I'll need to do what you do, but hopefully I'll never have to do that!

I really do appreciate your smart tip! :)
 
I was about to go to bed myself and decided to answer your questions so you were good to go in the morning see below in blue

BrookeW said:
Okay, it's 12:33am est and I just checked the levels. The TA went up to 90 (I check it twice). Is this concerning? What is a good normal range?
Don't worry about TA for now. Normal can be anything between 60 and 120+. It just affects how quickly your pH changes

The pH is probably at about a 7.0. I will only need to add a little more borax to get it in the 7.2 range. I will start shocking the pool tomorrow morning.
Bump it up just a bit more before starting to shock. No point in testing it when the FC > 10ppm as the pH test is inaccurate.

I just want someone to verify my numbers, so I don't screw this up! Using the pool calculator, my pool is 7600 gallons. Using the CYA/Chlorine chart (btw should I recheck my CYA??) I'm about at a 30-35ppm of CYA, so my shock level should be about 12-15. I would like to go with 15 to be safe.
No problem going a bit over, just want to keep it around the shock level

Tomorrow morning I will need to add enough bleach ( currenly at 0 chlorine, want to be at 15ppm). The pool calculator says to add "1 gallon 3 quarts 2 cups or 2.5 (96 oz) jugs". Is this correct?
That is what I got

Also, to be sure I know what I'm doing, I am supposed to measure the levels every hour (which is what I have allotted myself). The Minimum free chlorine for my CYA levels is between 2 and 3 and the target is between 4 and 5. I haven't done this part yet (adding the chlorine) so I may not know what I'm talking about, but is it possible to shock the pool, get it to 15ppm but not have the correct FC?
I do not really follow the question. Use the calculator to dose up to your shock level. You may or may not hit is exactly. At the beginning it will likely drop pretty fast, but when things start to stabilize you will be better able to see if your dosages are close.

I am supposed to check every hour and bring it back up to shock value, scrub the pool, and probably need to spray the filter tomorrow. The pump is running 24/7. I will repeat this process until I measure the FC level after sunset and then measure it again very early in the morning. If the FC remained stable (within 0.5 of the same reading) overnight, and the CC level is 0.5 or lower then all of the algae is gone.
There is no point in really doing the OCLT until the green is GONE, and your CC are not more than 0.5ppm ... this may take a few days. Just keep bumping up to shock level and you will soon figure out how long you can wait between tests and dosages. Review the 3 tests to stop the process ... remember you water should be clear.

I also read that it can take up to a week for the filter to get out all the dead algae?
Cartridges are pretty fast, problem is they clog up quickly while try to clear a pool. You may not be able to leave the pump on 24/7 if it is clogging too quickly.

Correct? Thanks so much guys!
Click to expand...


Good Luck!!!
 
i am no pro at this but all the advise given to you was spot on if you are on city water it should have no cya in it and you are looking for a target cya level of 40-50 ppm have you tested your fill water? the bbb method is so simple...once you get everything in balance, the only thing i add to my pool daily is bleach, in the evening after the sun is off the pool my cya is 40 and i keep the fc at 5 ppm and never let it drop below 3 ppm, i spend about 15 minutes a day maintaining my pool and vacuhm once a week, but all pools are different. now get that pool drained and refilled and you can get ahold of those numbers and be swimming in no time....btw welcome to tfp........Mike
 
Okay! I'm confused!

I added 2.5 jugs (96oz) bleach into the pool. Waited an hour, and tested. I performed the chlorine test twice and got the same results of 26ppm FC (52 drops x 0.5). I'm at a loss. The CC is 0. Any help would be appreciated, as I'm not sure where to go from here!
 

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Like Dave said, you need to get your CYA down to something near 50ppm. This is about one half the water in your pool to do this. No fear that if you do this all the CYA will stay in what you leave in the pool. The CYA is evenly dispersed in all of the water.

A garden hose siphon of 3700 gallons is likely to take about 8 hours at my house, with my hose, but your time may be different. If you have a vacuum hose you could use your pool pump but a garden hose is a safe, easy to control method. If you used two hoses, it would go twice as fast.
 
I didn't check for FC because the little thing that measures Chlorine with the pH always registered 0. Maybe that was my mistake?

I'm positive the jugs are only 96oz! At any rate, now the FC is very high - do I just wait for it to drop down below 15 and then adjust accordingly?

Also, I'm a bit confused as to what the CC and TC is used for ? Will I ever us those numbers? Thanks!
 
Just to clairfy, I have already siphoned the pool down to half twice, and refilled. The CYA levels are about 30ppm. So that part is taken care of. Last night I got the pH to 7.2 and the TA to 70-90 range, so everything should be set!
 
If the OTO kit doesn't change color you have no chlorine.

Yeah just wait till it comes back down to about 15.

TC is what the OTO kit (tubes with the pH) reads. It's not terribly important in it's own right.
FC is free chlorine and it's the work horse. Ideally TC should = FC.
CC is combined chlorine and it's the bad stuff. It's important because if it gets higher than .5 you need to shock. Also it's used in the OCLT as one of the indicators of when you're finished shocking. Also, FC + CC = TC.
 
BrookeW said:
Just to clairfy, I have already siphoned the pool down to half twice, and refilled. The CYA levels are about 30ppm. So that part is taken care of. Last night I got the pH to 7.2 and the TA to 70-90 range, so everything should be set!
Click to expand...


Sorry, I skipped a page and missed all the siphon discussion. My bad.

If you still have green water or the CC is greater than 0.5 ... stay focused on the TC and FC levels and the other stuff can wait until your algae is dead

The above is assuming your PH is close to correct. As has been mentioned, if the TC or FC is above 10, the PH test is not accurate. What you can do is when you test your CL and it is below 10, you can then test and adjust your PH and then add your chlorine/bleach required to get back to shock.
 
Okay, I just tested again at 3:50 est (just got home) and the FC is at 18.5ppm. So it's coming down. The pool is not green anymore, it's more of murky, milky white color with a tiny hint of green. It's hard to describe. I'll check on the FC in another hour or two.

Also I'm a night owl, so I am able to do the pool at night as well. I read that this is beneficial because the sun isn't zapping away the chlorine. Should I continue to do this into the night as well?

Thanks!

Also - Techguy - I got the pH up to 7.2 last night before I shocked today, so I'm not worried about it right now.
 
Sounds like most of the algae is dead is the pool is turning milky blue.

Keeping the shock going at night will certainly help.

Has your filter pressure risen over 20-25% of the clean pressure yet? I would think that should be happening fairly often now that stuff is floating.
 
I will go clean the filter now, thank you for reminding me. I'm not sure if the gauge is working because I think it was around the same number before, but I cannot remember. I'm going to clean it anyways, it cannot hurt!

Also, if the FC falls below 15ppm (my target), is it going to do harm? I'm supposed to let it fall below 15ppm and then bring it back up above 15ppm, or right at 15ppm correct? I guess I'm asking what number I'm looking for when testing the FC. Thanks in advance.
 
Just keep the FC as close to shock level as possible a little over is OK. Going a little under will not "hurt" anything, but maybe make the process slightly longer. Sounds like you are keeping up with it pretty well though :goodjob:

Does the gauge go to zero when the pump is off? If not, you may need to replace the gauge (less than $10) to have a better feel when to clean.
 

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