Newbie Opening Questions

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Hudsongirl

Hudsongirl

Gold Supporter
May 4, 2024
119
New York
Pool Size
18300
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
I've been reading for a couple weeks trying to see if I have the methods straight. 18kG SW vinyl pool. We have a guy coming to open, mostly because hooking up the heater and plumbing stuff is beyond me for year 1.

Water still looks clear when I peek, but it's a leaf cover so I'm expecting some debris at the bottom. Below is my understanding of the steps. Anyone willing to take a look and see if this sounds right?

Hook everything up and remove cover.
Vacuum
SLAM level of liquid bleach (test for chlorine before?)
Add salt (2/3 amount I estimate to start)
Brush everything
leave on the pump but turn off the SWG for 24 hours (saw this was recommended after adding salt?)
Test salt- adjust if needed
turn on SWG
continue vacuuming/scrubbing
Test levels again and see if I'm burning up chlorine
If chlorine is looking decent use sock method to add CYA

If the pool was never green or anything do I have to get up at the crack of dawn for an overnight test?

Once the chlorine levels come down from SLAM and pool is clear I'm good to swim right?

Lastly pool guy comes in the AM and it looks like the salt cell could use a cleaning- would they normally do that as part of opening the pool or should I try to tackle this in the AM while everything is disconnected?
 
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Hudsongirl said:
Anyone willing to take a look and see if this sounds right?
Click to expand...
Let the pool people make the pool run again, but they don't touch the water.

You test FC, Ph and TA 30 minutes later of mixing and adjust if necessary.

Overnight Chlorine Loss Test even with clear water and no traces of algae anywhere. It's microscopic and you can only see it once it's way too late.

At 24 hours, test CYA, CH and salt as they need more mixing before you can trust them.
Add 75% of your difference for all three and creep up the rest of the way. Add one at a time, and the CYA can soak while you work on the other 2. Give them all a day to mix again and retest.
Hudsongirl said:
Once the chlorine levels come down from SLAM and pool is clear I'm good to swim right?
Click to expand...
You are safe to swim between min and SLAM for your CYA level, if you can see bottom for swimmer safety.

swcg_chart.jpg

Hudsongirl said:
Lastly pool guy comes in the AM and it looks like the salt cell could use a cleaning
Click to expand...
Did you inspect the cell ? Do not clean it without visible buildup on the plates. Scrape it first if so with something non metallic like a plastic spoon handle or a popsicle stick.
 
Newdude said:
Let the pool people make the pool run again, but they don't touch the water.

You test FC, Ph and TA 30 minutes later of mixing and adjust if necessary.

Overnight Chlorine Loss Test even with clear water and no traces of algae anywhere. It's microscopic and you can only see it once it's way too late.

At 24 hours, test CYA, CH and salt as they need more mixing before you can trust them.
Add 75% of your difference for all three and creep up the rest of the way. Add one at a time, and the CYA can soak while you work on the other 2. Give them all a day to mix again and retest.

You are safe to swim between min and SLAM for your CYA level, if you can see bottom for swimmer safety.

View attachment 640428


Did you inspect the cell ? Do not clean it without visible buildup on the plates. Scrape it first if so with something non metallic like a plastic spoon handle or a popsicle stick.
Click to expand...
Thanks, cell wound up looking good, left it alone.

Equipment is up and running, well at least the heater and pump run, waiting for SWG. Glad I hired out the opening because one of my only 1 year old GFI outlets was shot and needed replacing and some tiny little piece that's like a back up release valve or something on the filter went missing over winter (I'm pretty meticulous so not sure how).

Pool guy just left- almost time for testing. Thanks for the advice as always!


20250425_131908.jpg
 
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Hudsongirl said:
Thanks, cell wound up looking good, left it alone.
Click to expand...
Great. The industry is obsessed with acid washing cells. They'll blame it on the pool chemistry of the owners, but who taught them that ?

My cell says right on it to acid wash every 3 months. Not inspect, or if needed, mind you, but just soak it in an acid wash for funsies.

And DANG. You're starting clearer than any of your friends will be all summer. :salut:
 
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Got test results today, almost a day out,- of course it's raining fairly hard right now. FC is at 9 today after adding 3 gallons of liquid bleach yesterday (should have brought it up to around 15 at that time) but CYA is below the 30 I can read on the test, so that makes sense.

Salt was 1800ppm, which is about where I expected given draining half the water for winter. Added 4 bags which should get us up to 2800ish and we'll go from there. SWG is still off for now.

PH was 7.2- Is it worth trying to bring this up? I've never actually tried to raise PH before, though I do have borax on hand.

Water is still very clean, and robot is helping to get the last of the debris from the bottom.
 
Tested Chlorine last night, was at 7ppm, this morning 1.5 hours after sunrise was at 6 ppm. I believe even though I overslept the sunrise that's a pass.

Just added 2 more bags of salt (was at 2600ppm) which should bring us up to around 3100ppm.

Will check CYA later today it should be a little low, around 60, but I tried to undershoot. We're hoping to be able to turn on the SWG later today, then get the solar cover on and kick on the heater so when it hits 80 degrees here Tuesday we'll be able to swim.

Could it really be this easy that 2 days after opening the levels are all going to be where they should? I'm questioning myself because it seems too good to be true
🙈
 
Update: got salt to 3100ppm, gonna leave it here for now.

Tested PH and it was low today (6.7) after adding CYA yesterday so I added 3# of Borax and it's at 6.9 right now (I have a digital meter that measures salt and PH, it is always in agreement with the liquid test and seems to have a more accurate read than guessing colors which is why I say can pretty accurately say 6.9, I did both tests several times from different areas of the pool).

CYA is still slightly low, probably closer to 50 than 60, but I don't want to add any more until the PH comes up. With it being just below 7 PH am I good to wait for it to go up naturally, or should I add more Borax to bring it up faster? We don't have any water features or anything that could aerate other than the pump which is running 16hrs a day.
 

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Go ahead and raise your pH to 7.4 with Borax. Go slow, no need to do in one fell swoop. No need to go higher. It will rise from there.
 
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