Balanced, now what

[Macuick]

It's been a few years since I had a pool. I just installed a 27' Round by 54" semi-inground pool. I know the most important is balancing, which I have already balanced. Anything else other than maintenance?

Melissa, Waveland, MS

27'x54" round, semi-inground, vinyl, aluminum walls, approx 19k galllons, chlorine, 27" Millenium sand filter, 2.0 hp 2 speed pump, Waveland, MS

 

[triptyx]

Welcome to TFP! Keep a careful watch on your chlorine, using daily testing and additions of a non-stabilized plain bleach or liquid chlorine, or if you're using tablets ensure you're adjusting your free chlorine upwards as the CYA rises over time. Other than that, enjoy your pool and keep an eye on those numbers.

So, since you're newly back to pools, do you have a complete test kit that can test for free and combined chlorine, pH, total alkalinity, calcium, and cyanuric acid? What did you do to establish that the pool is balanced? Do you have a full set of test numbers you can share?

While we wait, if you haven't seen them already, here are a couple of good articles for you to review if you haven't seen them already:

ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry

There are several items things every pool owner should know about swimming pool water. We share details on the basics of Pool Water Chemistry.

www.troublefreepool.com

Pool Care Basics Archives

Your one-stop shop for all things TFP to include: ABCs of Water Chemistry, Recommended Chemicals/Levels, Test Kits, Troubleshooting, and much more!

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Macuick]

It's been a few years since I had a pool. I just installed a 27' Round by 54" semi-inground pool. I know the most important is balancing, which I have already balanced. Anything else other than maintenance?

Melissa, Waveland, MS

27'x54" round, semi-inground, vinyl, aluminum walls, approx 19k galllons, chlorine, 27" Millenium sand filter, 2.0 hp 2 speed pump, Waveland, MS

fcl 3; tcl 3; alk 160 (could be a little lower but ph is 7.8) hardness is low; cya is 40 Tested with Hydro tool by swimline test strips, the pool place suggested in 2 weeks to add calcium Is this a good testing system?

 

[triptyx]

Test strips give you ranges, they're also usually very poorly quality controlled and their numbers are extremely inaccurate. We call them "guess strips" since they're really just a guess.

There's a good article here on test kits that list the various types that we recommend. It's very important to have a good test kit!

Swimming Pool Test Kits Compared

What pool test kit should I buy? Why not use test strips? Our recommended test kits will pay for themselves in no time!

www.troublefreepool.com

As for calcium. There's little reason to add calcium to a vinyl pool. You do want a little, but since there is no plaster to be concerned with, you don't need usually to add much above what is already in your fill water. Recommended levels for that for a vinyl pool are around 50-550, the lower end is a good idea to restrict scaling. You can see other recommended levels here:

What Are My Ideal Pool Levels?

Use our tool to find ideal chemical levels for any swimming pool. Check TFP recommended levels on pH, free chlorine, cyanuric acid, and more.

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[woodyp]

Use the test strips as fire starter and order yourself a TF100 from TFTestkits.net You can thank us later!