New pool owner, and boy, am I glad I found you.

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rcg

rcg

0
Feb 14, 2018
28
Citrus Heights, CA
Hey all,

First off - so great to stumble upon this site. Such good info and easy-to-follow instruction. I'm really liking it.

We just had a pool finished, filled in late January of this year. The builder included 30 days of pool service, which ends tomorrow, so I figured I'd get up to speed on handling the ins and outs of a pool. Hoping it becomes somewhat of a stress relief.

At any rate, thanks to the various articles and posts, I received my TF-100 test kit (and SpeedStir) and ran my first tests today. It was extremely easy to use, and the steps were well laid out. I will have to wait and see what the pool service does tomorrow, but for now, here are my findings:

FC - 4
CC - 0
pH - 8.0
TA - 70
CH - 400
CYA - 45

According to the guidelines, it looks like my pH and CH are a bit too high. I will be taking action (according to advice) to fix these as soon as the service finishes up their part. Any advice or comments in the meantime would be appreciated. I attached a couple pictures of the pool, just in case anyone is curious.

Thanks!
 

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Hello and welcome to TFP! :wave: While the CH may be slightly high, there's not much you can do to lower it other than water exchange - which I'm sure you don't want to do right now. :) Best thing to do is keep the pH in-check by not letting it exceed 7.8. A high CH (which can lead to scale) can be controlled by managing the pH and TA to off-set it. You can see that on the Poolmath Calculator where it shows "CSI". Other than that, you're looking good. Congrats on the new pool and kudos for using a TF-100. :goodjob:
 
Thanks very much for the advice. Quick questions, if you don't mind - if I want to avoid the hassle of handling muriatic acid, will dry acid give me similar results? Also, should I avoid using my sheer descent until I get the pH in check, to limit aeration?

Thanks a ton.
 
Dry acid is sodium bisulfate. The sulfates will build up in your water and destroy concrete (plaster) and metal items over time.

Use muriatic acid. Get the half strength stuff if it makes it easier for you. It costs twice as much as full strength.

You should only run the sheer descent for 15-30 minutes per day to keep the water in the system chlorinated. Then when you really want it on, run it. Otherwise you will be fighting rising pH.
 
Dry acid is an option, but usually a bit more work to prepare. You also want to be careful about the granules, especially in a new pool with fresh plaster to ensure the granules don't sink and rest somewhere. It's certainly your choice, but with a few basic precautions (wind direction for fumes and careful pouring to prevent splashing, the muriatic acid works very well. FYI - There is a lower % strength of muriatic acid that some folks like to use for that very reason, or at least until they get the hang of things. As for the sheer, yes, I would keep that run time to a minimum to help prevent additional pH increases that your new plaster will already be doing. Hope that helps. Ask any questions you have as you move forward. That's what everyone is here for.
 
Oh, and one last reminder now that I think of it ... never add muriatic acid at the same time you add chlorine/bleach. Those two do not play nice together chemically, so separate them by about 15 minutes or so with good water movement and a little brushing. Also, make sure to store MA outside somewhere away from any other chemicals and metals as it is very corrosive. Don't ask me how I learned that one. :hammer: If you have little ones at home, perhaps a store in a container (small shed or Rubbermaid) that can be secured so no one gets curious. The heat outside won't bother the MA.
 
Thanks so much! I just went and grabbed some muriatic acid. This seems like a silly question, but is there any type of measuring cup/container that I need for something so strong, or would a standard industrial-strength cup do the trick?

Also, you might remember that I was waiting for my final "free" pool service visit. Well, the guy came while we were not home, and left a note saying he completed our service. I wonder how he got into our yard with a locked gate? haha Busted! Just another reason to TFP it, instead of trusting someone else with your investment.

I appreciate the help.
 
Worked great, thank you! So, just to make sure I'm on the right track - I plan to lower my pH to about 7.6, not to exceed 7.8 at any time. I'm also going to try to increase my FC from 4 to 6, which is the bottom of my target range based on CYA from the CYA-Chlorine chart. Sound close?

Thanks again.
 

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Sounds like a plan.

For curiosity, how did your CH get to 400 in a new pool? Is your fill water that high in calcium?
 
To be honest, I'm not sure. I tested my fill water, and it was TA 50 CH 75. We do have a decent amount of rock wall, and there were a bunch of grout issues that were fixed. Could something have contributed to it there? Maybe it's worth me re-testing to rule out an error?

