Brand new newbies and poolies.

[Prepooler]

:-D Great site. In a couple more hours, we will finally be ready to turn our pump on and start filtering our first pool. We've been filling this thing slowly for two weeks now using our well. I've been very worried about filling with our well system but I believe it has done an outstanding job. This part of the country, the cheapest water delivery estimate was $1250. So after two weeks pf patiently filling, now we have just have about three more inches to pump and we hope to be off and swimming. We also ordered the TFT test kit, but had the local pool store test the water for us this morning. I have used the results from them and entered them into the pool calculator and just would like to confirm them with someone before we start shocking this evening.

TDS(?): 200
CYA: 0
FC: 0
pH: 7
TA: 85
Total Hardness? (close to CH?): 48

I also entered the Total Hardness value of 48 from the pool store in the column CH. May have thrown the whole thing off.

The suggested dosages per the claculator were: (all totals in volume)

212 oz. chlorine
150 oz. borax
240 oz. baking soda
460 oz. calcium chloride
142 oz. stabilizer

Does this sound right? Thanks for the forum and the help. I'm off to the rental store for a ditch witch and will be back shortly. Have a great day. :-D

 

[reebok]

tds is total dissolved solids. not important.
you definitely want some chlorine and cya in there as soon as you can. you can bump the ph up a bit, but I don't think you want your TA higher unless you're planning on using trichlor tabs.
your water has remained algae free for two weeks without doing anything right?
TH is total hardness. more about that here: pool-school/pool_water_chemistry basically multiply TH by 2/3 to guesstimate CH. it's all irrelevant though for a vinyl pool. don't buy any calcium.

 

[PaulR]

Like reebok said; your TA is fine, and your CH irrelevant.

Looks like you are targeting FC 4, pH 7.5, CYA 40; all good stuff. Bleach, borax, stabilizer, and you're good to go.

Almost forgot--have you tested for iron, or are you adding through a softener? Chlorine in high-iron water will turn it brown and you'd spend a while filtering that out.
--paulr

 

[duraleigh]

Wanted to agree with all the good advice and tell you that first post doesn't look much like newbs.......you've got a pretty good grasp of things and are on your way to a great start.

I would suggest putting a couple of small jugs of Clorox in your pool immediately and then 1 jug every evening until you get the CYA in your pool.

Post your test results when you get your kit. You may not even need to shock.

Please do not run the ditch witch into that nice pool!! :lol: :lol:

 

[Prepooler]

...,your water has remained algae free for two weeks without doing anything right? ,,,

I'm not sure there is not algae in there Reebok, the grandson said the bottom was slicky. :?
The water still looks pretty clear tho. We will brush and vacuum before we start with the chemicals (which I hope will be in about 30 minutes).

,,, Almost forgot--have you tested for iron, or are you adding through a softener? Chlorine in high-iron water will turn it brown and you'd spend a while filtering that out.
--paulr

No iron test Paul. I wonder if the TFT test kit will cover that? I imagine there is quite a bit of iron. I sure don't need brown water. Should I test for that before I start?

,,, I would suggest putting a couple of small jugs of Clorox in your pool immediately and then 1 jug every evening until you get the CYA in your pool.

Post your test results when you get your kit. You may not even need to shock.

Please do not run the ditch witch into that nice pool!! :lol: :lol:

Thanks duraleigh. I've learned everything I know so far from this forum. We will do our own test soon. Trust that I'll do everything possible to keep the ditch with away from the pool.

Also, I assumed that everyone would know that I want to use the BBB method. This I'm not clear on the differing methods. I imagine there are other methods /views concerning tis. My wife has just left for the pool store to purchase the CYA that we forgot.

So after all this, should I aim for the dosages that the pool calculator came up with or wing it with some chlorine and CY a? How much is a small jug and how much CYA?

Thanks again

 

[reebok]

you absolutely need to test for iron. too bad she already left. the tf test kit does not test for metals.

a small jug is 96oz I think. go to walmart and find the small jugs as opposed to the big ones.

except for bleach/chlorine, shoot for about 2/3 of the recommended dosages and test from there. since it takes cya a while to register on a test, I would enter 50ppm as a goal on the pool calculator and use 2/3 of what it says.

 

[Prepooler]

Ok. Just got back from pool store. Got there and they tested for iron and copper. Both negative, so I'm going ahead as instructed with a little chlorine and CYA.

