New to pools with an old pool

[phlight]

WARNING 1st time poster...I hope I've followed your rules well enough. This seems like a great forum.

Last year was a mess, this year I hope to make owning a pool enjoyable to to have water that my friends won't hesitate to get into.

Last week I opened the pool and dumped 10 gallons of bleach in at the advisement of the pool guy. It turned my swamp water (pool cover had major holes) into a teal colored pool that I can see about 1' down. I found you guys and promptly bought a Taylor K2006 kit and used it for the first time this morning. I need to do a bit more work on figuring out the FC and CC levels so I just used my cheapo tester which said I have no chlorine now. My last visit to the pool store said that i have a low level of nitrates which from briefly reviewing this site sounds like a BS kind of thing. I still need some more review of how to use the tester on reviewing the color changes but I think I got pretty accurate numbers for a first time tester.

Taylor tester
FC not tested (I know...my cheap tester said none)
CC not tested
pH 8+ (it was more red than the scale on the tester)
TA 90-120 (I'm not sure how red it's supposed to get)
CH 150
CYA 30 (the solution wasn't cloudy and the black dot didn't disappear)

Cheap and easy tester
FC 0
CC N/A
pH 8.4
TA 120
CH N/A
CYA 30-50

 

[zea3]

Hi, welcome to TFP! First thing you need to do is drop the pH down to 7.2 Next retest your CYA. The test result is the level where the dot is completely obscured by the water. If you filled the comparator tube and the dot did not disappear then you do not have a measurable level of CYA. Here is a photo by Taylor that shows how the CYA test should look. Now if you are saying CYA is 30 because you just added CYA within the last 5 days then that is a different matter. If your cheap tester is strips throw them away! Before you begin the shock process your pH should be 7.2 and your CYA should be 30.

Next please read through Pool School especially shocking your pool and defeating algae for more information on clearing your pool.