First pool, first test, first post

[wmkingiv]

Hi everyone, new pool owner, just bought our first house end of March and working on getting this pool in shape. Ive been reading your forum for about 2 months now and it is extremely helpful. Since taking over I've had to replace the filter and the motor, but everything should be working appropriately now. Still have some issues with air getting in with the kreepy, but thats another problem...

I ran my first test using the TF100 test and got the following:

pH: 6.8
TC: 5
Ca: 200
TA: 22
CYA: 30

The pool owner who lived here prior left a ton of materials, I have the following:
Leslie's alkalinity up, Hdx pH plus, Borax, Phosfree, pool first aid, muratic acid, HTH pH minus, Baquacil, ultra bright enhancer, aquachem pH decreaser, and proteam severe algae treatment.

Estimating pool size is somewhat hard because we have walls that slope in, but when I ran the poolmath calculations and have an idea of what I need to do, just not sure where to start with what I have. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Can I get this in shape to safely swim for tomorrow?

Thanks everyone

 

[Divin Dave]

Hi wm!
Welcome to TFP!

Your chlorine seems to be fine for CYA of 30
Since you have a SWG CYA should be bumped up to 70 - 80. Do you know how to properly add it?
No need to do anything to the calcium. Calcium is not a concern at all in a vinyl pool like you and I have, as long as it isnt sky high its fine.

Here is a quick lesson thats easy to remember.
Raising TA a lot will raise pH a little.
Raising pH a lot wil raise TA a little.

Go ahead and use baking soda to raise your TA to 60. Then retest for pH
After that, raise your pH to 7.2
Then test TA again as long as its between 60 and 80, your good with it.
If you want to then raise your pH to somewhere around 7.4 or 7.5, then thats fine. If not, thats fine too. Ph has a tendency to rise, especially with a SWG, so a target of 7.2 or 7.3 gives you some head room and streches the time between dosing Muriatic Acid to bring it back down.

As a note, since the test kit can only test pH to 6.8, it might actually be lower than that, but consider it to be 6,8 and just go from there.

No reason in the world why you cant swim tomorrow.

 

[Azgirl71]

Welcome to TFP!

 

[wmkingiv]

Thanks Dave and AZgirl.

I'm not sure what you mean by properly adding it? Do you mean not adding it all at once? The calculator would tell me to add 108oz by weight or 113 by volume of stabilizer or 280 oz of liquid stabilizer. Since I don't have any stabilizer in any of my products now, I can go to WalMart or somewhere and pick up some cyanuric acid. I have read just to get the solid stuff, place maybe half of what you need in a sock in the skimmer basket, run pump for 24 hours, and avoid cleaning the filter for a week. Then after a week, recheck, is this correct? Then add more as needed...

Can I do both this and baking soda at the same time or should I do one or the other first? I'm assuming I can just add baking soda to the same (or different?) sock?

Thanks again, you guys have been very helpful (as I've been lurking for the last 2 months)!

Mackie

 

[pooldv]

Yes, you are on the right track for adding the CYA. Squeeze the sock a few times a day to speed dissolving. You can add anything you need while CYA is dissolving. Here is a list of Recommended Pool Chemicals and how to add them.

Welcome to TFP! Nice first post and good job reading up!