Hello,
I am new to this forum and am trying to learn more about my pool chemistry and how to maintain it. I am barely understanding at this point! We installed the above ground, 24ft round/52in, vinyl pool in 2020 and have been using Leslie's testing to maintain it. Like everyone else, I have found this experience to be extremely expensive and would like to try TFP's methods to see if I can save some hard earned cash. This year I started with purchasing the Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD test kit not really knowing if that was the correct kit. Turns out I am on the right track... I would have ordered the other recommended kit if I would have read more of these articles first. The K-2006 kit at least gives me a start. So for the last two years Leslie's kept showing that my CYA levels were sky high (130), but nobody explained what was causing this. Turns out I was causing it by using WAY too many pucks, like 5 in the floater. I have since removed the pucks entirely and drained the pool about 40% and refilled it. Since refilling, my CYA is registering 55, (where I loose site of the black dot), so I am rounding it up to 60. My initial TA reading was 250, which is normal for our well water. I have been adding muriatic acid for the last 10 days trying to get it down to a reasonable level. It is currently at 120. After each treatment of MA, my PH falls to 7.0-7.2, but bounces back to around 7.4 by the next day. Since refilling the water is crystal clear but I have a small amount of algae on the walls, not much. Here is my readings as of today:
FC: 4.5
CC: 0
PH: 7.4
TA: 120
CH: about 300
CYA: 60
I have been using Cal-Hypo and have about 15 lbs left (currently cal-hypo through Leslie's is $225/25 lbs) I had my wife purchase 6 gallons of pool bleach 12% from Menards at $4.99/gal. Will this be enough for a slam? I believe I can save money by using the Menards liquid pool bleach after using up the cal-hypo, but I am going to use the liquid bleach for the slam. A friend from work, who is a pool pro would like me to stick with the Cal-hypo, and use some copper algaecide to take care of the algae, but I really want to give a TFP slam a try for financial reasons. I am planning on starting a slam Friday after work. Can someone please help me through this process? My friend is telling me to use cal-hypo and raise the chlorine to 30ppm. The Pool Math app is telling me I can do a Slam taking my FC to 24 ppm using bleach 12% 2.6 jugs worth. Will 6 jugs be enough for this process or do you think I will need more? If I start this Friday night, how many days do I keep the FC level high, since my CC is already reading practically zero?
Hopefully I explained this properly. I trust my work friend, but I am tired of throwing money at this swimming pool. Hoping the TFP methods will be cheaper in the long run.
Thanks for the help!
Will
I am new to this forum and am trying to learn more about my pool chemistry and how to maintain it. I am barely understanding at this point! We installed the above ground, 24ft round/52in, vinyl pool in 2020 and have been using Leslie's testing to maintain it. Like everyone else, I have found this experience to be extremely expensive and would like to try TFP's methods to see if I can save some hard earned cash. This year I started with purchasing the Taylor K-2006 FAS-DPD test kit not really knowing if that was the correct kit. Turns out I am on the right track... I would have ordered the other recommended kit if I would have read more of these articles first. The K-2006 kit at least gives me a start. So for the last two years Leslie's kept showing that my CYA levels were sky high (130), but nobody explained what was causing this. Turns out I was causing it by using WAY too many pucks, like 5 in the floater. I have since removed the pucks entirely and drained the pool about 40% and refilled it. Since refilling, my CYA is registering 55, (where I loose site of the black dot), so I am rounding it up to 60. My initial TA reading was 250, which is normal for our well water. I have been adding muriatic acid for the last 10 days trying to get it down to a reasonable level. It is currently at 120. After each treatment of MA, my PH falls to 7.0-7.2, but bounces back to around 7.4 by the next day. Since refilling the water is crystal clear but I have a small amount of algae on the walls, not much. Here is my readings as of today:
FC: 4.5
CC: 0
PH: 7.4
TA: 120
CH: about 300
CYA: 60
I have been using Cal-Hypo and have about 15 lbs left (currently cal-hypo through Leslie's is $225/25 lbs) I had my wife purchase 6 gallons of pool bleach 12% from Menards at $4.99/gal. Will this be enough for a slam? I believe I can save money by using the Menards liquid pool bleach after using up the cal-hypo, but I am going to use the liquid bleach for the slam. A friend from work, who is a pool pro would like me to stick with the Cal-hypo, and use some copper algaecide to take care of the algae, but I really want to give a TFP slam a try for financial reasons. I am planning on starting a slam Friday after work. Can someone please help me through this process? My friend is telling me to use cal-hypo and raise the chlorine to 30ppm. The Pool Math app is telling me I can do a Slam taking my FC to 24 ppm using bleach 12% 2.6 jugs worth. Will 6 jugs be enough for this process or do you think I will need more? If I start this Friday night, how many days do I keep the FC level high, since my CC is already reading practically zero?
Hopefully I explained this properly. I trust my work friend, but I am tired of throwing money at this swimming pool. Hoping the TFP methods will be cheaper in the long run.
Thanks for the help!
Will
