Opening pool, Low TA and CH, pool store wants $$$

[Joshf78]

Ok, so I have already bought and used the opening kit and synergy initiator, and the seasons supply of chlorine, but now after doing the opening and initiator stuff, I have low TA and other stuff. Pool store water test results today:
Tds 400
Cya 40
Tot ch 5
Free ch 5
Ph 7.2
Tot alk 70
Adj tot alk 58
Cal hard 95
Iniatior 80

And they want over 100$ to get the stuff to get it to par.
I'm ok with going the tfpc way for this, but where it's already started with the synergy and I have the year supply of chlorine, how does that come into play, or does it even matter?
I'd love some help, hopefully I've posted in the right spot.
I used the calculator but wasn't sure about what to choose, tfpc or traditional pool goals.

 

[Casey]

Welcome to TFP!

I have never heard of synergy initiator. What is that?

If you are going to follow the TFPC, you will need regular house hold bleach. I see you are in Nova Scotia. It looks like your other numbers are fairly good.

 

[svenpup]

A couple things first. Pool store testing is notoriously untrustworthy. The fundamental tenets of TFPC, are taking control of your pool by proper water testing, understanding the effect of adding chemicals, and only adding chemicals that are necessary and understood. The synergy system is the antitheses of these tenets with a bunch of chemicals that have propitiatory names that are meant to obscure from the pool owner what they are actually adding to the pool. This leaves the pool owner at the mercy of the pool store "experts."

The follwoing quotes are from this post, where Jason gave some good advice to another Synergy user:

Omni Synergy Tabs contain trichlor and borates and appear to be PH neutral, or at least close to PH neutral.
Omni Synergy Clear is 58% dichlor with the remaining contents not listed.
Omni Synergy Initiator is borates.
Pink Treat is 89% sodium bromide {{EDITED}}.

There is never any reason to use Pink Treat. Chlorine alone is completely effective against pink algae and water mould.

I recommend you get your own top quality test kit. Without reliable test results we need to do a lot of guessing about what might be going on.

There is no need to use Omni chemicals. Suitable chemicals are available much less expensively, many of them from the grocery store.

Sodium bromide can be problematic. We never recommend using it. Make sure you follow their directions on how much chlorine to add and when or it may end up making things worse.

I recommend getting a test kit from TFTestKits. That will give you much better control over your pool, save you the drive to the pool store, and give you more reliable results than nearly any pool store.

I also recommend doing some reading in Pool School. There is lots of helpful background information there that will make taking care of your pool much simpler.

Do you have algae? You numbers don't look horrible.

Have you already used Pink Treat? That can complicate things. (once a bromine pool always a bromine pool)

I assume that the Initiator level is Borates. If so 80 is high, and we don't recommend going much over 50. If you keep using Synergy this will keep going up.

If you are serious about getting started with TFPC, start with getting a good test kit (TF-100 from tftestkits.net) so you can begin taking control of your pool.

If you decide to abandon the Synergy system (since you said you have a year supply) people have good luck dumping their unwanted, CYA and/or Bromide ridden junk on Craigs list. Some other sucker will be happy to take it off your hands.

 

[Richard320]

What is "synergy initiator"?

Now I'm going to have to add it to the wheel of pool store fortune.

 

[svenpup]

According to Jason it's borates (expensive borates).

Josh, I just looked back at your topic heading...your TA is fine and your CH is fine for a vinyl pool (if you believe the pool store testing, which I don't)


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[Joshf78]

This stuff is the synergy system... By omni.http://www.omnipool.com/Products/Synergy®
The t100 test kit is what you are talking about?
Also, with the test shown there, is my pool safe to use until I get a good kit and test myself?

 

[svenpup]

Yes, Tf100.

Numbers look ok. pH is a little low, but not bad. You still haven't said what is wrong with the pool that the pool store was going to "fix". How does the water look?


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[Joshf78]

They told me my TA was low, my PH was low and my CH was low. They wanted to sell me some balance 300, low and slow, and balance pack 100. If I'm not mistaken, low and slow reduces ph, not increases it... Again with being sold what I don't need. The pool, after opening, looks pretty good but I haven't brushed the vinyl yet. The water doesn't look crystal clear yet... I don't know if it's the ph and TA, or just that the vinyl hasn't been brushed yet. And, I can't really smell chlorine, I thought I remembered smelling it last year (first year for owning a house with a pool).

 

[Richard320]

They told me my TA was low, my PH was low and my CH was low. They wanted to sell me some balance 300, low and slow, and balance pack 100. If I'm not mistaken, low and slow reduces ph, not increases it... Again with being sold what I don't need. The pool, after opening, looks pretty good but I haven't brushed the vinyl yet. The water doesn't look crystal clear yet... I don't know if it's the ph and TA, or just that the vinyl hasn't been brushed yet. And, I can't really smell chlorine, I thought I remembered smelling it last year (first year for owning a house with a pool).

You are correct. Lo-n-slow is just dry acid. The bioguard site even lists is for "reducing pH and total alkalinity in pool water"
Balance Pak 100 is Baking Soda. It raises alkalinity.

They wanted to sell you something to lower alkalinity and another to raise it!

Balance Pak 300 Is Calcium Carbonate. Some ice-melt stuff is the same, but cheaper. Your vinyl pool doesn't need it! There is no plaster to worry about leaching.

So why do you go to the pool store?

 

[Joshf78]

I KNEW it! One reason is because when we bought the house the guy had bought for the store and used all along the synergy stuff for there, which is also 2doors down the street from us. So we went for convenience and because it was how the pool was run (and therefore given the info and instructions for their system). So I don't really need to bother with the. CH, is that right? I was under the understanding it had an effect on scaling of equipment and solubility of the water. If it isn't a significant issue I won't worry about it. And I can go to the bulk food store and buy enough baking soda called for in the calculator for a few dollars. Ice melter shouldn't be too hard to find even this time of year. But all in all, the test if we accept the results, shows the water should be just fine to swim in, right? And I'll get a test kit ordered. So if I get rid of the rest of y synergy stuff, about how much bleach should I be adding each week to the pool? And anything else?

 

[Casey]

You can use PoolMath to determine how much bleach to add to your pool.

 

[Charman03]

Looks like your pool should be fine to swim in.