First time opening a pool

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Cephrael

Cephrael

Gold Supporter
Apr 19, 2019
331
Massachusetts
Pool Size
36700
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Decided not to wait for the pool guy. He’s a pain to deal with right now with the pandemic. Took the cover off and ? I have a beautiful pond, frogs included.
DA4FAA01-F5FB-4BA8-8864-27BDA815D8D1.jpeg

So I was going to start up the pump, but with a DE filter I wasn’t sure what to do first. Besides SLAM, is there anything I should be doing? Builder never went over anything with me. When I opened my grandfathers as a kid, he had sand filters and always started with an empty pool. Not as familiar with opening procedures as I should be. Thanks. Heading out to clean my cover while the sun is shining and enjoy my lovely pond.
 
I think you'll need to dig around in the soup and remove plugs from the returns and the skimmer and the pump and filter drains. Check inside the pump basket for any loose parts; that's usually where they store them so they don't get lost.

The cover is a big plus. Hopefully you didn't spill a bunch of leaves in. But at least you'll only have algae, not bushels of soggy compost to scoop out.

You will need to add DE as soon as things are running. Clean out the skimmer and start it up Once the air has been purged and you haven't seen any geysers anywhere from broken plumbing, add the DE.

Give it half an hour of running and brush while you wait, then test the water. If the water is real cold, let a sample warm up to use for the CYA test. The rest get done right after you pull the sample.

That's enough typing for now. Once you get test results, post up and the next steps can be figured out.
 
Just finished testing. I know my cya is at 0 so I didn’t bother to test. None was added last year, because we opened so late. Will be adding some this year.

TEMP around 50 will check thermometer in a bit.
FC/CC 0
pH over 8.2 let’s just say it turned very pink
TA 10
CH 150
SALT 1800

just a bit of work to do. Heading to the store to get chemicals so I can fire everything up tomorrow morning.
 
Cephrael said:
Just finished testing. I know my cya is at 0 so I didn’t bother to test. None was added last year, because we opened so late. Will be adding some this year.

TEMP around 50 will check thermometer in a bit.
FC/CC 0
pH over 8.2 let’s just say it turned very pink
TA 10
CH 150
SALT 1800

just a bit of work to do. Heading to the store to get chemicals so I can fire everything up tomorrow morning.
Click to expand...
8.2 pH and only 10 TA sounds off to me. Did you let the water mix real good before you grabbed a sample?
 
Richard320 said:
8.2 pH and only 10 TA sounds off to me. Did you let the water mix real good before you grabbed a sample?
Click to expand...
Water isn’t running yet. And I don’t think they are that far off from where they ended up at end of season. The builder closed the pool with no chlorine left in it, so I wasn’t too surprised by the green.
 
Cephrael said:
Water isn’t running yet. And I don’t think they are that far off from where they ended up at end of season. The builder closed the pool with no chlorine left in it, so I wasn’t too surprised by the green.
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Then your test results are unreliable and you shouldn't make any adjustments. Your pH and TA look like surface water from rain or snowmelt. You don't know what's down deep. You might dose it and end up way overshooting things. That is why up above I wrote "Give it half an hour of running and brush while you wait, then test the water. "
 
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Richard320 said:
Then your test results are unreliable and you shouldn't make any adjustments. Your pH and TA look like surface water from rain or snowmelt. You don't know what's down deep. You might dose it and end up way overshooting things. That is why up above I wrote "Give it half an hour of running and brush while you wait, then test the water. "
Click to expand...
Gotcha. Gonna get it started up tomorrow.
 
Waited a half hour and ran my tests.

salt was thru the roof at 5400, hope that’s wrong, but the pool is about 50% rainwater and snow melt.
ph 8.2
cya about 5, basically top of tube.
ch 200
ta 80
fc 7.5

will let pump run for 48 and test again. I won’t be home tomorrow so can’t test anything. Maybe my wife can do it...

pool already looks better. Gonna go brush some algae. Maybe toss in the robot.
 

