New owner needs a little help

[donniehurt]

I knew nothing about pool chemistry b4 buying this pool. Upon install I quickly started reading all I could about testing and trying to "crash course" on water chem. I soon found this site and started water maintenance but now know I did a few things out of order such as waiting about a week b4 I figured out about cya and added my sock full of cya which is almost completely dissolved. I ordered the TC-100 kit and got it (super fast) today. I have been having to add around 4 cups of bleach daily which is almost totally gone after a day of sunshine but I suspect some of that to the low cya levels. But based on these test results I am thinking I need to shock due to the cc level of 1. The water is crystal clear, feels good and I just replaced the filter for the first time. I am just a little confused on the shock level since reading that it relates to cya level which is low but rising. What would be my target shock level? Thanks for this site keeping my water as good as it is so far and future advise.

4pm test results:

FC: 2.5
CC: 1
PH: 7.4
TA: 90
CH: 150
CYA: 15 and rising

 

[fast1971chevelle]

fc shock level is based off your current cya levels, you say the cya is rising? how much stabilizer did you add? to get to what cya level? that would be your current cya level so if you dosed it to get to 30 ppm cya your fc shock level will be 12. click on pool school and see the chlorine/cya level chart

 

[donniehurt]

I ran my pool for about the first week adding chlorine daily only to have it disappear by the next afternoon before I found out that it needed cya so I tested it and cya=0. So per the pool calculator I added 16oz of Cyanuric Acid in a sock almost a week ago. It has just a tiny bit left in sock and today when my new test kit arrived it read cya=15 so I say "rising" because its not fully dissolved into pool yet. So I'm guessing I need to shock at current level and test cya every 2-3 days and adjust accordingly??? Oh and I was aiming for a cya of 30ppm

 

[supertune]

Hi donniehurt,
Use the 30ppm CYA chart that means 12ppm chlorine (ALL THE TIME) during shocking process, key is to not let it ever fall below 12ppm, you can overshoot by a couple if you have limited time to test.
Last year when had my modified 15'X48" Intex pool, I was at 40ppm CYA and shocked at 16ppm chlorine, but due to long work days it would fall to 13 or 14ppm chlorine sometimes, took long time for pool to start looking clear, so one of the mods suggested to go up to 18 or 19 as not to fall below my 16 shock level, that was a good tip as my pool cleared up 3 days later.

Chuck

 

[donniehurt]

Great, that's just what I shot for. I added 4cups bleach around 6pm and just tested @ 10pm and FC=14 so that should hold me till morning. I don't figure it will take long since the water is crystal clear, any algae probrably just started to grow. Thanks, I will post progress!

 

[donniehurt]

WOW, one overnite at shock level cured all my algae??? As stated above I had FC level of 14ppm @ 10pm last night, and this morning @ 9am my levels were:
FC-13.5 CC-0 and water was always clear so I guess that passes all three tests

.....guess i just caught it early enough. I know you guys say its safe to swim @ shock level but I have a 2&1/2 year old, would it hurt him if he accidentally drank some water?


Thanks!!

 

[frogabog]

That's the beauty of having a test kit that can tell you before you see it if there's something growing.

It's safe to swim at or below shock level. IME, kids don't swallow a lot of water usually.

 

[donniehurt]

Ok we just finished swimming and had lots of sunshine today so I ran test & here are results:

FC-7ppm, so figured I would do CC just to b safe bcause I thought it would take much longer for my FC to drop that much & once I added the 5drops of agent it BARELY had shade of pink & with one drop of reagent it was clear so I figured somewhere between 0-0.5

So am I just being paranoid or could there be more of an issue here? My water is so clear it hurts to look @ it in the sunshine & floor and walls feel free of slime. But where is my chlorine going, that's 6.5ppm in 7&1/2hrs

 

[frogabog]

That's roughly 50% of your shock level. Absolutely normal to lose 50% in a day. On days you start out at 7ppm, lose 50%, leaves you with 3.5ppm. Perfect.

<.5ppm CC is good. Sounds like you're dialed in chlorine.

 

[donniehurt]

Ok thanks!!

 

[supertune]

Swimmers in the pool eat chlorine up too!

Chuck