Opening the Pool, what goes first?

[RafaelSvr]

Here is my test Results:
FC - 0
CC - 0
TC - 0
pH - 7.6/7.7
T/A - 40
CH - 50
CYA - 0 (Filled all the way up twice and still see the dot crystal clear, although I think I read it might actually be higher?) My dear, I will need 10 more 4lbs jugs to bring it up to 50, I have 2), about $150, do you guys use anything else then Stabilizer that would make it cheaper? I read about the de-icer? but does anyone else use this?

What do you guys suggest I start with?

 

[jblizzle]

Use the granular stabilizer, much cheaper than if you are looking at liquid stabilizer.

And get around 2ppm of FC in the pool ASAP until you add the stabilizer.

 

[RafaelSvr]

Use the granular stabilizer, much cheaper than if you are looking at liquid stabilizer.

And get around 2ppm of FC in the pool ASAP until you add the stabilizer.

I am looking at granular, it costs about $15 per 4lbs jug at Wallmart, more expensive at pool store, so its about $150 if I need 10 jugs. Do you suggest using the de-icer instead? or stick to granular stabilizer?
I already shocked the pool so I imagine the FC is around 16 which I was shooting for..... once I add stabilizer I imagine I will need to re-calculate every once in a while what my shock lvl should be?

 

[jblizzle]

Deicer adds CH not CYA.

I suggest some more reading in Pool School ... The recommended chemical article

 

[RafaelSvr]

Deicer adds CH not CYA.

I suggest some more reading in Pool School ... The recommended chemical article

Crud you are right, I did read the pool school many a time, must have gotten confused. I guess I will need to buy all that stabilizer :/ if I do this through a sock I imagine it will take days I cant even fit one of these jugs into a sock (must have small feet ) is it likely this much stabilizer is needed? or should I start conservative?

 

[RafaelSvr]

Should I hold off with adding anything till after shocking or can I slowly add everything that's needed?

Also I just re-read Richards suggestion of running the pump for 30 minutes and then doing the tests, I did all my tests before turning anything on..... will that make a difference?

 

[jblizzle]

Then your tests are suspect and may not be valid.

Start with 30ppm CYA for the shock process.

 

[RafaelSvr]

Then your tests are suspect and may not be valid.

Start with 30ppm CYA for the shock process.

I just retested for FC and had to add two scoops just to turn water slight pink, 1 or 2 drops and goes back to clear, is this possible? I just dumped 7 jugs on Bleach into the water not even an hour ago, can it be losing Chlorine this fast or is the powder bad possibly? I purchased my kit Sept 2011.

Also just noticed, if I let the mixture sit a bit after adding the drops it turns back to pink.

 

[jblizzle]

Do you have the OTO test? That would confirm my suspicion that your FC is near zero.

Normal to go back to pink if you leave it sit, that does not matter.

 

[RafaelSvr]

Do you have the OTO test? That would confirm my suspicion that your FC is near zero.

Normal to go back to pink if you leave it sit, that does not matter.

I have the Tf-100 kit, I assume your talkin about the K-1000 kit that's inside ? I just did that test and it was yellow, somewhere in the 1-2 range for Chlorine.

 

[RafaelSvr]

Do you have the OTO test? That would confirm my suspicion that your FC is near zero.

Normal to go back to pink if you leave it sit, that does not matter.

I have the Tf-100 kit, I assume your talkin about the T-1000 kit that's inside ? I will run that right now

how is it possible to lose so much chlorine so quickly? its not even sunny today. how will I ever be able to shock if lose it so quick? I will need thousands of bleach bottles

I run the test again ,TA now 100, and CH at 110. everything else seems the same. CYA still crystal clear even with cylinder empty

 

[RafaelSvr]

I also run into another problem, I have two pumps/motors, one which pushes the water through the filter and another one not entirely sure what it is meant for but I believe it had to do with the hot tub. I am getting very little water through the pipe going to that motor and am not sure what the reason is. I have a separate motor for the bubbler so I am not even sure what this motor is used for. I rarely used it in the past, just turned it on every couple of days so algea doesn't build up there, it would push some water and off it goes. I am still able to get water out of the hot tub and back into it with the 1 filter motor/pump..... do u guys have any idea what it could be used for? should I take a picture?

