New pool owner

[yesjenks]

Hello All,

Bought a house with a pool in September, just opened it last week for the first time.

Pool is 24x48 and I believe 33,000 gallons.

Few questions:

I had a local pool guy open my pool. Great experience! Company was very knowledgeable and very helpful. He sent me to this site saying I would get good info here.

I have an automatic pool cover. It's going to take a few weeks for my water to get warm. The weather is supposed to be ehh all week, so I plan to keep the cover closed. Should I still be running my pump for 12 hours a day even when covered for 24-48 hours straight?

I just purchased TF100 kit. I bought a barrel of chlorine hockey pucks from Costco a few weeks ago. My pool guy said they're not great, but I should use them. For pool shock I plan to use regular bleach. This ok? To raise alk I was planning to use baking soda. This ok too?

Looking forward to learning for you all.

Thank you!

Jay

 

[kimkats]

I had a local pool guy open my pool. Great experience! Company was very knowledgeable and very helpful. He sent me to this site saying I would get good info here.

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WHAT did you just say?? A pool guy told you to come where? HERE?? He knows about TFP and sent you here instead of trying to get you to sign up with him or the pool store????? Hold on a min while I pick myself up off of the floor! You found one of the good ones! Make sure to keep his number and pass it out!

I will be back in a few to follow up on the questions. Time to make dinner.

Kim:cat:

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello and welcome! Since Kim got pulled away, let me try to help. Yes - bleach is your pool's best friend when used as noted on the Chlorine/CYA Chart (link below in my sig). That's very important. Baking soda does raise TA, but don't raise it arbitrarily just to be at a certainly number. It's tied to pH so that's important. The pump time may be reduced if covered and your water temp is still fairly chilly (below 60). The cover will help a lot to keep it clean and preserve FC from the sun. Hold-off on doing anything else until that TF-100 arrives. No guessing allowed. We'll see you through this Jay. We're thrilled you have the RIGHT test kit!

 

[yesjenks]

HAHAHAH! Yes, pool guy was great! Happy he led me here.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the info! How long would you say I should run the pump for? Cover is on all day and water is hovering around 55ish.

Is there a specific brand of bleach I should purchase?

 

[kimkats]

Plain, unscented, nothing special, generic bleach-Walmart Great Value, Target store brand, SO long as the % listed and the date code is within 3 months it is good.

Kim (Thanks for the help Pat!)

 

[yesjenks]

Thanks!

 

[robdac]

I had a local pool guy open my pool. Great experience! Company was very knowledgeable and very helpful. He sent me to this site saying I would get good info here.

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I didn't know it was possible to arrange words in sentences like that! Astonishing! Don't ever lose his contact info.

 

[bmoreswim]

I'm in your scenario regarding being covered full-time and I run my pump for an hour in the morning and an hour at night to keep the circulation going at that temp (not using my salt water chlorine generator yet). Since you don't have a saltwater pool, there is no relationship between pump runtime and chlorination. You just need to run it enough to keep the water circulated (realistically it's getting no debris in it with the cover on). Once you open, the goal is to run the pump enough to keep the water clear. Most other sources (websites, etc.) will tell you to run your pump enough to get x number of turns on your water per day - this is not necessary. Amount of pump runtime is about keeping the pool water filtered/clear.

Now you do need to open up the cover to add chemicals, let the water circulate, then re-cover the pool. You should not cover the pool until chemicals are mixed (at least 15 minutes). It keeps the harshness of unmixed chlorine, muriatic acid, etc. from contacting the cover surface.

 

[yesjenks]

Thanks for the helpful info!

I expect my test kit to arrive by week's end. I will post results and ask what I should add.

Thank you!

jay