New Water Test Need Council from the Gurus Before I start!

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whoozer

whoozer

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Apr 2, 2008
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Acton Maine
Ok I tested my tap and am very close to having the pool ready for chemicals. This is my tap test guide me if I'm wrong please this is still iffy for me for some things the salt is the big one.
Here goes:
FC=0 should I bring it to 4? add 178oz of 6% bleach
Ph=6.8 bring it to 7.4 by adding 222oz of borax
TA=80 Do I need to adjust this or will it change as I change the ph?
CH=60 bring it to 175 by adding 291oz of calcium chloride? (what is calcium chloride?)
CYA=0 bring it to 70 by adding 208oz of stabilizer?
Salt=0 ?how much salt I need to add I couldn't find the normal level I needed?

Then once I add all of this how long do I recirculate before retesting?
 
whoozer said:
Ok I tested my tap and am very close to having the pool ready for chemicals. This is my tap test guide me if I'm wrong please this is still iffy for me for some things the salt is the big one.
Here goes:
FC=0 should I bring it to 4? add 178oz of 6% bleach
Ph=6.8 bring it to 7.4 by adding 222oz of borax
TA=80 Do I need to adjust this or will it change as I change the ph?
CH=60 bring it to 175 by adding 291oz of calcium chloride? (what is calcium chloride?)
CYA=0 bring it to 70 by adding 208oz of stabilizer?
Salt=0 ?how much salt I need to add I couldn't find the normal level I needed?

Then once I add all of this how long do I recirculate before retesting?
Click to expand...

With no CYA yet, you don't need to bring CL to 4, 2 is okay, just keep adding each night until your CYA is raised. I read on here you can do the CYA in a sock anytime, it won't have an affect on the other chems.

Your TA will be affected by Borax, instead of adding Borax, you could just aerate....

I don't know what Cal-chlor is. Are these recommendations from the Pool Calc?

30-60 minutes after circulating retest. CYA up to a week, no backwashing.

Not sure about salt levels.

Good luck!
 
Don't raise your PH to 7.4 all at once. Raising TA will also raise the PH as will aeration. Adding CYA will lower PH. I would aim for 7.2 just at first, and then adjust it more later.

You can leave the TA alone for now. Wait to see where it ends up on the second day.

Calcium chloride is sold as a deicer. One common brand name is DowFlake. It isn't always easy to find. If you have trouble locating some you may need to use pool store calcium increaser, which is usually calcium chloride dihydrate. Don't raise CH levels on the same day as raising PH or TA.

Don't bring your CYA level up all at once. Try perhaps 2/3rds of the amount at first, give it a week, test again and see where you are.

You need to get the ideal salt level from your SWG manual. 3,000 is fairly common in the US, but some brands use different levels. Also, don't assume that salt is zero to start. It won't be.

Other than CYA and salt, the levels can usually be retested after an hour. Salt seems to take several hours to completely mix and CYA can take up to a week. However, if you are doing several things at once it is often better to wait four hours or more just to be sure things are throughly mixed.
 
So I work on the ph first. Should I aerate or use borax to adjust? How long do I aerate?

Do the cya sock thing, I bought the granule as it was all I could find.

Then wait and work on CH? Should I wait the entire week?

Then once I'm getting closer work on TA.

When should I add the salt? Manual says 3200-3400.

Also if I don't want to bring CL-4 right off should I just use half of the bleach the calc says until cya gets into the pool?

Frustratedpoolmom- Yes got the liner in plumbing is finishing and water level is almost there. Thanks All!
 
I would use borax to raise PH at first. You don't want to leave the PH below 7.0, and aeration takes a while.

You aerate till the PH is where you want it. The amount of time is different for every pool.

Wait a week after adding CYA before testing CYA again.

You can do CH on any day you don't raise either PH or TA.

Add salt any time.

Add enough chlorine to raise FC by 2 each evening until you add CYA. Once you add CYA test the FC level and add enough chlorine to raise it from where it is to an appropriate level based on your expected CYA level.
 
Ok thanks. I have to wait a few more hours before the skimmer is filled for the cya. I've been aerating for 4 hours now but as soon as the skimmer is filled I'll test the ph and see where I'm at before I borax.