Thanks, I'll post TFT test results tomorrow. It's gettin late and I've got acouple of ditches to dig.

 

[FSI_C-12IP]

Sounds like you've got a GREAT well up there!

 

[Prepooler]

Sounds like you've got a GREAT well up there!

I guess I do FSI. I used three filters filling it and took a lot of time, but I still have water and the pool seems to have a good start.

Last night we used the results from the pool store and advice from forum members. My wife brushed and vacuumed. Then from 8:30 to 10:30 pm (in 30 minute intervals), we added the following;

CYA 128 oz
Chlorine 212 oz
Borax 152 oz
Bkng Soda 288 oz

We used the TF test kit for the first time today. That took about an hour but I'm sure we'll get faster. The results were pretty good I think.

FC 3.5
pH 7.5
TA 130
CYA 20

Pool calculator results said add

27 oz Chlorine
20 oz Baking Soda
68 oz of CYA

I remember reading that CYA should never get high and it takes a week to dissolve completey, so maybe I should add half the recommendation?
,,, or should I ignore everything but the chlorine for a few days?


Also, I have ignored CH. Should I check that?


Thanks

 

[Bama Rambler]

Yeah, concentrate on the FC, which looks good right now by the way. I'd go ahead and boost it to the recommended level for your expected CYA. Give it a week then check the CYA again.

 

[reebok]

don't add any cya. wait a week and test again. in the meantime, start figuring your cya level is whatever you were trying to get. it looks like you were shooting for 35-40? so base your chlorine/cya chart and pool calculator numbers on a cya of 40 and dose accordingly. your target fc level is 5ppm.
you don't want baking soda, not sure what you're putting into the calculator, but your ta is high enough.
you don't have to test CH, but it wouldn't hurt to know it and it could help some day if someone gives you free bags of calhypo, heh.

 

[Prepooler]

don't add any cya. wait a week and test again. in the meantime, start figuring your cya level is whatever you were trying to get. it looks like you were shooting for 35-40? so base your chlorine/cya chart and pool calculator numbers on a cya of 40 and dose accordingly. your target fc level is 5ppm.
you don't want baking soda, not sure what you're putting into the calculator, but your ta is high enough.
you don't have to test CH, but it wouldn't hurt to know it and it could help some day if someone gives you free bags of calhypo, heh.

Thanks Bama and reebok. Reebok, Where did you come up with 5ppm for target level. What is calhypo? Should I take it?

Also, another concern I have is after we finished adding chemicals late last night, I turned the pump on slow speed and did not notice pump psi. After a pretty good rain today, we noticed the water level in the skimmer was 2" below the top of the skimmer. The skimmer is 5 and 1/4" high. The pump is running fine but only 3 psi. The psi on hi-speed was between 10 and 15 psi. There is more rain in forecast for several days. My wife said she read somewhere that the pump should be turned off and water level should be drained down. I have turned the pump off but am unsure what I should or should not do. Is this correct? Do I leave the pump off until I can drain water out? I think maybe on low speed, 3 psi may be normal but ,,,? The pool and pump came with very little information. Any advice on this would, of course, be greatly appreciated.

 

[reebok]

I came up with 5ppm based on this chart: pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock
I also asked a question, if you were shooting for 35-40ppm cya? I think so, which is what I based your FC level on according to that chart.
I don't have an above ground pool and some pump stuff is a little different on them, but if the pump gets water I don't know what the problem would be. don't take my word for it though.

 

[DCAG]

Sounds like you're off to a great start!

The high water level isn't important at the moment, and it's fine to run the pump with the water level high. Your skimmer will not be skimming, but that's fine unless the surface gets bad. You can drain water if you'd like. The CYA you added was probably a powder, and you may have poured it right into the skimmer? If so, that'll be in your filter dissolving for a couple days.

I don't have a two speed pump, but 3 PSI sounds right, and the high @ 10 -15 is good. Someone with a cartidge filter would be able to answer that better than I would...

With all the chemicals you've just added, leave your pump on high for a day or two.

Dan

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

I do and 3 psi is spot on.

High water level means two things, the skimmer won't skim as well, but the pool could overflow if you get more rain. I would drain a bit out, here's why: I have had my pool overflow under the top rail, and some of the sand in the cove has washed out, so this area on the inside of the pool has depressions where the gunk collects....

