BBB question for 15x42 metal frame pool

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J

julie492

0
May 19, 2008
167
gulf coast of Texas
We had a lot of our nieces and nephews over for a bbq today. There were a total of 7 kids at a time in the pool, at one time 10...but everyone left by 3pm. The water looked just a tad hazy. I could still see the bottom of the pool and all..but water wasn't crystal clear. Is that because of all the kids in it all afternoon? I dipped a stick and Chlorine was at 0, PH was at 6.2 and Alklinity was at 180. I poured in a 96oz bottle of bleach in to and dipped another test stick about 30 min after and readings were Chlorine 2, PH 7.8, and Alkalinity 180.

My question is this..how much bleach am I SUPPOSED to pour in at the end of a normal swim day..like just my 3 kids in it off and on during the day. And then how much am I supposed to pour in after a day like today with up to 10 kids in it and the water looking a tad bit hazy??? And how often am I supposed to shock it with bleach--and when shocking it..how much bleach is supposed to be poured in to acheive that?

How often am I supposed to use baking soda and/or borax too? and how much???
 
You really should get a better test kit. Test strips are amazing imprecise. It isn't possible that the PH went from 6.2 to 7.8. The best investment in your pool you can make is a high quality test kit. I recommend the TF Test Kit, see the link in my signature. The Taylor K-2006 is also good.

How much bleach you need to add daily depends on your pool size, CYA level, how much sunlight the pool gets, and bather load.

If you have several people coming over to swim it is best to raise the chlorine level a little extra high in advance. You do not want FC going to zero at any time if you can avoid it.

If you give us more information, like the size of your pool and a full set of water test results, including CYA, we can give you more specific advice.
 
julie492 said:
We had a lot of our nieces and nephews over for a bbq today. There were a total of 7 kids at a time in the pool, at one time 10...but everyone left by 3pm. The water looked just a tad hazy. I could still see the bottom of the pool and all..but water wasn't crystal clear. Is that because of all the kids in it all afternoon? I dipped a stick and Chlorine was at 0, PH was at 6.2 and Alklinity was at 180. I poured in a 96oz bottle of bleach in to and dipped another test stick about 30 min after and readings were Chlorine 2, PH 7.8, and Alkalinity 180.

My question is this..how much bleach am I SUPPOSED to pour in at the end of a normal swim day..like just my 3 kids in it off and on during the day. And then how much am I supposed to pour in after a day like today with up to 10 kids in it and the water looking a tad bit hazy??? And how often am I supposed to shock it with bleach--and when shocking it..how much bleach is supposed to be poured in to acheive that?

How often am I supposed to use baking soda and/or borax too? and how much???
Click to expand...

Julie,

When you have a crowd like that, you should probably shock the pool afterward. Go for 15ppm for a shock level. You can figure out how much bleach that will be by using The Pool Calculator. Just guessing that your pool holds about 4000 gallons, and you get roughly one gallon of 6% bleach to reach 15ppm. Obviously you had some organics to get rid of if your chlorine was at 2ppm a half hour after adding the bleach. I think in the case of a bunch of swimmers, I'd shock after they get out of the water, then check the chlorine in an hour and add enough to get back to 15ppm again.

For a normal swim day, you are probably going to need around 2 or 3 cups of bleach, depending on whether you have stabilizer in the water or not. Check your water before swimming and add what it takes to get back to 3ppm, then check it again in the evening when swimming is done for the day.

I can't see any reason for your pH to have been as low as 6.2, then to rise to 7.8 when you didn't do anything to change it. I'd recommend you get a drop based kit to do your testing. Walmart sells one in the 15 dollar range that will do what you need.

With a TA of 180, you are never going to need baking soda, as it is used to raise TA. You are also unlikely to need borax, since high TA tends to cause pH to climb. You may periodically need to add muriatic acid to lower your pH.
 
I have an Intex metal frame vinyl liner pool that is 15x42..holds about 4000 galllons of water give or take.

Our pool is in direct sunlight ALL day long..it was filled with well water..my question is..how do I keep the chlorine level on it above 0 then if the sunlight burns it off during the day? I checked it this morning at 8am and these are the readings:
FC: 2/4
pH: 7.8
Alk: 120
CYA: 30-50

Now the sun is out, and is starting to shine on the pool. How do I keep the chlorine levels up on it during sunlight if its going to burn off? When I filled it up (we had to clean it out totally...pea soup and yucky..so just drained it and started over) I didn't have any stabilizer on hand so I just added a gallon and a half of bleach to it the first night, which was two nights ago. Do I need to still add some stabilizer to it? Do I need to add a chlorine tablet to a floater to keep the chlorine level in it during the day? Should we be using a cover on it when its not in use? There are no trees around it for leaves to fall in it like we had a problem with last year. We moved the whole pool to a wide open area..but didn't know if we still need to put a cover on it.
 
Once everything is working correctly you should only be losing 50-70% of your chlorine over the course of a sunny day when CYA is between 30 and 50. However the test strips are notoriously inaccurate. It would help tremendously if you got a real test kit. Failing that get a pool store to test the CYA so you can get a more accurate number.
 
Julie,

The CYA will minimize the chlorine loss during the day but you will still lose 2-3ppm on average...there's nothing you can do about that.

Read the stickies in the header above...particularly, "ABC's of pool water chemistry"
 
Okay...I'll have to get a test kit..but right now money is tight since we're down to one income and the rising cost of gas and groceries. Nearest pool store to us is 40 miles away...with gas at 4.00 a gallon..thats not gonna happen anytime soon. LOL The only test kit I have is the dipping strips from HTH that came with the pool for now.
 
I'm not sure what your question is at this point. You can cover the pool or not as you please. All of the other questions you asked have been answered as far as I can follow. If you have a question that we missed please ask it again. Though before doing that it might be worth reading the answers you already have again.
 

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julie492 said:
Okay, I was able to get to the pool store 40 miles away from me since I had a dr. appt there today too. We have an above ground, Intex 15'x42" metal frame pool..vinyl liner. Here are my water test results from the pool store print out. I've been pouring one 96oz bottle of bleach(6%) in the pool each night, and thats been it. Suggestions what to do from here are very much appreciated. BTW..water is clear. No cloudiness or anything. Just need to get my numbers right.

CYA: 0
Total Chlorine: 4.4
Free Chlorine: 4.4
pH: 6.2
Tot. Alkalinity: 219
Tot. Hardness: 320
Copper: 0
Iron: 0
Manganese: no
Quat: 0
green algae: none
black algae: none
mustard algae: no
slime/mold: no
salt: n/a
Click to expand...
 
I used the Pool Calculator and it states this is what I need to add, does it sound accurate?
Am I supposed to add this in the evening hours? Daytime? how often do I need to test the water?

Washing Soda: 135oz by weight
Stabilizer: 1lb 5oz by weight
33oz of 6% bleach
replace 19% of my water

How do I add the washing soda? I know it will cloud up the water too. Does it clear up pretty quickly? If not, is it still safe for the kids to swim in or do I need to wait till its clear?
 
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