New Pool Owner!!

[primetime]

Our pool was just filled with water tonight. Official pool indoctrination will take place Wed, Thurs, or Fri depending on weather and pool builders schedule. We are first time pool owners with 4 children ages 15 (boy), 13 (girl), 9 (boy), 6 (boy)

I think I covered the basics in my signature. I will add pictures tomorrow or Wednesday. Still need to have the final grading and landscaping completed later this week.

My pool builder has been great and seems very knowledgeable. I will post here what he tells me to do and see if that agrees with all of you and the "pool school" info I read.

Four questions out of the gate: (1) The water was added today. It is spring water. It started raining about 2 hours after it was filled. Will this cause any problems? The pool equipment is NOT turned on yet. (2) The pool builder will be here tomorrow to start everything for the first time. Is this a problem?

(3) A pool owner at work told me it will take two days for the equipment to get the water chemistry correct and to "get the minerals out". Is this correct? (And what minerals is he talking about?) The kids were in it for about 10 minutes. The water guy told me the water was safe. He said you could even drink it. (we did not take him up on this). The water temp is 58 (Brrrr). (4) How long will it take to warm up and should I get a solar cover, solar rings or solar fish? (We live in South Eastern Pennsylvania)

I look forward to being an active member of the site.

 

[PaulR]

Welcome!

About your questions, my take on it is:
(1) Rain shouldn't be a serious problem.
(2) It's only a problem if you hate the guy. Oh, did you mean is it a problem to wait a day? nah.
(3) How long it takes depends on the state of the fill water. Two days should be more than enough, especially as you're going to check back in here immediately after the pool guy leaves.
(4) No idea how long it'll take to warm up. On this site the fish and rings are trending negative, but solar covers are mildly popular.

What else... You need a good test kit, which if you've been reading here long you'll have noticed already. On this site we like the Taylor K-2006, rebranded by Leslie's as the FAS-DPD Service Kit, and also the TF100 from tftestkits.net which is very like the K-2006 but you get bigger bottles of stuff.
--paulr

 

[TizMe]

Welcome to the site !

First you need a good test kit. Alot here use either the Taylor K2006 test kit or the TF-100 test kit I personally use the TF 100 kit and like it very much.

There is a lot of great information in our Pool School section of the forum you should read. It covers just about everything you will need to know to keep your water crystal clear!

Good luck , enjoy your pool !!

 

[primetime]

Thank you PaulR and TizMe!

I read the pool school materials twice. Still only got about 75% of it, but I will keep at it. We have a Leslie's store near us so I will make sure to get the correct test kit.

I read about the borates and I am thinking of trying it with my pool. Not sure when to start it. I will probably wait a week or two until I get more used to pool chemistry and operating my pool equipment.

I joined the site last year and it immediately paid dividends by steering me towards a SWG over a Nature2. So far so good!\

Thanks again!

 

[PaulR]

Typically the Leslie's store will not have the FAS-DPD kit in stock and will try to sell you a DPD Deluxe or something like that. Say thanks but no thanks and then find a kit online.

Borates should come last, certainly you want your pH and TA in line beforehand. And if your pH drift is tolerable, there's not really much reason to use them.
--paulr