Hi all!
Just moved into our new home and we have a pool! It's a 12k gallon in ground plaster pool with a water fall. 1HP pump (no idea what flowrate on the pump is) with a DE filter, automatic chlorinator (stupid trichlor :grrrr: ), mineral feeder (more on this later), and automatic pool cleaner with booster pump. When we first moved in, I went straight to the closest Leslie's and asked for advice. If only I would have searched a little more first!'
Basically it went like this: We moved in and I checked the pool right away with the test kit the previous owners left behind. This is what I got:
FC: 1ppm
PH: 7.2
TA: ?? (Couldn't figure out how to use it)
Being busy with moving, I didn't touch it again for 2 days. During this time the pumps continued to run on the automatic timer for about 4 hrs per day. On the fourth day, I tested it again. This time FC read 0 and pH was still 7.2. I was a bit alarmed at this, so I brought a sample up to the Leslie's. They confirmed I had no chlorine, and gave me the following results:
FC: 0
CC: 0
CH: 750
CYA: 100
TA: 90
pH: 7.5
TDS: 1300
The fellow at the Leslie's informed me that my pool needed to be shocked and that I should crank the chlorine feeder up to 4. So I bought a $40 box of dichlor packets and was on my merry way. By the time I got around to putting in the dichlor, we were getting a little bit of green stuff on the walls of the pool but the water was still clear. I put the dichlor in that evening and checked the chlorine in the morning. It was over 5 ppm so I couldn't really tell what it was. Another test from leslie's that evening and I'm back down to 4 ppm FC.
Fast forward a week of reading TFP and desperately trying to get rid of the green in the pool, and here I am now trying to convert this pool to the BBB methodology.
I've come to realize that the previous owner was a devoted follower of the Leslie's down the street. They went with trichlor pucks in an erosion feeder, a Nature2 mineral feeder, and dichlor packets for shocking. I believe the leslie's test results sort of prove that with the really high CYA and CH.
I've set a goal. I'd like to get the water chemistry close to:
FC: 4ppm
CH: 300
CYA: 50
TA: 100
pH: 7.5
borates: 50 ppm (maybe later)
In my attempts to do this, I've drained roughly 33% of the water by running the pump to waste and then refilling with city water. Our local water has high TA (I tested it) of 200. After the water change I was at:
CYA: 75
TA: 160
pH: 6.8
CH: 550
I've totally turned off the the auto feeder at this point and am only adding chlorine using 6% bleach. I've manged to get everything pretty much stabilized at an FC: 5ppm. I've been running the pump ~8 hrs / day and adding about 75oz of bleach every night. The actual amount varies a bit, but I just check it, check poolcalculator, and then add as directed. I'm aerating the pool using the water fountain in an attempt to raise the pH so I can get the TA down. My plan is to keep repeating the drain/fill/lower TA cycle until I reach my CH and CYA goals. Currently, the TA is sitting around 160 and a pH of 7.5. Once I get the TA down to 80 or so, I'll do another drain/refill.
So.... How am I doing? Is this about what I should be doing?
I've got a question about lowering the TA. From what I can read, it would seem that the recommend way to do this is to get the pH up to 7.8 and then lower to 7.2 with muratic acid. How do you know how much that is going to lower the TA? What happens if you lower the TA too much? Add baking soda to bring it back up? Doesn't the baking soda raise the pH then?
Lastly, the former owners have installed a Nature2(http://www.nature2.com/poolproducts/aboveground/nature2_express.asp) on the PVC return from the DE filter. I'd like to get rid of it. Any suggestions on how to do this? Should I just take out the cartridge and leave it be? I've ordered some metal test strips from diywatertesting.com to check and see how much has accumulated in the pool.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!
Just moved into our new home and we have a pool! It's a 12k gallon in ground plaster pool with a water fall. 1HP pump (no idea what flowrate on the pump is) with a DE filter, automatic chlorinator (stupid trichlor :grrrr: ), mineral feeder (more on this later), and automatic pool cleaner with booster pump. When we first moved in, I went straight to the closest Leslie's and asked for advice. If only I would have searched a little more first!'
Basically it went like this: We moved in and I checked the pool right away with the test kit the previous owners left behind. This is what I got:
FC: 1ppm
PH: 7.2
TA: ?? (Couldn't figure out how to use it)
Being busy with moving, I didn't touch it again for 2 days. During this time the pumps continued to run on the automatic timer for about 4 hrs per day. On the fourth day, I tested it again. This time FC read 0 and pH was still 7.2. I was a bit alarmed at this, so I brought a sample up to the Leslie's. They confirmed I had no chlorine, and gave me the following results:
FC: 0
CC: 0
CH: 750
CYA: 100
TA: 90
pH: 7.5
TDS: 1300
The fellow at the Leslie's informed me that my pool needed to be shocked and that I should crank the chlorine feeder up to 4. So I bought a $40 box of dichlor packets and was on my merry way. By the time I got around to putting in the dichlor, we were getting a little bit of green stuff on the walls of the pool but the water was still clear. I put the dichlor in that evening and checked the chlorine in the morning. It was over 5 ppm so I couldn't really tell what it was. Another test from leslie's that evening and I'm back down to 4 ppm FC.
Fast forward a week of reading TFP and desperately trying to get rid of the green in the pool, and here I am now trying to convert this pool to the BBB methodology.
I've come to realize that the previous owner was a devoted follower of the Leslie's down the street. They went with trichlor pucks in an erosion feeder, a Nature2 mineral feeder, and dichlor packets for shocking. I believe the leslie's test results sort of prove that with the really high CYA and CH.
I've set a goal. I'd like to get the water chemistry close to:
FC: 4ppm
CH: 300
CYA: 50
TA: 100
pH: 7.5
borates: 50 ppm (maybe later)
In my attempts to do this, I've drained roughly 33% of the water by running the pump to waste and then refilling with city water. Our local water has high TA (I tested it) of 200. After the water change I was at:
CYA: 75
TA: 160
pH: 6.8
CH: 550
I've totally turned off the the auto feeder at this point and am only adding chlorine using 6% bleach. I've manged to get everything pretty much stabilized at an FC: 5ppm. I've been running the pump ~8 hrs / day and adding about 75oz of bleach every night. The actual amount varies a bit, but I just check it, check poolcalculator, and then add as directed. I'm aerating the pool using the water fountain in an attempt to raise the pH so I can get the TA down. My plan is to keep repeating the drain/fill/lower TA cycle until I reach my CH and CYA goals. Currently, the TA is sitting around 160 and a pH of 7.5. Once I get the TA down to 80 or so, I'll do another drain/refill.
So.... How am I doing? Is this about what I should be doing?
I've got a question about lowering the TA. From what I can read, it would seem that the recommend way to do this is to get the pH up to 7.8 and then lower to 7.2 with muratic acid. How do you know how much that is going to lower the TA? What happens if you lower the TA too much? Add baking soda to bring it back up? Doesn't the baking soda raise the pH then?
Lastly, the former owners have installed a Nature2(http://www.nature2.com/poolproducts/aboveground/nature2_express.asp) on the PVC return from the DE filter. I'd like to get rid of it. Any suggestions on how to do this? Should I just take out the cartridge and leave it be? I've ordered some metal test strips from diywatertesting.com to check and see how much has accumulated in the pool.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!