new SW pool owner

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Kunisk,

I'm not going to pile on here with more "advice" except to say that you need to listen to the experts on this forum and totally stop talking to your PB and anyone at the pool store.

Your PB's advice has been wrong in every instance you've mentioned so far. He's is utterly wrong about CYA. The only time you don't use CYA is if you have an indoor pool that sees no sunshine

Secondly, Leslie Pools, Patio Pools, etc, are all out to simply take your money. They want to do nothing more than sell you lots of chemicals you don't need and test strips that don't work. Listening to them will almost certainly screw up your new pool

Read all the information in TFP Pool School and stick with the advice here. Doing so will keep your new pool working right and your water sparkling.


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We recommend a CYA of 70-80ppm for SWG pools. Usually good to raise in 2 steps, so 40-50ppm is a good start.

The reason the FC rises is because you will lose less to the sun.
 
kunisk said:
Ok going to get the cya and add tonight. Will let u know how it goes. Guys, you recommend i add the cya before doing any adjusting to swg correct? Swg still at original pb settings from install
Click to expand...

Just remember that if you use powdered CYA, you need to put it in a skimmer sock and set that in your skimmer basket and let it dissolve slowly or else the powder will clog your skimmer line. If you get liquid CYA (already dissolved and more $$$), then you can add it directly to your skimmer basket (pumps running please).

Also, it can take up to a week (yes, that's not a typo) before you will be able to measure CYA in the water. SO it's best to add maybe 80% of the amount of CYA you think you need based on PoolMath and then go ahead and adjust your other chemicals assuming that you're going to hit your CYA target. As others have stated, it's far easier to add CYA than to remove it. Removing it requires draining pool water.

Another way to add CYA and get your FC up at the same time is to go get some 3" trichlor pucks and use those in a blue floaty. However, the experts on TFP don't recommend doing that because you are then changing two variables at once (CYA and FC) and it will be much harder to interpret test results that way.

Slow and steady wins the race...slow and steady....
 
Thanks, all good advice. I bought two gallons of the liquid cya. I am going to add just one for now and then watch cya and fc levels over the next week and continue to add more as necessary. Have to figure out how to adjust the swg now so output isnt too much.
 
kunisk said:
Thanks, all good advice. I bought two gallons of the liquid cya. I am going to add just one for now and then watch cya and fc levels over the next week and continue to add more as necessary. Have to figure out how to adjust the swg now so output isnt too much.
Click to expand...

You could turn off your SWG and get your FC levels corrected with bleach. Then once you're sure you're at a stable FC level you can kick in your SWG and start experimenting with run times and SWG %


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Hi and welcome to TFP :)

Did your PB leave the manual for you for the SWG? If he didn't, you can probably download it from the manufacturer's website. It will have instructions on how to run it, and make adjustments to output.
 
Yes pb left me manual but of course he didnt do it right. Suppose to balance water before turning on swg.
I didnt add in cya yet, waiting to do it tonight when pool not used. Again all chems testing good except fc which is 0.5-1.0.
I am keeping swg on 100% till i do.
So is the way to go to increase cya first? Or should i add bleach or something to get levels up first?
Wont bleach stain the vinyl?
 

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Kunisk,

When you get a chance, please update your signature in your profile to include all the relevant information regarding your pool (there's a post in the new user forum detailing the information you should have in your signature). Having that info handy helps folks debug your problems without having to search through your posts to figure out what kind of pool and equipment you have.


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kunisk said:
Yes pb left me manual but of course he didnt do it right. Suppose to balance water before turning on swg.
I didnt add in cya yet, waiting to do it tonight when pool not used. Again all chems testing good except fc which is 0.5-1.0.
I am keeping swg on 100% till i do.
So is the way to go to increase cya first? Or should i add bleach or something to get levels up first?
Wont bleach stain the vinyl?
Click to expand...

You should get your FC up to safer levels using chlorine bleach especially if your kids are going to swim. Simply use PoolMath to figure out how much bleach to add and then add about 80% of the amount with pumps running, wait 1 hour and recheck FC. Adjust as needed. Kids can start swimming as soon as you get the FC to target value.

One more point - add bleach very slowly in front of one of the returns near the deep end and give the liner a good brush down to help mix it. Bleach itself will not stain your liner unless you add a huge amount all at once without mixing it. In that case, it would fade your liner. "Stains" on liners are usually the result of metal contamination like Fe or Cu.





