Pool is open, now what do I do???

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allisen

allisen

Active member
Aug 1, 2019
40
Southern WI
Hi everyone! I'm still so new to this and could use a little hand holding. Our pool was installed last fall and we didn't get the SWG running before winter. The pool store came and opened up the pool on Wednesday. I wasn't home, but I assume they shocked it. The SWG still isn't hooked up so I'll be doing manual liquid chlorine for a bit, but the pump is up and running. I've also been running the vacuum daily since it was opened. Pool looks quite clear. Just ran my first comprehensive tests with my chem kit and this is what I've got... any suggestions from here would be appreciated. I'm hoping they'll be able to come hook up the SWG and everything soon but in the meantime I'd like to keep it as close to balanced as possible.

FC - 7
pH - 7.8
TA - 170
CH - 300
CYA - 0 (I could still see the dot clear as day with the tube filled up)

Thanks in advance!
 
Great job on the testing!

Add some CYA (aka stabilizer/conditioner). Add 30 ppm worth. Get granulated stabilizer at Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon, Menards, etc. Put the amount you need for 30 ppm (use PoolMath) and put in a sock. Thin sock works great. Tie it closed and put the sock in the skimmer with the pump running. After an hour or so, squeeze the sock and the material will dissolve out. Test the CYA about 2-3 days after adding it.
 
mknauss said:
Great job on the testing!

Add some CYA (aka stabilizer/conditioner). Add 30 ppm worth. Get granulated stabilizer at Walmart, Home Depot, Amazon, Menards, etc. Put the amount you need for 30 ppm (use PoolMath) and put in a sock. Thin sock works great. Tie it closed and put the sock in the skimmer with the pump running. After an hour or so, squeeze the sock and the material will dissolve out. Test the CYA about 2-3 days after adding it.
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Will do! As I do this should I just continue to check the chlorine daily to make sure it’s in range and add as necessary according to pool math?
 
allisen said:
check the chlorine daily to make sure it’s in range and add as necessary according to pool math?
Click to expand...
Yes. Above 3 ppm FC. With your auto cover, you can run a lower CYA level than we normally recommend for SWCG pools, if you wish. So start at 30 ppm.
 
As Marty said start with 30 CYA and then confirm what you have in a few days then when you're ready I'd say 50 CYA as you have a cover but if the pool spends lots of uncovered time you may need to go higher. Go with the CYA in stages and creep up to your desired level.
 
I've found that Inyo Pools has cheaper dry chemicals than anywhere else, including Amazon. I ordered my CYA and dry acid from them (petrified of muriatic acid). There's no instant gratification, but I can't always get to Wally World or bLowes, and Inyo is cheaper than Amazon.
 
Related question, do you need to wait until CYA levels are up to the recommended levels before swimming? I had near 0 CYA levels on opening and have started adding CYA and chlorine, I just don't want to wait 3-4 days to swim!
 
Northern cannonball said:
Related question, do you need to wait until CYA levels are up to the recommended levels before swimming?
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No.
Maintain FC levels based on CYA. A FC of 3 ppm with 0 CYA is similar to tap water. So go swimming.
 
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Pool guys came yesterday and everything is up and running now! This is my first official test with the SWG and all going. Looks like I got the CYA up to 30 as advised. Do I work on the TA now? Looks like I need to add some acid, correct?

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No reason to force TA down if your CSI is on target. Your pH will naturally rise and adding acid to lower the pH will also lower the TA. Test for it before you add acid so you have a current TA value, as higher TA values mean more acid to lower the pH. (So what wireform said :) )
 
pH in the 7s and FC above your minimum for your CYA level and you should be good. Add FC as needed, add acid to lower your pH when it drifts up. :)
 
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We had our first pool party last night! Kids were in heaven. I tested FC and ph this am expecting FC to be low, but I came up with FC of 9.5 and ph of 7.8. I'm thinking I need to turn down our SWG? Maybe open the cover for a while? The SWG was running at 40%, I turned it down the 35%, should I turn it down more?
 
What level of FC loss each day are you targeting to replace with the SWCG? How long are you running your pump and SWCG each day? Use Poolmath to determine how much FC is added to your pool each day based on the % setting and hours run.
 
I did some playing on pool math. Our pump is set to run 12 hours a day, 8am to 8pm (set by the pool installers). With that and our SWG at 40% (also set by pool installers) our daily FC output is 2.5 according to pool math. So I guess that makes sense on how we got from 5.5 --> 9.5 in two days. We are keeping the pool covered most of the time these days so we must not be losing much FC. That's where I get a little confused based on what all the pool school info says. Based on what you said about CYA and my minimal FC loss, it seems like our pool is acting more like an indoor pool these days. Once school lets out in June it will probably be open to the sun a lot more, but right now it's closed probably 90% of the day. So I guess I'm just not sure what to expect as far as daily FC loss in order to set my SWG at the right point to make it up. Is this something I will just learn by daily testing? What would you suggest as settings as I work all this out?
 
If the pool is closed all day your FC loss would be likely 1 ppm or less. And you do not need to run the pump much.
 
mknauss said:
If the pool is closed all day your FC loss would be likely 1 ppm or less. And you do not need to run the pump much.
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Ok. Thanks! After some more pool math playing, I think I’ll try the pump down to 8 hours at 30% on the SWG. I suppose this is all a bit of a guessing game until we find out how we really use the pool on a regular basis. Thanks again for all your help.
 
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Ok lol, after some further reading and exploring of my setup... it looks like my SWG is not set to turn off completely when the pump stops running and from what I've read that can be dangerous. So... now I've set my pump up to run 24/7 at the minimum RPM to keep the flow switch open on the SWG which is 1800 rpm (it closes at 1600) and that reads about 20/21 gpm. I also looked into the minimum gpm my heater needs to run which is 20 gpm, so I set the heater circuit up to run at 25 gpm just to have a buffer. I assume that when I turn the heater on that setting with take precedence and the pump will increase rpms to reach the 25 gpm. I've also turned the SWG down to 8% according to the SWGCalculator spreadsheet to replace the 1ppm I'm losing in a day. Does all this sound ok? Is there any reason to have the pump run at a higher speed for a short amount of time during the day to help skimming? We don't get too much crud on the top of the pool because of the autocover at this point, but as we're out there more during the summer the pool will be open more.
 

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