New Pool owner trying to get thing right

[GeeDub]

Hi All

I've recently had a inground concrete pool installed (In Perth, Western Australia). Fortunately I found this forum and all the useful information everyone has posted. So after a lot of reading I've bought a K-2006 test kit and started getting the balance right.
My pool is about 26,000 litres. The Pool company left me with a "Balanced" pool a week after it was installed but the PH was all over the show. I tested it and found that there was no TA, zero chlorine, zero CYA and zero Borates. Since then I have added BiCarb to bring the TA up to 90, used Bleach to maintain chlorine levels until the salt was added last week. Currently testing shows the following:

Temperature: 13 'C
Total Alkalinity: 80ppm (a bunch of BiCarb)
Salt: 4100ppm (4x 25KG Bags of Salt)
FC: 8 (mainly because I turned the SWG on to level 3, before the ORP sensor was installed)
CC: 0.2ppm
Borates: 54ppm (7KG of Boric Acid)
CYA: 0 (Mainly because the ORP manual suggested CYA not be added or if it is to drop the value from 700 to 600)
CH: 380 (This was 490 3 weeks earlier, but I used HEDP to filter out some of the calcium)
PH: 7.6 (Using Muriatic acid to keep bringing it back down)

My PH is tending to drift upwards from 7.5/7.6 to 8.0 over a period of about 5-6days. I think this may be related to the TA of 80, and im regretting not getting the PH/TA stable before adding Borates as from my reading this is going to be much harder now that the borates are in.

Any recommendations on stabilising the PH or balancing other chemicals further would be greatly appreciated.

Also I have a water feature (3 spouts into the pool), Has anyone fitted a solenoid to allow for electronic turning on of the water feature, rather than having to go out and manually open the valve. Would a typical Bunnings irrigation solenoid work?

Thanks for the help and information
G

 

[Texas Splash]

Hello G and welcome to TFP! To assist you with TFPC methods, I suppose we should clarify a couple things:
- TFO does not recognize ORP as a reliable way to sanitize an outdoor pool. You'll one such discussion HERE and HERE.
- Your pH will continue to rise not only because you have new plaster which will take months to fully cure, but you also have aeration (water features) which will increase pH. Your TA at 80 could be lowered slightly to about 50-60 which might help slow pH rise, but with new plaster it will continue until the curing process is complete.
- You need CYA, and with a SWG you need lots of it. Here at TFP, our recommended minimum CYA level is "70". That is what we advise to provide adequate protection from FC generated on a fairly slow, consistent bases in an SWG pool. Without CYA, your SWG will be forced to work much harder/longer to create FC as the sun's UV removes it.
- With your K-2006 kit, make sure to test FC/CC with 10ml water samples as opposed to 25ml. Use one heaping scoop or powder, then count drops until clear and divide by "2". Example: 16 drops = FC of 8.

So, a few things to consider. Feel free to review the TFP website to your leisure and let us know if you have any more questions about TFP care. Very nice to have you with us.

 

[GeeDub]

Thanks Texas, That is awesome advice. I'll take a read through the ORP discussion links so I can understand it better and on the weekend I'll get some CYA into the pool.