New pool owner - water treatment question.

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T

TMX

0
Jun 20, 2014
21
Colorado Springs
Hello there, just posted an intro in the inter forum, and now have a few questions about getting the levels right.

Current readings are:

TH: 400
FC: 2
PH: below 6.4
TA: 40
CYA: 0

I added conditioner for the CYA 3 days ago, approx 10oz by weight.

I have read that I can use Borax and baking soda to treat my Low TA and my low PH, can you direct me to where there is a chart for dosage.
Also, the best way to introduce then into my pool (see signature)

Thank you so much.

Tim
 
Just wanted to add, that at this time, these are the only numbers I can post.
I am using the hth 5 way test strip. Will invest in a better test kit asap, on that front, what would be the entry level test kit you would recommend?

Again, I thank you for any and all advice and help!!

Tim
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!!

The key to a good test kit is the FAS-DPD chlorine test, which makes the kits expensive.
For your small pool, you should be able to get by with a simple OTO/pH kit like the Taylor K-1000, but I would put ZERO faith in any results from test strips. If things happen to go south, it is easy enough to drain your pool and start over.

Take a look at the Guide for Temporary/Seasonal Pools as one option to maintain your pool.

You can use PoolMath to calculate your chemical additions.
 
Just got 3 boxes of borax and a huge bag of baking soda. In the car on my phone... Wife is driving .... So can't get to the calculator to see what to add. Also picked up some more conditioner and will order or pick up a real test kit this week. Thoughts on swimming tonight after adding the borax baking soda?
 
You could swim in the pool now. The low pH might irritate some. Add the borax and let it circulate for 30 minutes and jump in.
Do not raise the TA much higher than 80ppm.
You should also get the CYA dissolving in a sock quickly too ... fine to swim at the same time.
 
WHOA ... hold on.
Where did you come up with the need to add that much borax?
For that matter how did you get a pH of 6.4?

Test the TA and pH 30 minutes after you added this stuff.
 
Any chance you have those numbers backwards ?? 3.5 baking soda and 14oz borax ?? What I see in the calculator that is closer.
 

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ok, so after looking again at the numbers I started the pool math calculator with:TH: 400
TH 200
FC: 2
PH: 6.4
TA: 40
CYA: 0

I think what happened is at one pout it said to add 77oz of Borax, but then I add the rest of the numbers, and forgot to hit calculate at the top......

I took the estimated TA increase and added that to my starting point for TA to figure out my baking soda addition.

There is a very good chance that I screwd up big time, but if that is the case, I will work through it.

Thanks for all the help

Tim

Edit to add: I will go tomorrow and get the HTH 6 way test kit, as it is recommended in the seasonal pool guide.
 
Where did the water come from ?? When you say new pool, new to you or you installed a new pool ?? What did you use to fill it City water, well water ??

The CYA can take up to a week to show up. If you have it in a sock you need to get in there and knead it .. work it into the water. Spend some time squeezing the bag and then submerging it and squeezing it again. Gets the CYA into the water faster.

They don't like test strips but it's what you have and it's what we have to work with for now :)

Don't worry if you made a mistake, it's only water and it's fixable.
 
It is an ez set pool this is the first fill of the year. Last year my wife tried to set it up but the ground was too I level and it never got used.

I filled with city water and have not add any new cya yet. Guess we need to figure out the rest of the water
 
Just noticed your signature says "no swimming yet".

If it's city water like you shower in and not any odd green color you should be ok to swim in it. Might want to ad a cup or two of bleach (IMHO FC 5) but otherwise ... the numbers look safe.
 
I am off to get the test kit, silly test strips showed:
TH 200
FC: 2
PH: 6.8
TA: 120
CYA: 0 - still not sure about this one yet...

Will post up test kit results as soon as I have them.
Question about TA vs CH, I have a water report, can I use that to figure out the CH?

Tim
 

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