Do you have a vacume hose? If so, take one end of the hose and hold it up to the return to "prime" the hose. Take the other end and set it away from the pool somewhere so the water can drain away. Now you can hold the hose up to the return for 10 minutes and drain an inch, easily (esp if you switch to high speed). Or you can rig the hose to sit under the water and walk away for 10-15 minutes, once you prime the hose the syphon action will keep the water flowing thru the hose (albeit at a lower flow rate). Tis up to you. I was able to position the hose so that the skimmer opening kept the hose end under the water level. It has to stay under to keep the prime and the water flowing. I was able to walk away for about 20 min and the water level dropped a good 2 inches.

 

[PaulR]

What is calhypo? Should I take it?

Calcium Hypochlorite, a powdered form of chlorine. Typically sold in 1-lb bags (my local Leslie's sells it in a box of 10 bags). Contributes to CH as well as FC. I hear some people like to keep some on hand as it has a very long shelf life. Then if you really need to add chlorine and run out of bleach and the stores are closed, you can use the cal-hypo as a stopgap.

In a vinyl pool a low CH is perfectly okay; high CH can be a problem in any pool. It's worth testing once just to know where you're starting from. Beware, this is absolutely the most tedious of the TF-100 tests (20-30 seconds between drops, swirling the whole time).
--paulr

 

[Prepooler]

Thanks everyone. So far so good. If it wouldn't rain a 1/2" everytime I try to dig the ditch for the pump wire everything would be going great. I still have a lot of work to do with the deck and landscaping. Just in time for football season.

My "quote" application isn't working now so,,,

Reebok, I haven't had the time to study the Chlorine / CYA relationship yet but hope to get to it tonight.

Thanks DCAG Great start thanks to all the good advice I've gotten here. :-D
,,, and I'll turn the pump on high shortly.

FPM, Thanks for reassuring me 3 psi is good. I was feeling a little better about it after today so now, now worries at all. I'll be draing some water out tomorrow. Thanks for the tips.

Paul, I now know to take any free calhypo and what it might be good for. :lol:
I'll do the CH test soon. Maybe tomorrow if I can get my ditches dried re-dug and bury my wire.

I can tell you all one thing, I'll be glad when the hard work is done and we can enjoy this thing, but right now, it is consuming all my free time and I truly appreciate the quick and friendly replies. I'm not sure what state of mind I would be in if I had not of found this site. Looks like I should ante up to the forum.

After adding 32 oz of chlorine last night and about 1.5 inches of rain today, my wife did the testing tonight by her lonesome and came up with the following:

FC 1.5
TA 140
CYA 20
pH 7.5

The calculator figured to add:

133 oz chlorine - she added 1 gallon
68 oz of CYA - she added 2/3 (46 0z) - maybe should have waited a couple more days but it dropped 15?

 

[Prepooler]

OK. Help please. After a week or so we have managed to keep our water looking good.

The last few days the pH has steadily risen and today has reached 8. :? A couple of days ago, we added 12 oz of muriatic acid and yesterday we were gone all day. I just added the average daily dose of chlorine which is 106 oz. late last night without testing. Today our number are as follows:


FC 1.5
CYA 30
TA 130
pH 8
CC .5

Should I follow the calculator exactly or add 2/3 recommended amounts as before.

We have been doing FC, CYA, TA and pH tests every day because we are unsure. Do you think it is safe for us to do the recommended daily tests and the weekly test as described in pool school? We just want to be on top of this but the test kit already needs replenishing.

Thanks

 

[reebok]

I can sneeze 12oz of muriatic acid
add enough to get to 7.4 per the pool calculator. don't do cya tests every day. it will virtually never change (months and months if that with a catridge) unless you're adding. then you add it and test in a week.
you're a bit under your minimum FC level. has this been happening regularly? you should probably bump the cya to 40-50 there in georgia.
I would follow the schedule.

 

[Prepooler]

Thanks reebok. That's kinda what we were thinking. Every day our FC has tested 2 until today and we've been adding 106 oz of chlorine. I was thinking this is normal. We also added CYA three time during the first week, which I realize was probably wrong but when the pH started rising I justified by thinking that it would also lower pH, which did not happen. Also Our CC has been .5 the last three days and there is a faint odor to the water.