New pool setup

[Greg C]

Hello all,

First I just wanted to say hello to everyone here and that I'm glad I found this forum. It looks like it's going to be a very useful and informative site for me as I'm new to pool care and will be setting up our first pool next weekend. It will be a saltwater system, specs of the pool are listed below.

My question is, what is the proper sequence for checking and adjusting the water perimeters (pH, alkalinity, etc.) after I fill up the pool for the first time? What do I need to do before I add the salt? I know I will need to add cyanuric acid, but at what point? Does the pH need to be in the proper range before the salt is added? Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

You can add salt any time.

Generally, you adjust PH, then FC, then CYA, and finally TA. Though there can be occasional exceptions if something is especially far out of balance.

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

Hello Greg and welcome to the forum

 

[Richard320]

My opinion:

1) Add bleach to 3 FC or adjust pH to 7.4, whichever you prefer to do first. Maybe pH is okay already?
2) Play around with the sock and the CYA granules and get that set up in the skimmer or hanging in front of a return
3) By the time all the fumbling with the CYA is done, the first chemical has had time to mix. Then you can add the bleach or acid you didn't do in step 1.
4) Maintain the pool as a bleach pool for a couple days as the CYA dissolves and the water warms up and you get the hang of the testing and dosing.
5) Hold Diamond Day when the water is warm enough to get in. See Post 5
6) Fire off the SWG the next day and start playing with the percentages to get the FC levels to hold steady.

 

[Greg C]

Thanks for the welcome and replies everyone. A couple of follow up questions:

Regarding the sock and CYA, how does that work? Just put the CYA in a plain ol' tube sock in front of the return and let it dissolve from there?

Is there a calculation I could do to get a rough estimate of how much bleach I'll need to get the FC up to 3.0 in 4440 gallons?

 

[anonapersona]

You will find Pool Math to be your best friend with regards to calculations.

Yes,a tube shock or Knee Hi stocking, I prefer the later as it is a bit finer weave. You want it to dissolve, not sift out onto the floor.

I also suggest starting a Pool Book to record all your Pool data, equipment data, and any cool thing you learn here. There will be a lot of tips, best to write them down as they can be hard to find later with so many parts nowadays.

 

[Richard320]

Thanks for the welcome and replies everyone. A couple of follow up questions:

Regarding the sock and CYA, how does that work? Just put the CYA in a plain ol' tube sock in front of the return and let it dissolve from there?

Is there a calculation I could do to get a rough estimate of how much bleach I'll need to get the FC up to 3.0 in 4440 gallons?

What to use and how to add it: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/139-recommended-pool-chemicals
How to Use pool math to calculate how much: http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/114-poolmath-pool-calculator

 

[Kiss4aFrog]

And the calculator for figuring out how much to add once you have some numbers to plug into it : http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html
Plug in your 4440 gallons, 0 FC now if that's where it's at and 3 for the target and it will do the math. You need to tell it what percentage or strength of bleach you are going to add. Some is 6%, 8%, 12.5, ... and it will say how much to put in

Yes CYA in a sock. Some put it in the skimmer it's something you should knead or squeeze occasionally. If you just let it sit there it can take days to dissolve. CYA takes a while to show up. When you go to add it you want to make sure you aren't going to need to backwash your filter for a few days as you might be flushing out what you just put in. In Pool School it says that it can take up to a week for the CYA addition to show up in a test. So once it's all dissolved you want to wait a week before retesting.

 

[Greg C]

Thanks again. That pool math calculator is really a useful tool!