My first pool

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G

gazelips

0
Apr 29, 2009
7
Portland, Oregon (West Linn)
Hi,

My fiance and I just bought this house about 2 months ago. It came with a pool. Neither of us has any experience with pools other than swimming in them sometimes! Since it was a foreclosed property, we don't have the luxury of asking the previous owner about the pool. When we first looked at the house, the pool was all green with algae, but sometime between then and when we took over, it had been cleaned up nicely and the pump was on.

I let the pump run 24 hours/day until I got my first electric bill, and now I'm running it for a few hours/day and will put a time on it.

My Taylor K2006 just showed up and I tested the water as best I could (the CYA test seemed a little confusing and arbitrary to me) and here are the numbers...

CYA 0 (?)
CH 90
pH 7.2
FC 4.4
CC 0
TA 120

The water's still nice and clear and smells fine. I vacuumed and scooped up a lot of leaves and worms but there is still a lot of pollen on the bottom. I think one of those pool robots is in my future!

Oh, it's an in ground pool, generally rectangular and I think it's fiberglass, although I don't know what a vinyl pool looks like. It's about 3.5 feet at the shallow end and 8 feet at the deep end. The pump is 1/2 hp at 208V. It has a sand filter that I just learned how to backflush and a Hayward H250 natural gas that I checked and that works, but I'm afraid of the gas bill from that one!

One more thing, last week I put one 182oz jug of 6% chlorine bleach (plain Target brand) in the pool as I was afraid that after two months of doing nothing I would get an algae bloom or something equally nasty.

I've read the BBB stuff a couple of times and I think I can handle it. Just thought I'd chime in and say hello!

Best,
Steve
 
Hi and welcome. :wave: I suspect you will come to love having a pool...once you figure the darn thing out! :wink:

Here's a handy link for figuring out the CYA test....
CYA Test

Your other numbers look fine...if it' s a liner pool....see below.

Just chlorinate your pool with bleach, keeping the FC level according to the CYA chart, and use the Pool Calculator for dosing amounts. Handy links in my sig, and Pool School is always good reading, sometimes several times is a good place for a newb to start. :goodjob:

A fiberglass pool is almost always white, and very hard. A vinyl liner pool usually feels soft-smooth, not hard and shiny like the fiberglass pool shell (fiberglass-think shower enclosure, RV or late model Corvette? odd combo of examples, I know.) Vinyl liners will usually be blue or have fancy prints in them....or a combination, blue below the water level and then a faux-tile look along the waterline....Look at the slideshow on the homepage and you'll see examples of everything.

Hope this helps! :)
 
Hi Steve and welcome to the forum :wave:

You need to get some CYA in your pool as soon as possible.

As you probably noticed, Pool School has recommended levels for each type pool and method of chlorination.

If you can post the dimensions of your pool, someone will help you figure out the gallons.

It would be helpful if you would list your city and state in your profile :wink:

Hope you enjoy your new pool!
 
Hi - thanks for the quick responses!

I'm in Portland, Oregon - between West Linn and Wilsonville.

I've attached some pictures I just took.

Still not quite sure whether I have fiberglass or vinyl - the color is a light blue and kind of soft to the touch and has some texture to the steps and seats, but no detail around the top.

I'll read up on the CYA again and hit the pool store - I think that's the place to get it.

BTW, I'm on a well and we have hard water. Not sure how hard - another first (well, two).

Cheers,
Steve
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The steps look fiberglass to me....but since I can't see the rest of the pool it's hard to tell :wink: You could have a vinyl liner with figerglass steps. If that's the case you want to up your Calcium to 220 because of fiberglass steps. But lets confirm it first. I want someone else to second my opninion on that!

You can get CYA at Wal-mart too, FYI

Have the Pool Store test your water for metals. You may need to use a monthly dose of sequesterant if they are present, to keep them from staining your pool. :goodjob:
 
It looks like a fiberglass one to me just the way the lip looks on the edge of the steps and the outline that I can see from under the cover. That's my guess. Anyone else? :mrgreen:

I second taking the cover off but I'm confidant it's a fiberglass. :twisted:
 
It's definitely got a funky shape! The whole thing appears to be one big shell, with the stairs in the one corner and a bench seat in the other three. The texture is on the steps and the benches and there's a lip that starts where the pool starts to get deeper and runs around the whole deep end. It's about 4 inches wide and also textured.

I'll pull the cover off and get a picture tonight, weather permitting.

Are there other discount stores other than WalMart that carry CYA? The Portland area has some kind of aversion to them, but we have Target. And (GI) Joe's is going out of business and everything is or was on sale...

BTW, as soon as I sell my other house (closing is on the 21st) I'll be ordering the fencing. I plan to put in simple, black aluminum fence panels and build some deck in the "notch" this side of where the concrete skirt bulges out. <http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100491514&N=10000003+90401+527544>

Thanks again for the support - all this stuff can be a little overwhelming at first (on top of buying/selling a house and getting married...)!!!
 

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You can try Target... Places that sell those Intex Pop up pools tend to sell the HTH brand pool chems and they make a stabilizer, a 3 or 4 pound cannister. So you can try there, it's hit an miss really. Also check pool departments at Lowes or similar home improvement stores. Otherwise it's off to the pool shop. You could try the internet too.

Edit: If the pool is fiberglass you'll be needing Calcium Chloride to up the CH level too. End edit. :wink:
 
I was able to find stabilizer at Kmart in 3 lb jugs. I think I'll vacuum up the gunk and do a backflush before I put any in. I think the pool calculator told me to put in 5 - 1/2 lbs or so, so I think I'll start with one full jug and see what that does over the course of a week.

I didn't find calcium chloride at kmart or schuck's auto - just other kinds of de-iceing salts. I'll keep looking. The pool calculator suggests about 25 lb - this sound right?

Here are a couple of more pictures with the cover off, along with my favorite pool toy. =) And yes, she fell in the first day we had the place!

Steve
 

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Yep. That's definately a fiberglass pool. :mrgreen:

Love the pool toy! Hopefully it didn't scare her too bad not to want to go swimming. I have a black pool toy! 8) They are the best!
 
Abby says, "thanks for the compliments!"

I spent the afternoon cleaning, and things look much better. I'll add the CYA in the morning. I found calcium chloride at the Tru Value hardware store, but they only have it in 100 lb boxes which seemed like overkill. The way I understand it, once I bring it up, it should stay there until it gets drained. I have hard water, so I'll probably be adding more over the summer as I keep up with evaporation. Any idea how much evaporates over time?
 
Don't confuse splashout/water replacement with evaporation.

With evaporation, the level becomes more concentrated, and when you add more water, it goes back to it's original level. With splash out, or intentional draining, the fresh water replacement dilutes the original number. Makes sense? :wink:
 
I finally got some CYA into the pool. 3 lbs straight into the skimmer. After about 5 days, my best guess at the level using my K2006 test kit is 80+. The pool calculator suggested over 5 lbs, so I'm glad I started conservatively. Maybe my pool's not as big as I guessed.

Calcium chloride is on its way. The only place I could find it (Dowflake xtra) was online and it's getting shipped to me. 50 lb. I'll go conservatively here too I think...

Then on to shop for a pool robot!
 
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