Very soon to be pool owner

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Victorg1001

Victorg1001

0
Mar 12, 2017
3
Dallas, TX
Hello All!

I will be closing on a pool home in the Dallas area tomorrow morning! Pool was recently built (Dec 2016) so its only a few months old. Thought I would introduce myself and start a thread in regards to my setup, current water parameters and a couple misc questions.

Pool pics below:
Image 2017-03-30 at 4.29.21 PM.png
Image 2017-03-30 at 4.29.38 PM.png

I've been doing a ton of reading on this site and have read as much as possible in the Pool School section. Maintaining my own pool first seemed like a daunting task but with more and more reading and this community's support, I actually feel like I could take this head on.

I've ordered and received a Taylor K2006 test kit and magnetic stirrer. During my final walkthrough before closing today, I took the liberty of filling a glass bottle with some pool water to test back at home. Below are my test results:

FC 1.2ppm
CC .2
pH 7.8
TA 130
CH 240
CYA 50-60 silly dot

In regards to the pool. Water is crystal clear. Since I'm new to this, I'm not too super familiar with all of the plumbing and equipment but got my hands on the final contract for the pool build to attach to this thread, link here: Image 2017-03-30 at 4.32.47 PM.png

From my research here it seems like the rainbow inline chlorinator should not be used. Am I correct with this assumption as I will be manually adding bleach?

Pool volume - Don't remember where i found a sample calculation but I think I calculated something in the 11k gallon range. I think i calculated an average depth and pool surface area to come up with that. Does that seem correct based on the provided measurement (blue outline Image 2017-03-30 at 4.32.47 PM.png). Custom shape is making this harder than it should be to figure out.

Need to get in this house ASAP. I have a feeling the owners have started to neglect the pool as they are on their way out. Chlorine seems low for the CYA level and lots of debris in the pool. Pumps were off as well. I will test again once I take possession of the house in a week.

Thanks again for any tips and pointers as I start this journey!

Have a great day!

Vic
 
Boy Howdy Vic! Exciting times ahead for y'all!

Pool looks great. You're right, that rainbow chlorinator should remain empty and ignored (unless someday you want to go on vacay and have planned ahead with your cya level to accommodate the use of pucks for a short while)
Liquid chlorine either hand poured daily or through the use of a stenner type pump will be one option. The other is to install a Salt Water Chlorine Generator. If you're at all handy you can probably do it. Toss up a pic of your equipment pad and we'll see how it might fit in.

For your CYA level, go with 60ppm at this point for your chlorine level, until you get more comfortable with the test and know for certain its 50. There is no level between the 50 and 60. So using this :lookhere: [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA] you'll see where you want to be FC wise.

We can work on your TA later. No rush.

Here is another guide to help you: Pool School - Recommended Levels

One request- not everyone is as Texas savvy as I am :wink: so may not know where McKinney is. Can you add TX to that part of your profile? It makes it easier for us to answer your questions specific to your region. Thanks :)

Pool and house look great. Congrats! Its gonna be a funnnnnn summer!

Yippee :flower:
 
Vic,

Welcome to TFP... A Great resource for all new pool owners... :snorkle:

Nice looking pool!!! And good job on getting a good test kit up front..

Yes, your FC is very low for a CYA of 60, but all and all not a bad way to start.

It will only take you a few days to get comfortable with the doing the tests and you will see just how easy taking care of your pool will be.

You might want to sneak over there in the middle of the night and add a gallon of Liquid Chlorine or plain bleach... :D

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
Welcome to TFP! A great source of information for your easy-to-keep-your-pool-clear needs. Great looking pool you have there. Sounds like you have a decent handle on the basics of what we practice here. Great job on steps numbering 1 and 2 for a great looking, sanitized pool (1. Finding this site 2. ordering a great test kit)

With a CYA of 50-60, we call that 60. As you have already discovered through PoolMath, your FC is too low. Target should be 7-9 and absolute minimum is 5. Need to get some bleach in there as quick as possible. If you could arrange it, I would go one last time, add enough bleach to bring it up to SLAM(24) and hopefully that will keep it above 5 in the next week.

You are correct on the auto-chlorinator, I actually just deleted mine in favor of an Salt Water Chlorine Generator. And your CYA is almost perfect for that (=
 
Hey all!

Finally all moved in. I've had myself some fun maintaining this guy on my own.

Leslie's refused to see me liquid chlorine, went to Home Depot and got bad/old 10% chlorine (warning signs were there...dirty bottles that looked like they have been sitting there a while). Finally got a hold of some 10% chlorine from Walmart. Put in the required amount from pool math and got my FC right where I wanted it.

I've also had the back-up valve go bad on my Polaris. Replaced that with ease.

Below are my latest test results:

FC 9
CC 0
Ph 7.8
Alk 110
CH 240
CYA 60

Anything pressing I should tackle at this point?

P.S. will be updating my signature as soon as I figure out how!

Thanks in advance for any tips / advice


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Victor,

You know you can use just plain bleach at 8.25%.

Since I have a SWCG I only use a little Liquid Chlorine in the winter. I buy it at an independent pool store near me. It comes in full gallons at 12.5%. Google HASA and see if they have a supplier near you.

I'd keep an eye on pH and when it get over 7.8 than I'd use Muriatic Acid to bring it back down to 7.5 or so.

Thanks for the update,

Jim R.
 
VictorG1001,

I've had good success with liquid chlorine from Home Depot. The key is to check the date code. It's on the outside of the box. It's in a format XXYYY where XX is the last two digits of the year and YYY is the actual day of the year (1-365).

So, a code of 17040 would correspond to 2017, 40 day, so Feb 9th. Just be careful because sometimes they don't rotate their palates and they'll bring out older stock. Two 1-gallon jugs of 10% chlorine for $6.86 isn't a bad deal, and it's easier to carry with the handle on the box. I box in each hand is easy to do which corresponds to 4 gallon jugs.
 
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