Opening Day-Need a sanity check

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M

[email protected]

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Mar 10, 2014
9
St. Louis
Had my pool guy come take off the cover and start up the pump and filter. I only have him open and close for me and I take care of balancing the pool using TFP methods. I made the mistake of waiting too long to open and have a lovely green pool (mad at myself for not opening in mid-April).

Baseline before chemical addition using TF 100

PH 8.2
FC 0
CC didn't test
TA 50
CH 150
CYA 30

I intended to not have the pool guy put any chemicals in, but had a visitor in the house and didn't get to him before he dumped "15 Gallons" of chlorine into the pool. It was actually granular chlorine with stabilizer once I asked him, but I didn't ask if it was dichlor or trichlor. Whatever it was it raised the FC to 27.

I stuck both dichlor and trichlor into Pool math and monkeyed with the quantity until I had the correct quantity of both that would raise my FC to 27 and also took note of the CYA increase that would result from either addition. Based on Pool Math I think he either added 100 oz of trichlor and added 17 ppm of CYA or he added 160 oz of dichlor and added 24 ppm CYA. Either way it seems I got lucky because either addition will put my CYA in the 50-60 ppm range. It also seems like either addition will lower PH by around .6

My plan is to just continue with the slam and then raise my CH up to 250-300. I don't think there's much I can do about the PH at this point unless it is advised I let the FC drift down, adjust the PH and then start the slam.

Anything I'm missing or any additional advice?


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The pool guy told you 15 gallons and then you learned it was granular :scratch:

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it, but I am not sure I would trust the guesses you were doing with PoolMath as some of the FC was likely used up quickly.

I would give it a day and then test the CYA level to see where you are at. Then continue the SLAM process.

It is usually best to adjust the pH before raising the FC up so you avoid scaling type issues, but your CH is low, so that might not be a concern for a few days. If the FC happens to drop around 10ppm, may as well check the pH though.
 
Gee, what is it with people (like your pool guy) just dumping stuff in a pool randomly? There's been a rash of that going around lately. Wow. In any case, I'm with Jason ... wait. One problem I see with your initial 8.2 pH reading is that it may have been much higher. PH is so important, I would not want you to try and guess what levels may be now... even though I commend you for trying like you did. Love that Poolmath Calculator. I also wonder, based on his testimony, if the product he dumped might have been a Cal-Hypo based product? Then you wouldn't want to add more CH for sure.

I'm afraid if it were me, I would simply wait for the FC to settle and re-test everything form scratch. Sorry. :(
 
Texas Splash said:
Gee, what is it with people (like your pool guy) just dumping stuff in a pool randomly? There's been a rash of that going around lately. Wow. In any case, I'm with Jason ... wait. One problem I see with your initial 8.2 pH reading is that it may have been much higher. PH is so important, I would not want you to try and guess what levels may be now... even though I commend you for trying like you did. Love that Poolmath Calculator. I also wonder, based on his testimony, if the product he dumped might have been a Cal-Hypo based product? Then you wouldn't want to add more CH for sure.

I'm afraid if it were me, I would simply wait for the FC to settle and re-test everything form scratch. Sorry. :(
Click to expand...

I specifically asked him if it was Cal-Hypo. He kind of looked at me funny and I decided to ask if it contained stablizer. He said it was stabilized so that is why I figured it must be dichlor or trichlor. My understanding is that Cal-Hypo is unstabilized, but I might be wrong.
 
[email protected] said:
I specifically asked him if it was Cal-Hypo. He kind of looked at me funny and I decided to ask if it contained stablizer. He said it was stabilized so that is why I figured it must be dichlor or trichlor. My understanding is that Cal-Hypo is unstabilized, but I might be wrong.
Click to expand...
Don't make any logical assumptions where pool professionals are concerned. That's why you have a test kit. My money is that the CH will be spiked and CYA will be where it was.
 
Richard320 said:
Don't make any logical assumptions where pool professionals are concerned. That's why you have a test kit. My money is that the CH will be spiked and CYA will be where it was.
Click to expand...

I woke up this morning to go test and I found the stupid in line chlorinator must have cracked over the winter and was spraying water out all over my equipment pad. I didn't bother to check last night to see if the valve was closed and it must of filled up with water and built up enough pressure to turn the crack into a geyser. I was lucky I only lost about 3 inches of water and it didn't get below the skimmer and starve the pump. I ended up shutting down the pump for the day and went to work. This effectively put the SLAM on hold for a day since I didn't have time to add chlorine and brush the pool to mix it this morning.

This evening I installed a new chlorinator (I don't plan to use it except for vacation) and got the pump going. The chlorine had drifted down to 5 ppm with no additions during the day, but the water did turn from green to cloudy blue, so I still made some progress. Since the chlorine was below 10 I tested the PH and added acid. After brushing and skimming pollen I retested and the PH was down to 7.5.

BTW, I retested my CH to see if I could determine if the mystery "15 gallons" of granular my pool guys added was dichlor, trichlor or cal-hypo. Unfortunately, I have to now add in the possibility that my original test result of 150 ppm was wrong. Tonight's CH test showed I had 250 ppm, which means (according to Pool Math) he would have had to add enough 73% cal-hypo to to bring my CH up 100 ppm and this would have resulted in 150 ppm FC. Tonight's numbers also make more sense considering I checked my test results from closing day last fall and my CH was 300. That seems more reasonable considering the partial drain I do each fall prior to closing up for the winter. Regardless, the chemistry seems under control and now it's time to finish the SLAM.

Thanks everyone for the sanity check and advise. I've learned so much on this forum the past two years. This stuff isn't that hard.
 

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