New Pool, No CYA, Add Stabilizer?

[SunnysGlimpse]

Hello,

We just finished our pool (pics to follow) in Texas and have a question regarding getting our FC and CYA up. We are using a Nature2 Fusion system with trichlor tabs from poolsupplyworld.com. I would like to do the liquid chlorine method and maybe down the road but my wife and I can travel for 1 month at a time and need an easy way for the neighbors to maintain the pool.

Our pool is in full Texas sun all day long.

Here are the current steps we've taken:

Wed (6/20) - Finished filling pool up, added 2 gallons of MA
Fri (6/22) - Started pool up, added 1 lb baking soda cause TA was low
Sat (6/23) - Had pool store test water and got the following:
FC - 1
TC - 1
CH - 200
pH - 7.2
CYA - 0
TA - 50
Added 7 lbs of baking soda per their recommendation
Sun (6/24) - Got my own Leslie's Chlorine FAS-DPD Service Test Kit and here are my results:
FC - .75
TC - 1
CC - .25
pH - 7.5
CYA - 0
TA - 130ppm
Tues (6/26) -
FC - .5 (Hard to say if any at all)
TC - .5
CC - 0
pH - 7.8
CYA - 0
TA - 120ppm

The water is crystal clear at the moment. Should we add stabilizer to start getting FC up?

Thanks!

 

[RobbieH]

If you will only bring your CYA to 30, you'll have room to use trichlor tabs when you go on vacation. Certainly aim for 30 right now, because you need some CYA in there to hold FC. Dump the appropriate amount of bleach in to get your FC up to 3 or so. Use poolcalculator.com to know how much to add.

Don't add anymore baking soda, your TA is getting too high. Add some muriatic acid to get your pH down to 7.5.

 

[SunnysGlimpse]

Thanks! I added last night a 96oz jug of liquid stabilizer, which should bring our 10k IG pool up to 30 CYA (I'll test later today). I also added 11 oz of muriatic acid to get us down to a 7.5 ph and half of a jug of bleach per poolcalculator to get us up to about 3 FC.

I am trying to calculate about how many tabs we will go through in 5 weeks we are on vacation and the result that will have on our CYA. It's too early to tell at the moment but thinking we'll go through about 1.5 pucks a week for 10k gallons and I've read that 1 tab provides about 2 ppm of CYA. So in a 5 week period we will add about 15 ppm CYA. Does that all sound reasonable?

When adding bleach, I'm paranoid about doing any damage do the new wet edge satin pebble. Just as reassurance, adding the bleach slowly alternating in front of two returns with the pump on will not do any damage right?

Lastly, I can tell I'm going to go through the K-2006 cyanuric reagent in no time testing CYA. Any recommendation on solely a CYA test kit without all the rest as I think the rest of the reagents will last me much longer in my new K-2006 kit?

Thanks for all the help this forum has provided!

 

[duraleigh]

When adding bleach, I'm paranoid about doing any damage do the new wet edge satin pebble. Just as reassurance, adding the bleach slowly alternating in front of two returns with the pump on will not do any damage right?

Just a little bit overly cautious but I might be the same with a new pool and being unfamiliar with chlorine.

You can put it directly in front of a single return just about as fast as you can pour it. It dilutes and disperses VERY quickly so you won't have any any issues.

For that matter, you can probably pour it directly on the pebbletec without any harm.

You can click on the TFTestkits.net link in my sig to find a separate CYA test

 

[techguy]

If I understand it correctly, you want to be able to have your neighbor maintain the chlorine level (and other chemicals) for a month while on vacation?

It would seem to me unless you teach the whole BBB method to the neighbor that I would be looking at adding a Liquidator unit or peristaltic pump to maintain the chlorine for that length of time. This would give you a baseline chlorine level and then the neighbor could test to see that the levels are acceptable. They could call you to make any adjustment decisions. This free's them of being responsible to lug the bottles out each day.

It seems to me if you add puck based CL for 5 weeks, your CYA could be too high and you run the risk of getting a CYA laden pond that will require a 50% drain and two weeks of shocking to get back under control. If the CYA does creep too high, your neighbor may be feeling a lot of pressure if it does move towards a bloom and green water, not to mention if they don't add the correct amount of bleach/chlorine required to get to the increasingly higher proper chlorine ppm based on the CYA.

I am new here and not the best source to answer this question. I am just asking to prompt this conversation.