Taking my first BBB plunge....it's exciting to be liberated from the pool stores and only needing to go now and again and know just what I need! :goodjob:
 
Ok so I got my CL to 2
Ph-7.3
TA-90 or so
CH-still 60
salt- still not reading on strips
CYA-0 adding through sock will test later

Question: I added only 80lbs of salt. The manual says ideal is 3400ppm. It says at 0 you need to add 500+lbs of salt :shock: :shock: :shock: Holy smokes! Is this right? The other thing is the manual for the intellichlor says not to add salt or use the generator for 1 month. :oops: Did I just mess something up? Also are there any precautions when adding salt? Will it hurt the vinyl if I don't do it right? Thanks all.
 
I was told to wait a month b4 adding salt in my new plaster pool, which I did. Although I'm not certain, I think the reason given was to allow the plaster to cure. Assuming that is the real/ only reason, you likely do not need to wait the 1 month with a liner. Others more knowledgeable will provide clarity/ confirmation there. Last point, my SWG had a sticker on it that said the warranty would be void -if I did not wait at least 24hrs after I added the salt, before turning the unit on. I assumed that was to make certain the salt was fully diluted, although there could be other reasons.

As to the 500+ lbs, yup that sounds ~right, I had to add ~650lbs for my 24K gallon pool. Seemed like a lot to me at the time too. But the process went smoothly and surprisingly quickly ~ 2hours from start to finish and I can barely taste the salt -nothing like the ocean, which I think is something like 35,000 ppm (10X what you'll be adding to your pool).

Good luck.

Dan
 
Thanks Dan,
I have an intellichlor IC-40 I can't see that it has an on or off? The light is in red because the cell is not reading enough salt so it says next to it OFF. I would assume once I get it up to 2500ppm or more the green light will turn on and it will "run". But I'm really only guessing.

What was your procedure for putting in salt? Dump it in and swish it around with the brush. Thats all I did. I walked around the pool and dump some in here and there, then brushed it. Hopefully I did it right. I'll have to go buy 400 more lbs tomorrow :shock: I still can't believe it.
 

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Yes, hundreds of pounds of salt. Just dump it in, spread it around a little so it is in a thin layer and not all in one big pile, and leave the pump running overnight afterwards. Some SWG salt displays can take an additional 24 hours to show the actual level (some of them average the last 24 hours to get a reading).

Waiting a month is only for fresh plaster.
 
Ok so this is where I am at:

PH-7.3
TA-80
FC-2.5
CC-0
CH-70
CYA-30(guessing based on the amnt of stabilizer that went in)
salt-3400ppm
I have some brown staining already happening on my steps. Is this metal? Seems to early to be anything else like algea and my cc-0. It cleans off easy but comes back after a few hours. What should I use to fix this?
 
Your numbers look fairly good. Your CYA is of course low. Adding CYA takes time, so just keep working on that.

If the "brown stuff" cleans off easily with a brush then it isn't metals. If it cleans of easily with vitamin C tablets then it is metals.
 
Re: New Water Test Need Council

So my water is beginning to get cloudy on the deep end. Not bad but I'm slowly having trouble seeing the bottom. I tested my water today and it was as follows:

ph-7.3
TA-80
FC-3.5
CC-0
CYA-35 (still adding)
salt-3400
swg set to 60%

Also-I tried the vitamin C tablet and the prior stains came off some but the stain on the steps keeps coming back and it can be washed off mostly by a brush.

In a nut shell I'm baffled as to why my water is getting cloudy??? Any thoughts? Am I missing something here?
 
One possibility is that your circulation pattern might not be very good. There either needs to be a main drain or a return pointed down into the deep end to keep the deep water circulating and mixing with the rest of the pool water.
 
Ok I'll try to reposition the one return by the deep end to see if it helps both of my returns seemed to be aiming to high but I had trouble loosening them to turn them down.. I was concern that my skimmer doesn't seem to have alot of pull but I could be over reacting. Is there a way to check for adequate flow?

I used my G4 the past two days and it seemed to be working ok...it's just to small of a unit for this pool is all. I have a dedicated suction line for my vacuum but I had it shut off. Should I keep that running and put a grate on it?
 
How long should it take the SWG to read the salt level correctly? I have had 3400ppm in my pool now for days and the swg keeps saying its too low. :roll: I'm using the aquacheck test strips for the salt are those accurate enough? The water already tastes like salt a little bit. I'm afraid to add any more. Also how do I know the swg is working properly? Are there any signs to look for?

I'm still having cloudiness issues in the deep end but I haven't been able to get the returns turned down because they are so tight. Just waiting for man power :)
 
A SWG can often take 24 hours to respond to a change in salt level. Days later it should be reading correctly. Cold water, below 60 degrees, can also cause problems with some salt sensors. You should check the manual to see if there is a procedure for re-calibrating the salt sensor.
 

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