First of all thanks so much to whoever developed this site. I have read an overwhelming amount of information, that has been confusing, but very helpful. This is our first summer in a new house with an awesome pool inground pool. I removed the cover on Monday. The pool had been closed for 2 years. I was nervous about what I would find. To my amazement overall it wasn't in bad shape. Minimal leaves, minimal algae, a fair amount of sludge on the bottom. I followed all opening instructions that I have been suggested.
To be honest I didn't do any water testing as I already knew I would need to SLAM to get rid of the algae and dumped 10 gallons of 8.25% bleach into the water, brushed everything continuously for days on end, continuously backwashed and rinsed the filter. All vacuuming has been done and now today, Sunday, I have clear water, solid running filter and pump.
I purchased an hth test kit from Wal-Mart( I have since taken it back), also purchased more bleach, baking soda, borax, and salt, but did test CYA level prior to going to the pool store as I didn't find any household products on here that will raise CYA and mine is nonexistent as of now. I went to the pool store yesterday for a new skimmer basket as ours was in pretty bad shape also purchased their test kit. I was going to ask a few questions while there but they were extremely busy and only 1 person was working. I felt like I was at Wal-Mart at 1 a.m. Anyone that has done that before knows what I mean. Never enough lanes open for the mass of people that are checking out. The one thing I did get to ask her was what to put in the water since I have no CYA reading, and of course she suggested a high priced product that they had in stock. I didn't purchase it because I first wanted to get a consensus from the experts on what would be the best thing to get.
This morning I tested the water and here's what I came up with:
FC-0
PH-7.5
TA-120
CH-90
CYA-0?
I added 2 cups of bleach (per pool math), now where do I go from here? If I'm understanding everything correctly my PH and TA are good. What about the rest? Also right now my SWG is showing that it is not producing chlorine, so should I add salt to the water? Thanks in advance for all your help.
To be honest I didn't do any water testing as I already knew I would need to SLAM to get rid of the algae and dumped 10 gallons of 8.25% bleach into the water, brushed everything continuously for days on end, continuously backwashed and rinsed the filter. All vacuuming has been done and now today, Sunday, I have clear water, solid running filter and pump.
I purchased an hth test kit from Wal-Mart( I have since taken it back), also purchased more bleach, baking soda, borax, and salt, but did test CYA level prior to going to the pool store as I didn't find any household products on here that will raise CYA and mine is nonexistent as of now. I went to the pool store yesterday for a new skimmer basket as ours was in pretty bad shape also purchased their test kit. I was going to ask a few questions while there but they were extremely busy and only 1 person was working. I felt like I was at Wal-Mart at 1 a.m. Anyone that has done that before knows what I mean. Never enough lanes open for the mass of people that are checking out. The one thing I did get to ask her was what to put in the water since I have no CYA reading, and of course she suggested a high priced product that they had in stock. I didn't purchase it because I first wanted to get a consensus from the experts on what would be the best thing to get.
This morning I tested the water and here's what I came up with:
FC-0
PH-7.5
TA-120
CH-90
CYA-0?
I added 2 cups of bleach (per pool math), now where do I go from here? If I'm understanding everything correctly my PH and TA are good. What about the rest? Also right now my SWG is showing that it is not producing chlorine, so should I add salt to the water? Thanks in advance for all your help.