 

[RafaelSvr]

man I wish someone would be here to help I am not sure what to do at this point. I see I have no stabilizer and it looks like im losing all chlorine right away? yet I am cleaning the pool and need to backwash as it was just opened. I added one sock of stabilizer in front of return and one in a sock in the skimmer. But on stabilizer it says not to backwash for 48 hours??? so am I not in some kind of a loop? either I cant backwash or I cant add stabilizer? and if don't add stabilizer whats the point for shocking?

I just retested the FC a few hours after the original tests and it still turns back to clear after 2 drops giving me result of 1 ? it dropped so rapidly and not for hours its holding at 1?? am I doing something wrong or can they chemical be bad?

 

[jblizzle]

It is fine to backwash as long as you did not dump the CYA into the skimmer so the granules are stuck in the filter.

Do you have more than one return in the pool to add more socks?

 

[RafaelSvr]

Yes I do have about 5 or 6 return jets in my pool but I miscalculated the amount of CYA I need, I think i looked at CH numbers, I only need about 3 jugs of stabilizer for now, maybe another one if its still low. I have one hanging in front of a retun and another one in a sock in one of the skimmers. I have one more 4lbs jub of stabilizer to add, I will hang it in front of another return unless the first one dissolves by tomorrow.
Do you think I lost all that chlorine cuz of no CYA? im confused as to why it has not dropped any further? my chlorinator is off for now, I am just running the filter and not adding any bleach for shocking. When do you guys suggest I start shocking? or maybe i dont even need it ? water was fairly clear, just the bottom was dirty. I bought another 12 bottles of bleach. I want to wait untill someone can explain this better to me because I feel like I might be doing something wrong and dont want to just dump bleach into water?

P.S. I just remembered that 4 jugs out of 7 that I dumped into the pool were in my garage since last summer, so not sure how much chlorine was actually left in there...... but still it seems I should be getting a higher reading then 1 all day long?

 

[RafaelSvr]

Is everyone so fed up with me already ? Still waiting on any and all suggestions, no clue how to proceed with the shocking, maybe I dont even need to shock if water is clear? either way i am still concerned why i lost all the Chlorine so quickly.

 

[jblizzle]

You had no CYA ... so you will lose 50% of your FC every hour. And/Or you have something in the water.

Follow the process ... if there is nothing in the water, then you will pass the 3 criteria quickly.

 

[RafaelSvr]

You had no CYA ... so you will lose 50% of your FC every hour. And/Or you have something in the water.

Follow the process ... if there is nothing in the water, then you will pass the 3 criteria quickly.

alright ! will start shocking again tonight, the water looks crystal clear as of this morning. Thanks !

Since my CYA was non existant and will probably be low for a few days, can i still pass the overnight test? or the cya will not affect chlorine lose if the sun is not up?

 

[jblizzle]

CYA protects the FC from the sun ... at night there is no sun to worry about ... that is the whole point of doing the OCLT, to eliminate the sun as a source of loss.

 

[RafaelSvr]

Ok, so I waited till sun went down and tested water, it still showed 0.5 of FC, went back to clear after 1 drop, so that shows a 0.5 drop from 1 which I was getting all day yesterday. I didnt add any chlorine/bleach since yesterday morning. I then added 7 gallons of Bleach, Pool Calculator called for 6.6 to bring it up to 19 shock level with 30CYA (even though I am not there yet, was showing around 20 today). Waited about 45 minutes and tested, FC yet again came up at 1....... so I lost all that cholorine in the dark ? my water is clear, the walls on the spa are stained a bit from all the dirt that was in there but i can not imagine even if it was algea it ate all that chlorine in 45 minutes? is my powder or the drops bad ? I am really stumped as to what to do at this point.