New Pool Owner - Thoughts?

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M

mjworthy

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Dec 31, 2013
90
North Texas
My pool was completed and water added over just two weeks ago. I got my test kit on Friday and have been testing, adjusting and learning since. My pH was through the roof, but I have since got it under control. However, my FC is still really low. Here are my results from this morning:

FC 1
CC .5
pH 7.5 (brought down from 8.4 on Friday)
TA 80
CH 250
CYA 45 (brought up from 20 yesterday)
Temp 76
Gallons 24,000

This will be a salt water pool, but we are not putting the salt in the pool until this coming Friday.

Per pool math, I need to 149 oz of bleach to raise my FC and stabilizer to increase my CYA.

Questions:
1. Will the 149 oz of bleach reduce the CC?
2. I know my CYA needs to be 70-80 for a salt water pool, however, we haven't added salt yet. Knowing we will be adding salt on Friday, how much liquid sanitizer should I add? Pool math shows 208 oz of liquid sanitizer.
3. Anything I am missing?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Michael
 
1) Most likely.
2) Get your FC issue resolved before raising the CYA level further. Also, liquid stabilizer costs about double granular and has no advantages.
3) Not really. Focus on getting the FC level into the normal range for now. With CYA around 45 you want FC between 4 and 8. I recommend raising FC to 8 now and then see if it is still at least 4 this evening. If it goes below 3 you may need to SLAM the pool.
 
I need some more help. I have been testing and adjusting daily for a while now so I feel comfortable with the process. We just put the salt in the pool last Friday (15 bags) and I have added two more since.

The pool looked great and tested fine all weekend. The kids were in the pool a lot.

When I tested yesterday evening my FC dropped to 0 and my pH was through the roof!

I added 242 oz of 8.25% of bleach and 44 oz of muratic acid. I checked it again before I went to bed a few hours later and the FC was 12 and pH was 7.5. I checked it again first thing this morning (6 AM) and the FC was still 12!

Here are my results from my testing this evening (6 PM):
FC 8.5
CC 0.5
pH 7.8
TA 110
CH 250
CYA 45
Salt 3100
Temp 79

I feel like I am chasing my tail and constantly making significant adjustments with bleach or muratic acid. I thought the salt would level out my battle with FC.

Is it time to raise my CYA slowly to the recommended 70-80 range? What else do I need to do at this time? Anything to help the constant addition of muratic acid?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Michael
 
You have alkaline water, obviously. There's no other way the TA climbed despite acid additions otherwise (Unless you added Baking Soda for some reason.) Get used to frequent acid additions. It's going to be a way of life. High TA tends to drive pH up. The SWG aggravates it.

But in the meantime...
FC 8.5 A bit high. Turn down the SWG and make life easier on your cell. It will also slow the pH rise.
CC 0.5 Fine. Anything .5 or less counts as zero
pH 7.8 Fine.
TA 110 A bit high. Keep knocking back pH and it should lower.
CH 250 Fine
CYA 45 Low. Remember, you have a SWG pool now. Did you fix the Suggested Goal Levels on poolmath to reflect that?
Salt 3100 Okay
Temp 79 Brrrrr. Only suitable for children. Call me when it's up to 83 or 84. :mrgreen:

Better explanations than my brief notations are given in Water Balance for SWG

All I see you need for now is to turn down the SWG and add some more CYA to get to about 70. Maybe tomorrow or the next day you'll need to knock pH back to 7.5. Seems like you're doing fine. The water looks good, right?
 
The FC dropping to 0 and the pH through the roof can be explained by a high bather load. All the splashing aerated the water and drove the pH up, and high bather load probably consumed the chlorine. It sounds like you're doing everything right, you're just learning how your pool behaves during high bather load conditions. It just means a little planning ahead for busy weekends in the future.
 
Thanks for the quick reply Richard.

Yes, the water looks good...it has a slight green tint but I am not sure anyone else in my house would notice.

No, I have not added any baking soda. I have been using pool math and making the recommended adjustments for FC and pH but not for anything else yet. I was waiting to add the salt before I made too many adjustments.

Pool math recommends that I add muratic acid to bring my ph down to 7-7.2 and aerate to bring the pH back up. I will do that tonight along with adding stabilizer to bring my CYA up.

I am hesitant to lower my SWG due to the daily FC reductions (it was only at 12 this morning due to my large bleach addition yesterday evening and it reduced to 8.5 by this evening).

Once I get the CYA up to 70-80, will my FC continue to drop 4-5 ppm per day or will the SWG stabilize the FC so I am not adding bleach often?
 
mjworthy said:
Thanks for the quick reply Richard.

Yes, the water looks good...it has a slight green tint but I am not sure anyone else in my house would notice.

No, I have not added any baking soda. I have been using pool math and making the recommended adjustments for FC and pH but not for anything else yet. I was waiting to add the salt before I made too many adjustments.

Pool math recommends that I add muratic acid to bring my ph down to 7-7.2 and aerate to bring the pH back up. I will do that tonight along with adding stabilizer to bring my CYA up.

I am hesitant to lower my SWG due to the daily FC reductions (it was only at 12 this morning due to my large bleach addition yesterday evening and it reduced to 8.5 by this evening).

Once I get the CYA up to 70-80, will my FC continue to drop 4-5 ppm per day or will the SWG stabilize the FC so I am not adding bleach often?
Click to expand...
Yeah... maybe you should hold off on dialing back the SWG; I forgot about the bleach. You should see a reduction in FC loss when CYA goes up.
 
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