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

EDIT: I guess I should mention that I never got any info from the pool service regarding what they did during their 30 day intro. Maybe they did something to affect it? Also, I re-tested CH and it actually came back higher at 475. I also re-tested FC after chlorination and it's at 6.5 right now. This puts me in the "safe range" via PoolMath's CSI rating, if I'm not mistaken, correct? Thanks again.
 
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Do you have a water softener? Is it possible your testing soft water (like from the kitchen sink) as your fill water? Or perhaps one of your outside hose bibs is attached to your softener? Are you testing the water source that you know for sure was actually used to fill your pool? I ask because my fill water (from the street) is about CH350, but from my softener it's about CH60. That might explain your difference...

Or if the pool guy caught the CH70 (as he should have), which is low for a plaster/pebble pool, maybe he added calcium (as he should have), but maybe got carried away a bit.

Congrat's on the new pool. Where's the "finished" pic's!?! That's what we need!! ;)
 
Hey Dirk - No water softener attached, but I re-tested the water from the same bib that's used to fill the pool this morning and came up with the same results. Originally I used my kitchen sink. It sounds like the "pool guy" got a little crazy with the calcium haha. Maybe I'll enjoy the season and do a water replacement after summer to correct it?

Thanks for the advice and for thinking of things I didn't! haha
 
CH --

Keep in touch with mknauss, he's got a way to manage high CH. I'll be hitting him up, too, at some point. I have an exhausting thread elsewhere here where I describe my efforts to connect a water softener to my auto fill. As pool water is replaced (splash out, evaporation), the auto fill will add CH60 water instead of CH350 water from the street. CH will still build up over time, but it'll take a lot longer. Water changes are in our future, one way or another.

My next adventure was my rain water capture system that's replacing CH350+ pool water with CH-zero rain water. Too early to tell if that'll do any good, but that could actually bring CH down if done right. Now if it would only rain in CA! If I can ever get that to work I'll write something up...

This is mostly my OCD behavior at play. Simplest way (and probably not any more expensive when you add everything up) is to just manage CH until it maxes, then swap the water out, which someone probably already said, above.

MA --

When I'm done kicking myself, I may own up here how I burned my deck with m-acid. There's a guy here (can't remember who/where) who describes his MO for adding acid and chlorine. Something about putting the gallons almost under water, opening the cap, pouring it out, capping back up, and rinsing everything off before pulling it back out of the pool. When I first read it, I was thinking it was clearly the smartest/safest way to go, probably invented and written by someone who had some sort of stain accident like me. I was confident enough in the way I was doing it to ignore his advice, but every time I carried that open measuring cup across my deck I kept thinking, "Yep, smarty pants, this works, but someday, somehow, you're going to dump this out on your way to the pool!" And sure enough... Luckily I only left a minor drip trail, in an area that's not that close to the pool, kinda out of the way. It might buff out. Or I might leave it as a humble-reminder. But sure enough, if you handle MA over your deck enough, you're going to let it slip!

I've since modified my MO. Much safer. But maybe someone here can point us to that other post where the "dunk method" is described...
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone! I was able to brave the muriatic acid, and lowered my pH into my desired range, I also used baking soda to replace the TA I lost during that process. PoolMath led the way.

I'm sitting here now:

FC - 6
CC - 0
pH - 7.6
TA - 70
CH - 475
CYA - 45

My CSI looks good in PoolMath, although ut shows a benefit to carrying a pH of 7.8 instead of 7.6. Even though I am supposed to not let it exceed 7.8, should I keep it as close to that as possible if PoolMath CSI shows the best numbers?

Thanks a lot for everything. You guys and gals are making me look good to my wife. haha
 
rcg said:
Thanks for the advice, everyone! I was able to brave the muriatic acid, and lowered my pH into my desired range, I also used baking soda to replace the TA I lost during that process. PoolMath led the way.

I'm sitting here now:

FC - 6
CC - 0
pH - 7.6
TA - 70
CH - 475
CYA - 45

My CSI looks good in PoolMath, although ut shows a benefit to carrying a pH of 7.8 instead of 7.6. Even though I am supposed to not let it exceed 7.8, should I keep it as close to that as possible if PoolMath CSI shows the best numbers?

Thanks a lot for everything. You guys and gals are making me look good to my wife. haha
Click to expand...

I've been wondering the same thing. With temps here so low, my CSI looks better with a pH of 7.8 than it does at 7.6. But my NPC Startup card recommends 7.6 as the top of the pH range. TFP says 7.8. I'm wondering which is more important, in terms of plaster life and calcium deposit potential, the slightly better CSI, or the lower pH...
 
pH in the 7's is fine. Cold water makes the water more aggressive, but as it is cold, everything works slower.
 
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