Opening chemicals

[jaxey14]

Hi all. Please help me figure this out on my own. New house, first time pool owner. I had my liner replaced last week and they were able to save 24,000 gallons of water from my 30,000 gallon pool. I’ve gone over pool school and downloaded the pool math app. I’m struggling with choosing the product brands. Pool store products are ridiculously expensive and my local big box stores mainly stock Clorox brand. I also am unclear about the order in which each product should be added and how long to wait before adding the next. My levels are as follows:
FC .17
TC .17
pH 7.6
Alkalinity 97
CH 132
Cya 5
Iron 0
Copper .1
Phosphate 108ppb
Salt 1,946

Pool store suggested:
5 bags salt
1lb shock
30lbs calcium
12lbs stabilizer

 

[HermanTX]

Welcome to TFP.
Please read Pool Care Basics as it has a wealth of information on proper levels.
You have a vinyl pool at 30,000gals (I assume you made the additional 4000 gals they could not save).

Do you have a saltwater pool - an operational saltwater chlorine generator?
There are 2 things that must happen first - increase the CYA level and increase the FC level.
Use Liquid Chlorine to bring up the FC level quickly. You may need several gallons which can be purchased at Walmart or Home Deport os similar store.
Bring up the CYA to 50ppm
Bring up FC to 5ppm
Don’t worry about calcium
Don’t worry about salt - until FC is already up and pump, etc are all working.

Don’t use CLOROX products.
Suggest you invest in a good test kit - see
Test Kits Compared

 

[jaxey14]

Yes it’s a vinyl, salt water pool. I have a t cell 940 swg. The liner installer opened up all the plumbing and installed a brand new pump. Everything is operational, just need to get the water right.

 

[Bperry]

Yes it’s a vinyl, salt water pool. I have a t cell 940 swg. The liner installer opened up all the plumbing and installed a brand new pump. Everything is operational, just need to get the water right.

Heed the test kit advice above. Those pool store tests really goof people up.

 

[HermanTX]

Yes it’s a vinyl, salt water pool. I have a t cell 940 swg. The liner installer opened up all the plumbing and installed a brand new pump. Everything is operational, just need to get the water right.

It is best to have your own test kit. Well worth the investment over time.

1 1/2 gallons of 10% liquid chlorine will raise the FC level 5ppm for 30k gal pool.
It is best to use LC to raise the FC and then turn on the SWCG to MAINTAIN the FC level.
You may have to add 1 gal per day after the initial dose to maintain the FC at 5ppm until you get your test kit and also increase salt and CYA.

Stabilizer (CYA) will protect the FC from burn off. With a SWCG the recommended level is 60-70ppm but let’s get it to 50ppm to start
5lbs for CYA will raise it by 20ppm so 12 to 13 lbs is about right to raise to 50ppm.
Add these 2 items first.

Once you get your test kit (get the kit with + Salt), please test for SALT again as LC will increase SAlt and you are starting at about 2000ppm so do not want to overshoot it. To raise salt 1000ppm will need 6 bags (40 lbs each). So purchase this amount but do not add until water is tested again with the new test kit.

Both Salt and CYA take time to mix - after adding wait 48 hrs before testing and ensure pump is running full time.

 

[jaxey14]

Thank you so much for walking me through this. I added LC and stabilizer based on your recommendations. I waited 48 hours for it to circulate before adding salt. I only added 5 bags to start. 24 hrs after adding the salt my SWG is registering 3000ppm and I turned it on. I ordered the Taylor test kit with salt. While I wait for that to arrive I have been using strips to monitor. The pool math app doesn’t tell me how to adjust my swg output once i have reached optimal levels to maintain and not go over. It only says what to do if you need to increase FC. Last night when I came out I could smell the chlorine so I reduced the output to 10%. The level has still held so far. I know the test strips are not the most reliable but it’s all I have to work with for now. I think I’m going in the right direction, maybe need some more stabilizer but the FC has remained stable since adding since it’s rainy and overcast for last few days and the rest of this week. I’m being cautious not to overshoot with anything that will require draining water to get rid of. My question is once my levels are optimal, how should my swg be set to maintain and not go over? Also unclear how I ended up with a bromine reading without adding any. Is it a biproduct of the chlorine?

 

[Donldson]

Also unclear how I ended up with a bromine reading without adding any.

Tests cannot tell the difference between chlorine and bromine, so you're just seeing it react to chlorine.

It would be best to throw those strips out and do not attempt to make any chemistry changes based upon them. They are incredibly unreliable and we've seen too many times that someone was using them until their kit arrived and when they took their actual readings it turned out they were very wrong about what was going on. Following the steps HermanTX outlined above until your kit arrives is the safest path forward.

 

[Bperry]

Thank you so much for walking me through this. I added LC and stabilizer based on your recommendations. I waited 48 hours for it to circulate before adding salt. I only added 5 bags to start. 24 hrs after adding the salt my SWG is registering 3000ppm and I turned it on. I ordered the Taylor test kit with salt. While I wait for that to arrive I have been using strips to monitor. The pool math app doesn’t tell me how to adjust my swg output once i have reached optimal levels to maintain and not go over. It only says what to do if you need to increase FC. Last night when I came out I could smell the chlorine so I reduced the output to 10%. The level has still held so far. I know the test strips are not the most reliable but it’s all I have to work with for now. I think I’m going in the right direction, maybe need some more stabilizer but the FC has remained stable since adding since it’s rainy and overcast for last few days and the rest of this week. I’m being cautious not to overshoot with anything that will require draining water to get rid of. My question is once my levels are optimal, how should my swg be set to maintain and not go over? Also unclear how I ended up with a bromine reading without adding any. Is it a biproduct of the chlorine?
View attachment 570539

If you can smell chlorine, its an indication that the chlorone is breaking down organic material in the water and forming combined chloromines. You actually need more chlorine and not less because its being consumed.

The strips are pretty meaningless. Just keep adding the 5ppm each day until the kit arrives.

 

[HermanTX]

The pool math app doesn’t tell me how to adjust my swg output once i have reached optimal levels to maintain and not go over. It only says what to do if you need to increase FC. Last night when I came out I could smell the chlorine so I reduced the output to 10%. The level has still held so far. I know the test strips are not the most reliable but it’s all I have to work with for now. I think I’m going in the right direction, maybe need some more stabilizer but the FC has remained stable since adding since it’s rainy and overcast for last few days and the rest of this week. I’m being cautious not to overshoot with anything that will require draining water to get rid of. My question is once my levels are optimal, how should my swg be set to maintain and not go over? Also unclear how I ended up with a bromine reading without adding any. Is it a biproduct of the chlorine?

The others have given you the guidance but want to restate - only use your strips to test FC. I would rather overshoot that then any other test reading. Smelling chlorine indicates chlorimines are active thus FC may decline. I would increase the SWCG output.

For proper setup of SWCG go to Pool Math app. Tap on top left hamburger menu - select Effects of Adding. Select SWG. Then you can choose the type of SWGG you have by pressing on the search magnifier. After that, you have option to select which parameter you want to calculate using other defined input. So for example - selecting FC Generated - input the % output you are running, and also input pump run time. Then it calculates FC that will be generated over a 24 hr period.
For now, you want at least 2ppm. So it may be best to Select SWG Cell %, then input your pump run time and 2ppm for FC needed - it will calculate a % to set your SWCG.