First test of the season - what to do first??

[dschribs]

Opening our pool tomorrow so I did my first test of the year.

FC: 0
CYA: 0
Ph: Below 7.0 - my test kit doesn't go any lower. The tested water is sort of yellow...

I'm confused as to what to do first. The is only my second year with my pool so I'm still a newbie.

In what order should I start tackling these numbers? Do I add everything at once or handle one issue at a time?

Last year I never had to adjust my ph. it was always dead on 7.5. We got TONS of snow this winter and also have had TONS of rain the past few weeks. I wonder if that could have affected the ph? Pool school is telling me to use borax or soda ash. Can't I just use plain old baking soda?

* I use bleach for my chlorine needs.

 

[Richard320]

Are these readings taken after the water has had an hour or so of pump running to mix? If it's a lot of rain or snowmelt at the top, you'll be reading weird.

If so, you'll need to adjust pH first. But without the TA results, poolmath can't calculatre the borax dose.

If TA is above 50, go ahead and deal with pH first.

If TA is low, then you need baking soda first, and recheck after at least half an hour of mixing. Baking soda does very little to PH. Go check poolmath. Scroll down to Effects of Adding Chemicals and see for yourself.

Once TA is 50 or better, then add Borax or Soda Ash to fix the pH. Target 7.2 It might take two or more tests and doses if you're off the scale.

With zero CYA, there's a chance it degraded into ammonia over the winter. So add enough bleach to get to 10 and recheck it in an hour. Report back what the FC and CC levels are. At that point you might want to see about adding the necessary CYA or not. We'll advise.

 

[dschribs]

Pump is not running as of yet. I'll cycle the water for a few hours and re-check.

Thanks