CecilB, new member

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CecilB

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Jun 30, 2015
45
St. Marys, KS
Greetings, fellow pool people!
We are a "temporary pool" family right in the middle of the USA, and after switching over to SWG, on the advice of my son, I have realized that I must learn this stuff myself. He asked me the other day if I would be willing to pay a monthly fee if it meant that I wouldn't have to deal with this pool or think about it, and I admit that, yes, if it meant not having to learn all this stuff, I would...depending on the cost...but then if I were investing in that, I might as well invest in a much bigger pool. And then I realized, after studying on here a while, that pool guys don't really know anything, either. Well, except for you guys, right!

Anyway, thanks for all your knowledge...I never liked chemistry in high school, and I am still afraid of it! But I'm starting to think that even I can get this figured out!

thats my intro, so know for my questions....
The pool is a 3300 gallon pro series that we upgraded to a sand filter and SWG last year. We were glad when we could finally close the pool and take it down, cuz we could never get the water clear and sparkly.
This year we started it up, and didn't add stabilizer or anything except salt. (Totally ignorant, and that son of mine was out of town!)
Now we have emptied it and are going to start again.

My question is, do we have to clean it? I have read on here the advice of emptying half of the pool, refilling, then shockin, or slamming, it.
Could I add some bleach to the foot of water that's still in the pool, to clean it, and then fill it? Or do I even have to do that? Or do I have to suck every bit of water out...maybe with a shop vac? And then scrub?

or can I just fill, then add stabilizer, bleach, and then start testing? Oh, and salt? When would I add the salt back in?

I did get the Taylor k2006 test kit. The second time I tested it, I started to slightly understand these mysteries. No CYA, no FC, high pH, higher TA! That's why I'm emptying it.

Thanks,
c
 
Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

Well, you are right on the edge between what we call a seasonal pool and a normal pool. The seasonal pool has a little easier care methods, but that is because the think you do when a seasonal pool has problems is dump the water and start over.

I would say go with the normal pool care methods. You already have the test kit you need and you have shown that you know how to use it.

I would be afraid to add bleach to the foot of water because if you miscalculate you have the chance of bleaching a nice ring around your pool. I would take all the water out within reason and refill. but, I would be ready before you refill. Have a few gallons of bleach at the ready and one pound of stabilizer/CYA already in a sock ready to go. Figure out a way to suspend the sock from something that floats and as soon as the water level is high enough that it wont drag the bottom get it in there. While you are adding the water every once & a while add a little bleach to the stream of water going in. Not a lot, just an ounce or so at a time. 9 ounces will take you to 2ppm which is actually a high FC level with no CYA.

Give that sock a squeeze every now and then until it dissolves. Once it's dissolved assume your CYA is 40, even though you wont test of it for a week. At this point you should be targeting 5ppm chlorine, but never go below 3.

Once the pool is full and the ump is running lets see how the water looks and we will do a little more testing to see if we need to SLAM. Just make sure you keep chlorine in the water.
 
Thanks!
We completely emptied it. But I did add some bleach to the 6 inches or so of water and swirled it around and brushed bottom and sides of pool. Then we shop-vac'd it completely, sides and all. Then we started filling it And when it was about halfway full, I added 33 oz., according to the pool calculator, of cya, and added 10 oz. of Clorox. I did a test this evening:
pH was 7.0
FC was 2.5

of course everything was crystal clear and beautiful. And cold!

I'll test in the a.m.....we are leaving the pump running...

if pH is still low, I guess I'll be adding muriatic acid?

Once all is under control, then we add salt and wait 24 hours to turn the SWG on?

thanks a ton for your help.

c
 
Good Morning.

Did the testing again this morning:
FC - 1.8
CC - .4
pH - 7.4
TA - 375

Didn't test CYA Because you say wait a week...

According to the pool calculator - I will add 7.5 oz of bleach to get FC up to 3.

Does this sound good? Should I worry about TA yet?

Still gonna wait on the salt till I get this part figured out.

