New pool owner

[Queenbee]

Hi,

I am a new pool owner and new to the forum, I have been lurking for awhile prior to signing up. Our pool was completed in Oct 2013, the weather hear on the WestCoast is finally starting to get nice and I am getting excited to open the pool. We did not close the pool over the winter, and the pool builder advised us that we should run the pump 24hrs a day. We are running on chlorine pucks right now as I do not have the pool heated, but I would like to start the process of opening the pool but am not sure what I need to do, so I am looking for some advise. I am looking to purchase the TF-100 kit but will have to see if I can use my friends US Mailbox as I believe that they cannot be purchased/shipped to Canada. I went to the pool store today to have the water tested and this is what they gave me, BTW the pool water looks great and is about 60F

Free Chlorine 1.07PPM
Total Chlorine 1.85PPM
Combined Chlorine .8PPM
PH 7.7PPM
Hardness 220PPM
Alkalinity 90PPM
Cyanuric Acid 15PPM

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Smykowski]

Welcome to the forum!

Our first recommendation is going to be get your own test kit. I understand the logistical issues up north, but it's the only way to take control of your pool.

If you've been lurking for awhile, you know how we feel about pool store testing. If those tests can be believed, you need more FC and a little more CYA, but other than that you are in pretty good shape.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome, eh?

You've already encountered the big proble, the monopoly on Taylor stuff in Canuckistan, so I don't need to cover that. I'm just suspicious of that low CYA reading. If you've been feeding it a diet of pucks, it should be higher. Unless you just started feeding it and you got a lot of rain or snow in the pool over the winter to dilute things.

 

[pwrstrk]

Welcome to TFP !
+ 1 for getting a good test kit ! Keep reading in pool school as there is a lot of good info there. Any questions you have don't hesitate to ask ! ?

 

[Casey]

I agree with Richard and am a little taken aback by the low CYA reading given the fact of your admittance of pucks through the winter.

Welcome to TFP! Any pics of this pool you speak of?

 

[Queenbee]

Thanks for the welcome.

The CYA, not sure about that, I feed the pool pucks in the skimmer but only about 1 at a time as the Chlorine reading seems to go up quiet a bit. I added a puck yesterday after getting the store readings and the chlorine reading is now around 3, so didn't want to put too many in or is the high chlorine reading OK? We also did have about 100mm rain over the weekend...it was a monsoon.

Casey, I've tried to post pictures through the attachments uploaded on my profile but am having no luck..It keeps telling me it failed to download. Any other way to upload pics