New Home, New First Pool Ever! , What to check first?

[jsscortes]

Hi, I am new to the pool maintenance world and I have no idea where to start... I just bought a house and comes with a pool about 7 years old, the water looks clear and the pool seems to be well maintained, so I dont want to ruin it !.

I have been reading a lot trying to learn as much and as fast as possible but I think I still can use some guidance from the experts

I could split my question in 2

1.- Water chemistry wise.- I just got today my Taylor K-2006 from Amazon and I already red how to test the water, I already calculated the volume of my pool using the pool calc and I kinda know what levels I should expect for Chlorine and I know that I should use plain bleach in case I need to raise it. But still, I dont know what to test first (CYA maybe?), I feel hesitating about my first step, I have a plastic bottle filled up with water from my pool and I dont know what to do with it.

2.- Hardware wise .- I can see a sand filter and a couple of water pumps above my pool's level and a bunch of filters-like things and even a small glass bottle (1 or 2 oz) with a transparent liquid inside connected to the pipes system around the pumps, a couple of manual valves that I have no idea what are they for, and a big blue thing with holes inside with some tree leaves dancing inside. the whole system seems to work fine, however I dont know if there is anything that may require my attention to keep it working. Is there any documentation that could tell me what are all those things for?, any suggestions on what my check list should look like?

Thank you very much for your enlightenment and I hope this post could help other new pool owners as a quick start.

 

[Casey]

Welcome! Congrats on the test kit!

Don't get flustered. It would be ideal if you grabbed a note pad and wrote down all the test results and post them up here for use to take a gander at and we can help you move forward. Perform FC, CC, pH, TA, CH, CYA.

It would help if you could take a pic of your equipment pad and someone will be along to tell you what is what.

P.S. I would read up on:

ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry
Recommended Pool Chemicals
How to Chlorinate Your Pool
Chlorine CYA Chart
Recommended Levels
What is Trouble Free Pool Care?
Pool Calculator Instructions

That should be enough to keep you busy and we encourage you to ask questions!

 

[anonapersona]

Begin a pool notebook. Add pool details, notes from what you read here, then each test you do and each item you add to the pool and why. This will speed your learning curve. Also add phone numbers of local stores and pool stores that carry the things you need. What do you need? A full test will tell you. So test pH, FC, CC, TA, CH, and CYA in no particular order. Do a full test about once a month, recording that data.
Daily you will test FC, CC, and pH, you may drop CC sometimes. What you need will depend on the test results so post them here and someone can walk you through Pool Math to see what you need.

 

[bridgman]

The most useful test would probably be CYA, but it's also the most subjective. pH is probably a good place to start (only one reagent).

I started with FC/CC first, then pH, and finally worked my way up to CYA

As others have said, you need to do most of the tests, I'm just suggesting which ones are easiest to start with.