New pool owner seeks your help please

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Eh562300

Eh562300

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LifeTime Supporter
Apr 2, 2015
9
Austin, Texas
Hi.

Will you please help me with your wisdom? We are total newbies, this is our first swimming pool.

ETA: I just added at 1:15 pm today about 3/4 gallon of bleach (8.25% Clorox) since the chlorine was so low.

So far we have been lurking and trying to pick up knowledge. My husband and I bought our home in May but due to rains we were only able to start swimming in July. We have struggled in vain to get the chemicals balanced. This is our first pool and we do not know what we are doing. I went to Leslie's Pools for a free water analysis yesterday. We bought the big pool kit for water analysis. The few times we were able to swim were wonderful. It's a small pool that is 5 feet deep at the deep end. We made a few repairs before going swimming -- we could not lower the astronomical CYA so we had the pool water drained and replaced, we had an electrician confirm that the pool company installed a new light correctly, and we had a bit of work done on the pump and automatic chlorine dispenser.

Here are the numbers from Leslie's yesterday:

Total and Free Chlorine 0 (my reading was between 2 and 4)
PH 7.8
Calcium hardness 80
CY 40
Alkilinity 70
Total dissolved solids 300
Phosphates 2000 parts per billion

I have been adding Clorox bleach 8.25% for chlorine between 2-5 cups every day, but it is all gone almost immediately. The ph is continually creeping up. The pool water looks clear because my husband scrubs it almost every day.

Thank you so much for your help. We bought the big pool test kit from Trouble Free Pools.
 
Welcome to the forum. :wave: We teach folks to manage their own pools and stay out of the pool store. Our Pool School is a wealth of knowledge (and can be intimidating) but it's a great place to start......... read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School. Next I would read the article on SLAMming in pool school as that will be your next step.

There's more but let's get you started with those two articles and then we can discuss the SLAM you will need to perform.
 
HI! You are going to love your pool and it will be oh so much easier now that you have found TFP! Great first step! Your other great step was the test kit! Do you have it yet?

Read the things up above and you will be on your way!

Kim
 
Hi. Yes, we have our test kit. I have read through the articles. So should I SLAM the pool as my first step? I won't go into the confusing conversation at Leslie's.

Should I run the tests using the new test kit? It is the biggest kit.
 
Leslie's would confuse even most of the experts here so don't worry too much about that! Time to close the door to leslie's advice! You've got a better testing kit than them now anyway! :)

Do you like videos for learning? https://www.youtube.com/user/tf100testkit?feature=results_main

There's videos to show how to run all the tests that come in the TF-100 kit if you're the learn it from youtube type! (I love to see stuff before I try it myself)

Run the full set of tests in your kit and post the results in this thread.

Then we can see what is what and where to go from there. :)

By the way, Welcome to TFP! :)
 
Beens, I watched the videos, they were very helpful. I also performed the tests using the TF-100 kit. Here are the new results. Bear in mind that I dumped in bleach after returning from Leslie's. We will buy some more bleach this afternoon after work.

Results from TFC-100 kit today at 3:15 pm:

FC = 7
CC = 0.5
TC = 7.5

CH = 125

TA = 80

CYA = 30

Using the little Taylor kit that came inside the TFC kit:

Ph = in between 7.8 and 8.2
Chlorine = something between 5 and 10


Thank you for all of your help. I really appreciate it.
 
Try to keep pH at 7.2 to 7.8.

Texas sun and heat take a toll on FC, so I keep my CYA at 50 to 70 (non SWG pool). That's a little higher than most folks here would recommend, but it hasn't been a problem for me and it help to reduce the chlorine loss. I just have to make very sure I never let my FC drop below the minimum on the Chlorine/CYA chart. By being careful about my FC, I have never had a need to SLAM.

Your numbers look pretty good to me. I think you can expect to lose 3 (maybe 4 ppm) per day. You could do a check using your new kit to see how many ppm you are losing per day.
 
Hi. For now, we just want our pool balanced so that we can swim in it this season.

We also have some long term questions that I thought I should ask about in the dedicated forums -- we want to consider whether we should buy something to replace the heater we had removed.

We need patio furniture and some sort of shade/privacy landscaping or umbrellas.

We have heard of a product that keeps feet cool on the concrete patio around the pool.

But for now, we just want to get in the pool and go swimming as soon as possible.

So -- should we SLAM the pool or do those numbers look OK?
 
If your water is clear, those numbers look good. If you want to be 100% positive, then do an OCLT. Test your water tonight after the sun goes down. Use pool math to add bleach to get to 10ppm, test 30 minutes later to see what your FC Is after adding bleach. Mark down that number. Test your water again in the morning before the sun comes up. If the difference in the two numbers are 1 or less, you are all set to figure out how much bleach you need to add each day to keep your FC up.

I would not add CYA until you find out if you pass the OLCT. So we can let that be for now.

Keep reading and ask questions.


[emoji176] Lisa P.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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Eh! You did good! Those numbers look good! I am going to link you to a couple of things that may help you know what to do.

MY fav! It does all of the work for you! Play with it and look at all of the neat stuff it does!

http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html

Print this on out so you can glance at it to see where you are in the ranges.

Pool School - Recommended Levels

A written part that will tell you what to add or do to adjust the different levels.

Pool School - Recommended Pool Chemicals

This is a good one to know where it is.

Pool School - Chlorine / CYA Chart

I would go grab some muratic acid to push your PH down. Use pool math to tell you how much to add. PLEASE wear safety glasses when you are handling it.

Now go jump in that pool!!!!!!!!!!! CANNON BALL! :splash:

HUGS!

Kim

- - - Updated - - -

Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT)

overnight test
 
Hi, will you please help us again? We have follow up questions. We have performed the OCLT test for the past two nights. Each night, we lost 1.5 ppm of chlorine during the night instead of losing 1 ppm.

Do we need to SLAM again? Or can we go swimming? It is hot here in Texas, and we would love to swim in our pool. The Ph was 7.5, which is lower than it has been for several days.

We think the reason we are losing so much chlorine is that our pool sits in direct hot Texas sun for many hours a day. We do not know how this pool could be 25 years old without anyone doing anything about the lack of shade.

Thank you, we appreciate your help.
 
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