Closing ?'s

[flarfum25]

I've read all I can find but still need answers to a couple things.

Trying to close ourselves this year and following the formula on JasonLion's inground pool closing thread so right now making sure levels are in order before I do my SLAM. Yesterday my pH was way high, 8.1-- I guess due to lots of rain and leaves and such over the last few weeks. We were supposed to close a month ago and one thing lead to another and in the meantime, I got to slacking about checking my pH. So anyway I added some muriatic acid and we are down to 7.6 but for some reason my alkalinity is way low: 10. Does that matter?

The pool temp is about 56 and my complete levels are:
FC- 4.5
CC- .5
TC- 5
pH- 7.6
TA- 10
CH- 70
CYA- 20

Should I work to get my alkalinity, CH and/or CYA up some before SLAMMING and closing? Or can I just go for it now..

 

[pooladdict]

You will want to bring that TA up before closing. CH and CYA are fine for closing as well. Those cc's should be taken care of with SLAM.

 

[JasonLion]

CC at 0.5 isn't a real issue. It is when CC goes above 0.5 that you have a problem.

Very low TA means the PH can very change easily. That means the PH could easily get out of range during the winter. You should raise TA to the normal range, somewhere in the 60 to 90 range depending on situation. Everything else is fine for winterizing.

 

[flarfum25]

Ok thanks guys!

 

[MarianParoo]

How did it go?

 

[flarfum25]

It went very well thanks! Got my TA to 60 without disrupting my pH. We are actually closing today! Always procrastinators : )

So my levels areFC 6.5
CC 0
TC 6.5
TA 60
pH 7.4
And we added the recommended level of polyquat yesterday, then about an hour later my husband lowered the water level. Right now it's only about an inch below the skimmer and I was getting on here to ask another question quick when I saw this asking how it went. So thanks for checkin in!

Anyway. I'm confused because JasonLion's post about closing says to lower the water level to 4" below the returns but when we bought the house last year and had the pool inspection, the company manager told us to be really careful not going too low because the liner could cave in. Now I could VERY well be wrong here but I *think* he said not to go lower than 6" or so below the skimmer, which would only put us at the TOP of the returns. To go 4" below the returns for us would mean about 12" below the skimmer.

Any insight from anyone on what I should do?

 

[pooladdict]

Not sure where he is coming from, but its normal to routinely drain IG Vinyl pools 6" below the returns.