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These guys are right on. You do need to manually bump up your chlorine level with plain, non-scented bleach (clorox). Use the pool math calculator to see how much to get it up to 5. If it hovers below 3 for too long, you'll get a nasty green algae bloom like every poster in the "getting started" forum. The SWG is good to maintain FC, but not great at increasing it. Don't use the "boost" button, it'll just wear out your cell faster- cheaper to dump in a bottle or two of bleach. The up/down buttons on your SWG control how long it stays on while running- similar to a microwave. When a microwave is on 50% power, it actually just cycles on and off equally.

As to a previous poster asked- some SWG's do adjust for temp, my pool pilot nano is one of those.
 
Ok guys here is the latest. I added a gallon of cya to my 26k gallon pool three days ago. I tested today. My fc went from 1.0 to 3.5! I didnt add any liquid chlorine but did a boost on my swg to run at 100 percent due to some rain. I only added a gallon of cya as someone here said slow and steady with chemicals as some are hard to reverse. The cya didnt even register on the test. Everyone is going to tell me tonadd more right or else i will see my fc levels drop, right? My gut is telling me to wait a bit and test frequently. Once i see fc drop then add more cya. I am guessing what happened is the chlorine generated by my swg stuck a little longer with the cya and therefore didnt have tol add chlorine?
Love to hear everyones thoughts as i learn my new pool!
 
kunisk said:
Ok guys here is the latest. I added a gallon of cya to my 26k gallon pool three days ago. I tested today. My fc went from 1.0 to 3.5! I didnt add any liquid chlorine but did a boost on my swg to run at 100 percent due to some rain. I only added a gallon of cya as someone here said slow and steady with chemicals as some are hard to reverse. The cya didnt even register on the test. Everyone is going to tell me tonadd more right or else i will see my fc levels drop, right? My gut is telling me to wait a bit and test frequently. Once i see fc drop then add more cya. I am guessing what happened is the chlorine generated by my swg stuck a little longer with the cya and therefore didnt have tol add chlorine?
Love to hear everyones thoughts as i learn my new pool!
Click to expand...

You're getting there. And by there, I mean knowledge. Your guess was a good one. You're learning.

The main point of the pool chemistry is to keep the water sanitized. Meaning taking care of all the organics you and nature put in the pool before they turn into microbes which cloud your water and make it turn nasty colors. The sanitization is taken care of by Chlorine. That's why you're measuring FC - free chlorine, or chlorine that's available to sanitize the pool.

Now, the salt water generator is taking the salt in your pool and turning it into chlorine through an electro-chemical reaction. Throughout the day, the chlorine will get "used up" and turn back into salt, which is then turned back into chlorine by the SWG. The SWG is not necessary for sanitization. You can simply add chlorine by adding bleach, pucks, etc. and accomplish the same thing. It is convenient, however, to generate your own chlorine from salt in an (almost, but not quite) endless cycle.

CYA is a stabilizer. It slows the "consumption" of the chlorine by the pool. That allows you to not have to add so much chlorine to the pool. If you were using bleach, that means less bottles of bleach. If you're using the SWG, that means running the pump less, or turning the % down lower. You want your CYA to be higher with the salt, so the salt cell isn't working so hard. http://www.troublefreepool.com/content/138-water-balance-for-swg-saltwater-chlorine-generator

Now, personally, I would be worried that your FC has been so long for so long. The fact that you can't get your FC to stay up could mean several things. It could mean your SWG settings are off, it could mean that your CYA is indeed too low, or it could mean you are fighting a low grade algae outbreak...which is likely considering your pool didn't have much chlorine in it. You need to get your pool balanced so you can see what it does.

I would adjust your FC using BLEACH. Don't try to work it with the SWG, it's too hard to dial in, IMO. Take an evening when the sun is low and the swg is off. Test the water, and add some bleach slowly using pool math as a guide, until you get your FC to 5.0. Keep the pump on but the SWG off to mix, and mix using a brush as well. Take a reading before you go to bed.

Take a reading in the morning. You are performing an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test (OCLT) which is used when you SLAM your pool to kill algae. Similar to the SLAM procedure, but you are doing it at normal level. If your overnight chlorine consumption is low, then go back to playing with your SWG and CYA levels until you can read the FC every evening and it's in the "good" range, suggested above. If it drops significantly (greater than 1) then you may have a problem. Bring the FC up with bleach again and see what happens. Test the next night. If you're still consuming chlorine, you may need to do a quick SLAM.

Keep at it, you're getting there.
 
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