First Post and First Pool

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J

JRohrer

0
May 20, 2014
33
Tucson, AZ
My Wife and i close on a house next week and it will have our first pool!!!
Today i pulled a water sample and had it tested at a Leslie's pool supply.
The pool is around 18,000 gallons and has just been re plastered and tiled.
It has a sand filter and single stage pump, one skimmer, deep end drain, two pressure ports, 1 vacuum.
The water test Results.
FAC 0 Low
TAC 0 Low
CH 200 Good
CYA 60 Good
TA 70 Low
pH 7.8 Good
Copper o Good
Iron 0 Good
TDS 600 Good
Pho 0 Good

Let me know what you guys think a plan of action should be to get the pool up and swimable ASAP.
Thanks for your time!
 
What does the water look like? Purchase one of the recommended test kits - keep reading in Pool School.

Is anyone maintaining it now? Who is adding chlorine - you need some in there pronto....

In Pool School there is an article about new plaster - the PH needs to monitored closely and the pool brushed frequently...
 
Thanks for the reply. The current owner is pretty disgruntle and i don't thank anyone is maintaining it. Today it was full of leaves and covered in light brown (dust?) that wipes away with ease. I think i will go back tomorrow and drop some shock in just to get the chlorine started in the right directions. Leslie's pool suggested shock and Alkaline up. What do you think? The pool has no vacuum in it and the deep end drain is pretty clogged with leafs. I get the keys next Wednesday so i have to wait to throw a vacuum in and rake out the leaves until then.

- - - Updated - - -

Note: The plaster was done last fall so its not brand new but maybe 8 months old or so. I think that might change things. And the water is pretty clear
 
JRohrer said:
I think i will go back tomorrow and drop some shock in just to get the chlorine started in the right directions. Leslie's pool suggested shock and Alkaline up.
Click to expand...
Nope and double nope.

Welcome. You have already gotten the best advice above. "Shock" to Leslie's is trichlor powder. The CYA level is already high. No stabilized chlorine products for you! I would be for you dumping in some bleach though.

Go to PoolMath and plug in your numbers to see how much bleach you need to add for your given CYA level.

Oh...did you order one of the recommended test kits yet? :D
 
So if i used the calculator correctly the first number on the left is current value and the 2nd on the right is your goal? If that's the case the CYA to FAC chart says with a CYA of 60 my FAC need's to be between 5-7. With that i would need just under 2 gallons of 6% bleach. Does that sound right?

Pool test kit is on its way from Amazon.
 
Hi and welcome!

First of all, congratulations on teh new house! I know how exciting that is!!
You are using the pool math correctly.

There is a selection on the pool math for Vinyl, fiberglass or gunite.... so choose the right one of those too.

While you are waiting for your test kit and for the keys, it would help you understand a bit more if you would read Pool School. There is a POOL SCHOOL button at the top right hand of the page that will take you there. Its a bit to learn, but dont worry if you dont remember all of it right away. The Pool School will familiarize you with a lot of terms used ... Pool Language ! haha!

Enjoy the pool, you will be up and going in no time with minimum effort and minimum out of pocket expenses. Please dont fall for the "pool store" gimmicks. They are in business to sell you as much stuff as they can convince you to buy. Whether you need that stuff is not really of any importance to them.
 
Like Divin Dave said you are correct on how the fields are used; however, I have you needing to add 190 oz of 8.25% to get up to 7 ppm FC. The 8.25% is pretty much the norm now for plain old regular bleach. I would double check your entries.

Most big box stores (hardware or otherwise) sell 2 1-gal bottles of the 10% in a box in the pool supply area. They are pretty much the same. You can decide on what the best value is for you.
 
Thanks for the welcome. The pool is gunnite and was re plastered less than a year ago. The size of the pool is between 18,000-20,000. Generally how much will CYA go up when using bleach/ trichlor.
Reffering to this note on the calculator.
Note: Dichlor and trichlor add CYA and lower pH. Cal-hypo adds CH.
 

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UN1017 Thanks for the heads up i used the pre inputted 6 percent as you can tell i haven't bought bleach much. I also set the ppm to 6 splitting the difference on the CYA chart.
Thanks for the help

- - - Updated - - -

I think i did and then fixed it.
 
JRoher,
CYA only goes up with a powder or grnaular form a chlorine that ends with 'chlor' or those chlorine tablets, or by adding CYA - a.k.a. Stabilizer.

Dont add any of those. Your CYA is good - assuming the pool store test is close to right.
The thing about CYA is if gets too high, it makes sustaining enough FC almost impossible.

you cannot add anything to make CYA lower. the only way to do that is drain a LOT water from the pool.
Seeing that you are in Az, you prolly have a pretty high water rate, so .......... draining a lot of water might not be a good thing, so be careful.

Once your test kit comes in, then we'll know for sure what the CYA is and if necessary, make an adjustment to the Free Chlorine at that time.

FOr now, concentrate on getting some chlorine in the pool using the info you provided.
All the other parameters can be adjusted when teh test results tell us what they truly are.
 
Thanks everyone for the help. I plan on learning as much as can about this hobby as i go along. Tonight was just about getting the best answers i could to try to get a game plan to fix the things i know so far about the pool chemistry. I appreciate everyone taking the time to chime in! I plan to sneak over after work and get some bleach in the pool. Thanks again.

P.S. Un1017 i noticed your in Sac i grew up in Vacaville.
 
JRohrer said:
Generally how much will CYA go up when using bleach/ trichlor.[/B]
Click to expand...

PoolMath will give you the exact numbers (look down at the bottom, "Effects of adding chemicals", but you get roughly 2/3 as much CYA as FC from whatever dose of Trichlor or Dichlor you put in... so adding 7 ppm of FC will add ~5ppm of CYA. The problem is that the FC goes away quickly, used up oxidizing guck in your pool or burned off by the sun so you need to add more, but the CYA just keeps accumulating.

Cal hypo works the same way but adds CH instead of CYA. Bleach doesn't add anything other than a bit of salt, that's why it's such a good choice.
 
Bleach or any other form of chlorine into your pool now will be mostly wasted.

Your first order of business is to scoop the sludge and leaves from the bottom of the pool and get the pool circulating properly.

After that, chlorine will start to have an effect.
 
GuinnessPhish said:
What test kit did you buy?
I ended up buying the TF-100 test kit. It seems like a good kit that will last me a long time

What did you mean by "The current owner is pretty disgruntled"? Is he moving because of the pool?
Click to expand...

As for the current owner. He did not make any money on this house that he tried to flip, so he has fought me the whole time on repairs. The pool is fine to my knowledge but its obvious that once he was in contract and the house was no longer being showed he just gave up on the pool maintenance.
 
If it is going to be a few days between visits to the pool, I would recommend shooting for a higher FC level. It will go down with time after you move in and have time to test it daily. An extra gallon every couple of days is a lot cheaper than trying to clean a green pool. Just my thoughts.
 

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