Thanks,
c
 
Add CYA now. It will take a week to fully dissolve and register on the test. It's mildly acidic, so it will have keep pH down, which will help lower the TA. Remember to use a sock, don't just scatter the CYA granules or it may leave freckles on the floor of the pool. Something like this:
20140516_172204_zps94d197av.jpg


Or suspend the sock from a float and let it bob around. But it will dissolve faster in front of a return.
 
So my evening readings are:
FC 2.6
CC .8
pH 7.6
TA 375
and I tested CYA for the heck of it, even though you say to wait a week. It was +100.
It was a very overcast day all day, and then it just rained a nice heavy downpour - not very long, though.

Any advice?
Is this going ok?
Water is crystal clear so far! (of course it's only the second full day!)
 
What CYA were you targeting? If CYA is reading 100 now, it's waaaaay too high. Or you grabbed your water sample too close to the sock. Something ain't right. I'm getting that CYA should be ~75.

I would repeat that CYA test soon, in full sunlight, so you know what the CYA level actually is right now so you can raise the FC to an adequate level.
 
Well, I did just add that CYA yesterday and it just finished all dissolving. And it was sorta close to the sock...

I will test tomorrow morning, and then again when it's in full sun?

Do you think it dissolved too soon?

Last week when I tested cya, the black dot remained visible the whole time.
This time it clouded up pretty quickly!

btw, what happens when there's too much cya?
 

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Just wait until you have full sun to test. It can't dissolve too fast.

When there's too much CYA, you need to maintain higher FC levels, which can put FC up to where the pH test is unreliable. The easiest way to lower it is to drain some water and refill. But wait until you recheck that level. I'd even go so far as to make a lap around the pool brushing the walls and floor to really get the water mixed well before testing it.
 
Thanks.
I just tested it - I forgot I was going to test CYA in full sun...which, so far, there is none today! It's a nice 66 degrees and drizzly out!
And I took the water further away from the return...almost across from it. I hadn't read your reply yet, but at least the pump was on!

FC 2.6 (same as last night)
CC .4 (last night was .8)
pH 7.6 (same as last night)
TA 350 (down 25!)
CYA 80

I will have to get more of the cya testing stuff. I probably should have gotten the other test with larger quantities of ...stuff (is "agents" the word for that?)

Thanks again!
 
Good Morning Pool People!

I started replies several times over the weekend, but thought that I could just wait and try doing this alone. It's not looking so bad, But the TA in my pool seems to stay so high.
Here are my numbers and what I've done. I also have questions about low pressure from the return, which means not good aerating.
My numbers:
FC 5.5
CC .5
pH 7.4
TA 300
CH 375

I've been trying to get the pH down to 7.0 - 7.2... and then aerate, but the return pressure is low so the stream barely comes above the surface.
My husband says to backwash and that will make more pressure.
I was going to vacuum - there's SOME stuff from trees and kids on the bottom, but it's so clear and that little bit isn't bothering me, considering location of pool and lack of landscaping around it.

I also ran out of CYA testing stuff, but it's on order...

Thanks for all your help!
 
CecilB said:
it's right at 5, in the green section.
I didn't look close enough before backwashing, but I believe it was still in the green section...maybe around 10 or right before
Click to expand...
Just ignore the color coding. Check the pressure after a good backwash and when it rises 25%, backwash again. You've seen for yourself how much it slows down if you wait for their one-size-fits-all gauge to tell you when.
 
Ok, well, I was LOUSY at math, btw! Math AND Chemistry....and that was 30 year ago or something (math again) - and it really hasn't gotten that much better.
If it's at 5 on that gauge, what would 25% of that be? 5 divided by 4? Am I looking for it to go up only like a point and a quarter? Please help!

It's POURING rain at the moment - and has been for about 40 minutes. Weird for July in Kansas!
 
Cecil I want you to promise me something. Please keep coming back and asking questions. That is how ALL of us learned. This was new to everyone of us at one time. The only way to learn is to ask and read!

Kim
 

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