Need so much help!

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Wheelie

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May 24, 2015
81
Sydney, australia
Hello!

We have a vinyl in-ground pool that we've owned for about six months but only started using in the last couple. We live in Victoria, Australia so not too cold in the winter but we had winterised the pool based on the advice of a pool guy we hired when we first moved in. The previous owner also left quite a lot of solid chlorine in the filter basket before they left (not recommended from what I'm reading here). I left the pool maintenance to my husband but as I've started tho read more I realise that he hasn't really read up on the finer details.

Anyway the pool looks great but our test strips show we have no free chlorine and quite high combined chlorine. I bought some bleach to do a SLAM but it has no percentage on it and we don't have a test kit that will give us more sensitive results than the Aquachek 7 in 1 that we're using now. I'm also unsure as to our CYU levels. It continuously comes up in the 30-50 range - this is apparently in the ideal range but is somewhat imprecise. Also we haven't added stabiliser since we've been here - is it normal for CYU levels to stay the same for a long period of time or do you lose some? I'm cautious of adding more since it seems that it's very hard to remove if you add too much.

The pool is somewhere in the realms of 30,000 to 40,000 litres. Its hard to work out due to the slope around the deeper parts of the pool. We plan to measure and draw it up this weekend.

From the last test strip we had:

Total hardness: 100 very low - I read that hardness is not relevant in vinyl pools - right?
Total chlorine - swings between 0.5 and 3 depending on whether we've remembered to add chlorine the day before.
Free chlorine - sitting at 0 for the last few months
pH - generally in the 7.2 to 7.8 range
total alkalinity s generally in the okay range about 160. However I read here that vinyl pools should have a higher alkalinity - is that right?
CYU - 30-50 range.

So basically quite confused but it seems that a SLAM is in order to restore the FC. I just don't know how much to add. Can I do a temporary fix for christmas then sort it out properly afterwards by chucking a load of bleach in tonight??

In the longer term what's the easiest way to add chlorine every day without doing it manually?

Also we have a hole in the corner of the vinyl which my husband patched (badly). The pool guy that came at the beginning said we had a good ten years of life left in the liner. The hole may have been smaller then! Do you get a professional in for these sort of fixes ? Especially considering he needs to remove the current messy patch.

Thanks for all your help.
Yours confusedly
Keelie
 
Don't ry to solve your issues in one post.....most folks won't answer that many quyestions and you will remain completely confused.

read "The ABC's of Pool Water Chemistry" up in Pool School......that's the starting point.

Then, you will need a VERY good test kit to follow the methods we teach........probably around $100 Australian.

Lot's to learn but take your time and it will make sense.
 
Chlorine

Hello,

So from reading here I understand that bleach (liquid chlorine) is the chlorine of choice for pools. Right?

We've got a box of granular chlorine - is that okay to use?

When you add chlorine how long does the pump need to run for and can I leave the cover on?

Thank you
 

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Wheelie- good for you getting a K2006. There has been quite a few threads on how Australians can get a decent test kit over the past couple of months, which are worth looking at. If you order the K2006 you just need to realise that you will run through some of those reagents really quickly- have you placed the order yet?

As Marian pointed out the granular chlorine could have CYA in it which could raise this level unnecessarily. Can you post a picture of the container or tell us what the brand/actual product name and manufacturer of the chlorine is.
 
Your granular chlorine is Calcium Hypochlorite which is a little different to what we were originally thinking but with its own cons -which mainly is adding calcium to your pool which by adding inadvertently can lead to higher levels of calcium than recommended here at TFP. I wouldn't necessarily completely discount using it at the moment but it will depend on getting a reliable number on CH when you get your K2006 before adding

The answer to your question about reagents is yes and no. You can't reorder the Taylor's reagents locally but there is a new Australian company that do there own version of the Taylors kits and some of their reagents are compatible with Taylors. They are online and name is clearchoicelabs.com. I have personally purchased some reagents for my K2006 and found that I was pleased with how comparable they were. Best thing is that you don't need to pay exorbitant postage from the US for just a couple of reagents if required. Although I still prefer my K2006 and if I was placing a big order I would order from the USA.

Can you change your order by contacting them via email and who have you ordered through?
 
I ordered it through Fishpond so I don't know who the supplier is. So I don't think I can add to it but I could probably cancel it. It seemed from the reviews on here that most people were still keener on the Taylors than the clear choice labs. Also the only set I could see was for salt water pools so I was a bit confused.
 
I think Clear choice do a 'freshwater kit' which is the same thing minus the salt test of the Salt water test for those with SWG's. If you could cancel it that probably wouldn't be a bad idea. Most of us Aussies use a place called Poolvacparts.com and you can order everything you need including refills at the same time. We can give you some advice on that too if you want.

They also are running a discount $20USD off international orders over $150. Code is DEC20.
 
Hi Keelie, I'm in South Australia and have a little above ground pool. Using the advice from this forum has been fantastic, last year they helped me get it back to sparkling clean from a bit of a mess. I have the same test kit as you've ordered and only had to reorder the top up chemicals at the start of this season - although, my pool is a lot smaller than yours, so they lasted longer - except the one for the CYA - I went through that pretty quickly, mainly due to lack of understanding.

With the chlorine, I was using the Hy-Chlor granules and switched pretty quickly to this product from Bunnings - Hy-Clor 12.5L Liquid Pool Chlorine | Bunnings Warehouse It's 12% bleach/chlorine and is so cheap. This is all I use in my pool now, once it's balanced for the season, it doesn't need anything else.
 

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