New Pool Owner: Questions

[Macauley86]

I purchased this chlorine stabilizer Pool Time 5 lb. Chlorine Stabilizer-23417PTM - The Home Depot
The back of the jug states that, for freshly-filled pools, I need to use 1 pound of stabilizer for every 4,000 gallons of water (or 3.75 lbs/60 oz for my 15,000 gallon pool)
The Pool Calculator agrees in recommending 60 oz of stabilizer. Should I use all 60 oz at one time inside the sock? Or spread it over two or three days?
Thank you.

 

[triptyx]

Spread it out. You don't want to overshoot if you've messed up your water volume estimate! Personally, I'd start with half of that and see what your CYA measurement is once it's all fully dissolved.

Please make sure you don't just dump it into the skimmer or the pool! Put it in a sock (Kim suggests a "cute" sock and requires pictures ), and hang that sock from a telepole or other device in front of a return - don't let the sock touch the side of the pool! If you don't want to hang it in front of a return, I've put my sock into my skimmer, and left the pump on until it was all dissolved. Feel free to squeeze and massage the sock periodically to help the particles break up and dissolve. Do NOT leave the sock in the skimmer if the filter isn't running - you don't want the acidity to build up and damage equipment.

 

[Macauley86]

Excellent advice. Doing it now. Had to use a regular pool skimmer sock, though, and let it hang from a pole in front of a return. Squeezing it every now and then.

 

[kimkats]

What no picture of a cute sock full with CYA? LOL I use my poor husbands white tube socks

When it is all dissolved let the water mix good (all day or all night depending on when the sock is empty). You should be able to test to see where your CYA is at by that time.

Kim

 

[Macauley86]

Nice. It's practically dissolved. Should I test levels tomorrow or wait a few days to a week for proper CYA reading?

- - - Updated - - -

Ran filter all day today. Water nice and blue. No longer greenish. I added 64 oz of liquid chlorine (8.25%) last night, but FC reading this morning was still 0.

 

[kimkats]

Ran filter all day today. Water nice and blue. No longer greenish. I added 64 oz of liquid chlorine (8.25%) last night, but FC reading this morning was still 0.

What is this you say? Will you please do something for me? Go add enough chlorine to your pool to push FC up to 5ppm. Let it mix for 10 mins (pump on as high as it will go) then test again. Let me know what happens.

Kim

 

[Macauley86]

Ok. Doing it now.

 

[kimkats]

Waiting for the results!

 

[Macauley86]

Fc = 5
ph = 7.6

 

[kimkats]

GREAT! I was kind of worried when you said you lost all of your FC overnight!

It sounds like you need to do a full blown SLAM. Here is the link to it: Pool School - SLAM - Shock Level And Maintain

Some thing ate your FC. The lose of the FC during the night shows it. You did a OCLT Pool School - Perform the Overnight FC Loss Test (OCLT) without even knowing it LOL

How is your water looking now? It will look even better once we get it all cleared up and balanced.

Kim

 

[Macauley86]

The water looks really good, clear and blue. When I tested the water around 7 am today, I was surprised to find no FC since I added 60 oz of liquid chlorine last night; I will test it again early tomorrow morning and, if necessary, SLAM the pool. Thank you for the link.

 

[kimkats]

That is what got my radar up! By any chance was there any sun on the pool between the two tests?

I am very happy to hear the pool is looking good!

Kim

 

[Macauley86]

I tested it again early this morning.

FC: 5
PH: 7.6
TA: 100
CH: 275
CYA: way below 30 ppm with cold water. Need to retest it with pool water at room-temperature. So far I've added 32 oz of CYA via the sock.

Yesterday morning I did the FC=0 test around 60 minutes after dawn, with no CYA added yet.

 

[kimkats]

That makes me very happy! All is good with your pool!

Have you been keeping track of your tests results? I found this was the best thing to help me learn my pool. I use a small notebook with my fill water test results written on the cover. You will be able to see something is about to happen before you see it with your eyes if you journal you results.

Kim

 

[Macauley86]

Hadn't though about keeping a pool chem journal, but it's a good idea. I'll keep it in Excel and chart trends.

 

[triptyx]

Mac - try this out: Pool Logger App - Log and manage your pool chemicals It's run by a member here and it's free.

I was using my own Excel spreadsheet but moved over to PoolLogger.

 

[Macauley86]

Great advice, thank you.

 

[Macauley86]

Forgive the silly question, but in the poollogger.com app, where it asks for temperature, is it water temperature or air temperature?

 

[Macauley86]

What kit can I use to test for borates?

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Forgive the silly question, but in the poollogger.com app, where it asks for temperature, is it water temperature or air temperature?

Not silly at all. Its the water temp.

Yippee