New to me pool

[dinmax82]

Hi all, been sniping around the past couple of days. What a wealth of information. My house is in Grand Prairie, TX...south of Dallas.

Ok just moved into a new house with a 1 year old gunite pool.

Pool is a little smaller then 11,000 gallons.

1hp Century Centurion pump with Hayward sand filter I believe.

Pool light has been on 24/7 for 3 weeks maybe since they moved out til closing today. Pump seems to be running around 8hrs a day on a timer.

There is debris in the pool from the own guys and a little bit of algae on the walls

Purchased a Talyor/Leslie 81329 kit today and pulled a sample at 9:30pm.

FC 1ppm
CC .2ppm
CYA 40
Alk 70
CH 900
pH 7.65 tough to tell

Seems from your articles I need FC to be at 5 since my CYA at 40 and CC is ok as long as its under .5ppm.

My biggest concern I'm guessing is my CH at 900. Had to test three times, third time i did the high version of the test. I read that you can add acid to lower CH vs draining the pool!

How best do I fix my FC and CH levels?

Is my pool ok to swim in this weekend after a little cleaning?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I'm thinking about getting a Polaris 9450 robotic cleaner. Any cons? Was looking at the DX5 and Tigershark models but the Polaris can be serviced by my local store supposedly.

 

[Patrick_B]

Welcome to TFP!

Do a little re-reading on the CH. It can't be lowered except from removal, or dilution from fill water with less CH than the pool water.

You can lower pH and TA with acid, and this will help lessen the chances of calcium scaling, so be diligent about keeping your pH in range. I would shoot for 7.4-7.5 max if it were mine with that level of CH. You can test your fill water, but I am sure that water will have far less than 900 CH, so work it down in the pool with replacements.

FC is the first most important thing to watch, and it must be maintained and checked daily until you can accurately predict what it will be. Just takes some time getting this down, but it's easy. For now, you want to test and add daily to maintain the FC for your Cya as you have surmised. Most of us here use plain unscented bleach bought from any store...HEB Walmart, etc. Since you are seeing green on the walls, you should read up on, and perform a SLAM procedure. It's a process of elevating the FC to a high level long enough to kill all the Algae. Click the link in my sig line. Study up, and come back with questions if you have them. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[dinmax82]

Well the realtor's pool guy came by to clean up Firday. Shocked my pool with 4lbs of unmeasured powder stuff. Also poured in muriatic acid. Nothing was measured, just eyeballed. He said I could swim in it the next day, Saturday. He put in 3 more tablets i to the skimmer box in addition to the 2 that were in there already.

Never got time to jump in Saturday but tested water this morning and FC was 25, had to do the higher count test to get it. CYA was about 70.

Went to Leslie's and ph was 7 and they could only test FC to 7, lol. Bought some Soda ash from them and a puck floater. Went home and put a pound of ash in and took the pucks out for now.

What's the maximum safe level for FC to swim in? Kind of annoying having this clear looking pool and scared to jump in. How fast can I expect FC to drop in this Texas sun and heat?

Thanks!

 

[pwrstrk]

It's safe to swim as long as you can see the bottom of the pool, in FC levels up to shock level for your CYA level. For a CYA level of 70 your shock level is 28.
Why did you purchase a puck floater ? Do you plan on using pucks to chlorinate your pool ?
Here are a couple of good articles from pool school to read.
ABC'S Of Pool Water Chemistry
How To Chlorinate Your Pool

 

[dinmax82]

So no irritation or etc with this level of FC? Can i still reliably measure CC in these circumstances?

I bought a puck floater since the previous owner left a lot of pucks and figured I could use them while I'm on vacation?

 

[pwrstrk]

You should have no irritation at those FC levels with your CYA of 70. Remember the CYA is also a buffer for your chlorine. It takes the harshness out of the chlorine.
That's fine to use the puck floater when on vacation. Only problem with that now is your CYA is a bit on the high side. When it was at 40 that was a good place to be with it. The pool guy messed that up. Anyways with you CYA at 70, you want to target an FC level of 9 and don't let it drop below 5.
If you could add all your pool and equipment info to your sig that would be great. It helps us help you better. ?

