First time opening pool

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the77boudreau

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May 30, 2016
23
Lake Charles,LA
I have found enough knowledge here to realize I have been wasting time and money at the pool stores so far. A little background first, I have been around pools my whole life, but just bought first home with a relatively new pool. It was open and running great and no problems closing....almost. I'm also from New York so things are a bit different in SW Louisiana.
We had a couple rough storms over the winter that allowed quite a bit of leaves in the pool under the cover somehow with the wind. I spent a few days using leaf vacuum to get the bulk out and leaf net for the rest. If it matters they are mainly (90%ish) live oak leaves. Went to local pool store and the test results initially were close to mine.
Last Saturday:
FC 2
TAC 2
pH 7.6
TA 80
CH 70
CYA 20
Phosphates 200

After doing the shock, algaecide, etc. their way over the course of last weekend, the thick bright green pool turned into a muddy/greenish mess instead of a stinky swamp. It's been high 80s/90s so I know it's going to be tough. Tried again and this time absolutely no improvement. In fact this is where I started looking here. They were pushing Hardness so my liner wouldn't get damaged? Conditioner, Alkalinity up, phosfree....a pickup truck full of stuff. The results of my testing I didn't record but were far from theirs I do remember.
Wednesday:
FC 3
TAC 3
pH 7.4
TA 70
CH 70
CYA 0
Phosphates 500

Forgot to mention that both copper and iron have been at zero since opening last weekend. Not sure if either of them could have any impact but wouldn't be surprised honestly.

Right now I still have my chlorinator filled with 3" trichlor going steady with pump running since last weekend. Fresh sand this season, conventional sand, nothing fancy. And until my new test kit arrives and I can SLAM, just doing 1 gal 8.25% bleach a day. My question is about my CYA and phosphates. Do I just carry on until I can SLAM or do I need to get things under control elsewhere? Is there a tannic acid problem causing the brown/green cloudiness from leaves? I've never had these problems in NY and they are long winters.
Thank you in advance and sorry so long.
 
Phosphates are meaningless if your pool has the proper amount of FC in it. Leslie's uses it as a scare tactic to sell expensive chemicals, I think?

You can see how badly the pool store tested your chemistry just by looking at the CYA. It couldn't have dropped to zero in a week unless you emptied the pool and refilled it. That you're using pucks to chlorinate only confirms how *off* they are.

Dont worry about CH in your vinyl pool- the only risk is tooooo much calcium causing scale.

Keep up with the gallon of bleach daily while waiting on your kit. Make sure you remove any debris and monitor your sand filter for a raise of 25% over baseline psi which tells you its time to backwash.

Am I confusing you? I hope not....but its also time to start reading Pool School <link at top> Start here: ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry

Holler back with any questions. Again, welcome to TFP! We'll get you fixed up.
 
Welcome! :wave:

We always welcome Wheel Of Fortune Contestants. How many spins did you get?

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Tannic Acid can turn your pool into tea, but I think time and bleach will eliminate the coloring.

While you await your test kit, Add bleach to keep your FC at the top of whatever your little HTH tester reads to. Don't expect any great change, because it;s not really SLAMming, but it should at least put you in a holding pattern.
 
First, thank you for the reply. You confirmed exactly what I thought about the CH, phosphates and most importantly the CYA. I have read and believe I have a pretty good idea of the ABCs and can always go back to read again. I find it funny you knew exactly which local pool store was in question without me throwing them under the bus.
Thank you for your help. I'll be in touch later this week.

We have some rain coming this week, it would be ideal to wait on the SLAM until after, correct? I'm pretty sure I know the answer but can't hurt to ask...
 
the77boudreau said:
First, thank you for the reply. You confirmed exactly what I thought about the CH, phosphates and most importantly the CYA. I have read and believe I have a pretty good idea of the ABCs and can always go back to read again. I find it funny you knew exactly which local pool store was in question without me throwing them under the bus.
Thank you for your help. I'll be in touch later this week.

We have some rain coming this week, it would be ideal to wait on the SLAM until after, correct? I'm pretty sure I know the answer but can't hurt to ask...
Click to expand...
You're asking the wrong guy about rain. I'm in SoCal. What's rain? I welcome the whopping half-inch downpours we get. Doesn't impact the pool chemistry at all. Where you live, it might be entirely different, with half the pool being replaced with overflow. If you expect an inch or two, you can SLAM right through it. If it's ark-building time, no one will blame you for waiting. Except your kids.
 
HI and SO glad you found us AND ordered a test kit.

You can and should do the SLAM in the rain. It really does not matter. Just don't go out in the lighting. No crispy critters please LOL

Keep adding the gal of bleach and keep your pump running 24/7.

We would LOVE to see a picture or 100 of your pool. It will help us all see the improvement.

Kim:cat:
 
Finally got back to the pool after a week of 1 gal(8.25%) every day with filter and chlorinator running 24-7 using trichlor. Last night did first tests with K2006 to hopefully start SLAM process.
Friday 9pm:
FC 8ppm
CC 1ppm
pH 7.4
TA 50
CYA 0
CH 130

I used the pool calc and read the SLAM article over to refresh and added 7.5lbs of conditioner to work on my CYA level. Also added 128oz of baking soda to bring up my TA without having my ph spike too bad during SLAM, I hope at least. Added 1 gallon of 8.25% per the calculator to get my FC to 12 in hopes that my CYA was just below 20 so not registering good and going by the CYA/FC chart it looked to me like a decent starting point until things improved.

Saturday 7am
FC 12ppm
CC 2ppm I don't know if this is a problem or expected?
pH 7.5
TA 90
CYA 80 With the incoming rain and cutting off the trichlor, I should be able to get this back down today. It's very cloudy and cool.
CH I stopped worrying about since it stays pretty stable

I would upload a few pictures if I can figure it out, but just wanted to check back in and see if things are starting to go my way or not. I plan on trying to maintain what we have right now apart from the rapid rise in CYA, and hopefully the water will clear up some. I can see pretty good to about 2.5' down, although cloudy, after that nothing. It's actually improved a whole lot sadly. Thank you in advance for any help.
 
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