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Cephrael said:
Waited a half hour and ran my tests.

salt was thru the roof at 5400, hope that’s wrong, but the pool is about 50% rainwater and snow melt.
ph 8.2
cya about 5, basically top of tube.
ch 200
ta 80
fc 7.5

will let pump run for 48 and test again. I won’t be home tomorrow so can’t test anything. Maybe my wife can do it...

pool already looks better. Gonna go brush some algae. Maybe toss in the robot.
Click to expand...
That pH may not be correct of the FC is greater than 10. Chlorine reacts with the red dye and makes it read falsely high. But aren't you glad you didn't raise the TA?
 
Richard320 said:
That pH may not be correct of the FC is greater than 10. Chlorine reacts with the red dye and makes it read falsely high. But aren't you glad you didn't raise the TA?
Click to expand...
Yep, thanks for the warning.

Ph pen read 7.0, but it was dropped off the shelf during the winter so probably not calibrated anymore.

I think I’m gonna have to backwash a few times, lots of algae goo getting sucked into filter. How do you determine how much DE to add after each backwash? They added 8lbs today, which I thought was a lot.

really wish they had shown me everything or explained it, but they just wanted to get it up and running and add shock. Thankfully I have TFP.
 
Cephrael said:
Yep, thanks for the warning.

Ph pen read 7.0, but it was dropped off the shelf during the winter so probably not calibrated anymore.

I think I’m gonna have to backwash a few times, lots of algae goo getting sucked into filter. How do you determine how much DE to add after each backwash? They added 8lbs today, which I thought was a lot.

really wish they had shown me everything or explained it, but they just wanted to get it up and running and add shock. Thankfully I have TFP.
Click to expand...
Look at the pressure gauge on the filter. Some have a movanble telltale that shows what the clean pressure was and when it;s time to backwash. Ignore the upper one. It's going to be 10 psi higher. That's too much. Water would barely trickle out then. Backwash when the pressure rises 25%. Hopefully you have a ring and the pool guys set it or you remember what it was. Backwashing too soon is a waste of DE. But if you don;t know, backwash, and pay attention to the pressure after you restart it and recharge it with DE.

The manual says your filter takes 7.5 lbs of DE initially. We have found it works best if you only use 80% of that after a backwash. If you ever break it down and clean it 100%, then you'll use the full 7.5 lbs. So right now, 6 lbs after backwash only.
 
Richard320 said:
Look at the pressure gauge on the filter. Some have a movanble telltale that shows what the clean pressure was and when it;s time to backwash. Ignore the upper one. It's going to be 10 psi higher. That's too much. Water would barely trickle out then. Backwash when the pressure rises 25%. Hopefully you have a ring and the pool guys set it or you remember what it was. Backwashing too soon is a waste of DE. But if you don;t know, backwash, and pay attention to the pressure after you restart it and recharge it with DE.

The manual says your filter takes 7.5 lbs of DE initially. We have found it works best if you only use 80% of that after a backwash. If you ever break it down and clean it 100%, then you'll use the full 7.5 lbs. So right now, 6 lbs after backwash only.
Click to expand...

I just went out and did a quick 3 minute backwash because the flow coming out of the returns was a trickle. It seems better after. Will check it in the morning.

robot is picking up all sorts of nice sludge from the bottom.

I knew I should have done this myself, but pool builder showed up so I let him do it. They added 8lbs of de, and just dumped it into the far skimmer. He said my filter was a 7220, even though the tag on it clearly says 6020.
 
So the flow going to the returns keeps diminishing, but the filter pressure doesn’t change. Skimmer baskets are empty. Pump basket is empty. Any suggestions?
 
Just did an extended backwash as the flow was abysmal coming out my returns. hoping filter isn’t filthy and needs a cleaning. Also hoping that that was the issue. My wife had to cycle the pump numerous times yesterday just to keep water circulating.

Waiting on water to reach an acceptable level to turn skimmers on before adding DE to the system. Pool isn’t as green this morning. Going to run the tests in a moment to see how it looks.

F13125EA-6299-4260-9456-ED6FCEC9B9B4.jpeg
 
Ok. So I don’t know if my chemicals for testing are still good now.

SWG is showing 2300 for salt, I got 5200 on my test.
FC 0 (poured in a gallon of 12.5 shock)
TA 70
CH 175
ph still high. Gonna have to get a standard solution to recalibrate my pen.
cya 5ish still haven’t added any.

6lbs DE added to system. Pressure just shy of 22psi and everything is running good.
 

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