Hi all,
I purchased a major fixer upper house last year with a terrible swamp in the back:
We deemed this hopeless, but given that we had many other rooms to work on we just now got to fixing it. We tore out the liner, re-leveled the sand
, and bought new pump, filter, skimmer, and ladder.
Right now the new liner is almost filled up enough with tap water to cut the hole for the skimmer,
so we took a trip to Leslie's pool supply to get the right chemicals. After some testing and the expected huge bill I decided to do more research, found this site, read all the pool school, and realized that the Tri-Chlor tabs and bi-weekly Di-chlor shocks are not really ideal for the pool.
Now I need some help.
Unfortunately I have misplaced the paper with the water analysis, but I'll go back to get another printout today.They said TA and PH was fine and sold me tabs, shock, conditioner, and hardness plus.
Thanks so much for all your help. I'm excited and slightly scared, but this seems like a cool and helpful place. I've already learned a lot just reading around.
I purchased a major fixer upper house last year with a terrible swamp in the back:
We deemed this hopeless, but given that we had many other rooms to work on we just now got to fixing it. We tore out the liner, re-leveled the sand
, and bought new pump, filter, skimmer, and ladder.
Right now the new liner is almost filled up enough with tap water to cut the hole for the skimmer,
so we took a trip to Leslie's pool supply to get the right chemicals. After some testing and the expected huge bill I decided to do more research, found this site, read all the pool school, and realized that the Tri-Chlor tabs and bi-weekly Di-chlor shocks are not really ideal for the pool.
Now I need some help.
Unfortunately I have misplaced the paper with the water analysis, but I'll go back to get another printout today.They said TA and PH was fine and sold me tabs, shock, conditioner, and hardness plus.
- I still have another problem though: I don't yet have a test kit. I am about to order one, but it won't be here for a week. Since I'm starting with just plain city water with no chlorine and no contaminants, am I OK to use test strips for the first week until my kit arrives? If not, what else do I do? I also read that for about a week after adding the CYA your testing for FC (or was it CYA?) is going to be off. How do I add the correct amount of bleach so its safe to swim for the first week?
- I tried to go to the page with the recommended levels, 404 Not Found
, but the page 404s. I can't find any other reference to what my levels should be. What do I do? Since I am using a vinyl liner with bleach, it lists the example of
FC 3-7
PH 7.5-7.8
TA 70-90
CH 50-300
CYA 30-50
Is that all I need to know? - When I went to the pool store they gave me two gallons of conditioner which I understand is what adds CYA. Am I OK to assume that adding what they told me will be fine? I'll update the post once I get another printout of the analysis.
- They gave me a 25lb bucket of this stuff: Leslie's Hardness Plus Pool Chemical
I promise I read through all the pool school stuff, but I don't quite understand what this does/damages. Again, without my prior hardness levels you probably can't give me any solid advice yet, but I was trying to figure out what this stuff is supposed to do. They said it helps the lifetime of the liner, but I read other people warning about too much calcium in the water. - I know my pool is 24ft diameter and is a 52inch high pool, which gives me 13500 gallons. But of course it doesn't get filled to the very top. Should I just stick a measuring tape in once I have it filled to the right height on the skimmer and then re-calculate for the pool math calculator?
Thanks so much for all your help. I'm excited and slightly scared, but this seems like a cool and helpful place. I've already learned a lot just reading around.