 

[dinmax82]

Ok i think my sig should show up now. I cant find this pump online really. The strainer basket and inlet say Hayward and the motor only says Century on it. On the side it says 1.25 hp total. Also says Sp3207z1m on it. I'm assuming its a single speed and will replace it next year with a two speed since it seems like the VS takes a while to recoup.

So with FC it can go as high as shock level on the CYA/FC chart and be safe as long as pool is clear. What happens when it falls below minimum level?

 

[Nuvene]

Once it's below the minimum it starts becoming unsanitary

 

[pwrstrk]

When FC falls below the min, besides being unsanitary, the first thing you start to notice is your water won't have its sparkle. Then after a while if it's not adjusted your water will go cloudy then green.

 

[dinmax82]

So tested the pool on Monday and just now.

Monday FC was 13.5 and now it is 7.
CC was .2 Monday and today its undetectable.
pH is at 7.8

From what I've been told it's best to keep pH under 7.5 when my calcium is so high.

The pool was shocked on Friday and CC was .2 then, is it normal for CC to take so long to come down?

Lastly, do you think it's okay to test FC, CC and pH every other day and the other parameters once a week?

 

[dinmax82]

2 weeks and still CC

I'll be honest and I don't test everyday.

When I first moved in the pool had like 1.5FC and .2CC. The pool guy shocked the pool up to 26 FC and CYA was up to 70 because of tabs. It took 3-4 days for the FC to come back down to 10 even but CC was still there and still is almost two weeks later.

Is this a continuing problem for most people? It rained a bit here last weekend but not much. CYA did drop down to 45 or so which surprised me as I thought it would never go down on its own so soon.

Using Clorox to shock right now. Trying to get FC up to 16 or so. How long does it need to be there?

 

[jmcdtucson]

Re: 2 weeks and still CC

An expert will probably be along soon, but what's wrong with 0.2 CC? My understanding is anything less than 0.5 is fine.

Go to Pool School link off main site and read the SLAM article. It will tell you the criteria for when you are done.

You are done when:

CC is 0.5 or lower;
You pass an OCLT (ie overnight FC loss test shows a loss of 1.0 ppm or less);
And the water is clear.

And welcome to the site.

 

[pwrstrk]

2 weeks and still CC

Welcome to TFP !
Could you post a full set of test results and what test kit did you use to get the results ? If your FC level is 10 or more your PH test will be invalid.
How does your water look ? If your trying to get rid of algae your going to have to follow the SLAM Process. To do this process your going to need one of these Test Kits. I would recommend getting one these kits if you don't have one for routine testing of your water. They will give the most accurate test results and the advice we give you will be based off of accurate testing.
Here are some other articles I suggest you take a look at.
ABC'S Of Pool Water Chemistry
How To Chlorinate Your Pool.
Any questions you may have don't hesitate to ask. ?

 

[dinmax82]

Re: 2 weeks and still CC

I use the Leslie 81329 test kit.

Not testing all the parameters right now, not sure if the others are too important.

CH was 900 so was recommended to keep pH on the low side to keep scale away.

Alk was at 70 2 weeks ago.

I'm going through quite a bit of bleach right now and am questioning the cost savings lol.

I had a film of algae along the walls when I first moved in two weeks ago. Pool guy scrubbed it off and shocked the pool. Now I get like a faint brown film on the walls. Easily goes away so I don't think I have need to SLAM the pool.

I'm not really good at telling whether the pool water is sparkly or not, its looks clean enough to swim in to me!

Any other levels that go whack on the test kits when FC is above 10?

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

Re: 2 weeks and still CC

I think you should follow the ShockLevelAndMAINTAIN Process and confirm that all the algae is indeed gone.

 

[Butterfly]

Re: 2 weeks and still CC

I'm not really good at telling whether the pool water is sparkly or not, its looks clean enough to swim in to me!

Well now, if you follow the SLAM process and the TFPC method, you will soon learn what sparklypooltis is! It will be very obvious to you when your pool is sparkly!

Welcome to the forum

 

[jblizzle]

I merged your 2 threads together. Please keep your story together as it is easier for everyone to keep track of what is going on. Thanks, jblizzle