Hi all,
My wife talked me into the 9x18 Bestway AG pool sold at Costco this year. I bought the pool, a 40 lb box of Clorox trichlor tablets and two boxes of Clorox Shock Plus bags. The pool has been running for a couple weeks now, and I have some questions. Here are my water test results from this morning at the local pool store. They used ClearCare Expert, version 2.4.4 to test the water. Water is currently clear but was slightly cloudy before I shocked it on Sunday.
FC - .22
TC - .43
CC - .21
pH - 7.3
TA (adjusted) - 82
CH - 153
CYA - 33
Iron - .1 ppm
Endure - 0
I know FC is low. I currently have two trichlor tablets in the skimmer. I just purchased a floating dispenser and plan to use that instead. I've seen recommendations to add granular chlorine or shock to boost FC when low, then maintain with tablets dispensed at the proper rate.
My local water is soft and neutral, with no alkalinity or calcium hardness. I'd like to find a maintenance regimen that minimizes the amount of chemicals I need to add to the water.
A few more questions...
Thanks for any help,
Jim
My wife talked me into the 9x18 Bestway AG pool sold at Costco this year. I bought the pool, a 40 lb box of Clorox trichlor tablets and two boxes of Clorox Shock Plus bags. The pool has been running for a couple weeks now, and I have some questions. Here are my water test results from this morning at the local pool store. They used ClearCare Expert, version 2.4.4 to test the water. Water is currently clear but was slightly cloudy before I shocked it on Sunday.
FC - .22
TC - .43
CC - .21
pH - 7.3
TA (adjusted) - 82
CH - 153
CYA - 33
Iron - .1 ppm
Endure - 0
I know FC is low. I currently have two trichlor tablets in the skimmer. I just purchased a floating dispenser and plan to use that instead. I've seen recommendations to add granular chlorine or shock to boost FC when low, then maintain with tablets dispensed at the proper rate.
- I'd like to use a partial bag of my Clorox shock to boost chlorine, but everything I've seen recommends against using partial bags of shock. Why? Can't I use part, then save the rest for later?
- Will the Clorox shock (dichlor + aluminum sulfate and boron salts) drive up my CYA more than other shock options? Is that even something to worry about?
- CC is .21 and marked as high on my test results. Is it marked high because of it's relationship to my low FC, or because CC needs to be lower? If it should be lowered, should I shock the pool again? The water is clear. I shocked the pool on Sunday with a 1 lb bag of Shock Plus.
- CYA is 33. What drives up CYA, and what can I do to properly maintain my pool while keeping CYA within range and as low as possible? Assuming a pool is properly maintained, how often is a partial drain and fill required to reduce CYA levels?
My local water is soft and neutral, with no alkalinity or calcium hardness. I'd like to find a maintenance regimen that minimizes the amount of chemicals I need to add to the water.
- Are trichlor tablets the right choice for my soft water? How much does trichlor lower pH? Are there any other tablets?
- I've had to add about 5 lbs of sodium bicarbonate over the past couple weeks to ramp up and maintain TA at 80+ ppm. I assume I'll have to keep adding maintenance doses over time. Is it normal for pools in soft water locales to use a lot of bicarb?
- I just added 4 lbs of calcium chloride to bring calcium hardness up from 0 to 153. Is that enough, or should I boost it higher?
A few more questions...
- Iron is listed as high, with .1 ppm. Is that something to worry about? My plumbing is copper, so I'm not sure where the iron would be coming from.
- Endure is listed as 0, and they say acceptable range is 30-50 ppm. What is Endure? Is this something I should monitor and adjust?
Thanks for any help,
Jim
