- Jul 30, 2007
- 75
- Pool Size
- 26000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
I'm a new pool owner that bought a house with an old pool. The plaster is degraded and coming off in chunks. I was told it is a 37,000 gallon pool; however I have not calculated the volume myself yet. It is kind of kidney shaped with a deep end around 10-11 feet. The water was green when we moved in so we hired a pool guy to fix it up. He came by several times a week (cleaning, chemicals, and filter maintenance). After a month I got a $500+ bill and decided I needed to do this myself!
The pool is fairly clear; however there is some green algae on the sides. It's been raining a lot; however none for the last three days. The pool guy was here 5-6 days ago and loaded up the floater and the skimmers with 3" tabs. The water level has been consistently dropping so I've been running a hose into the pool 3-4 hours a week to keep the water level above the bottom of the skimmer inlets. I hope I don’t have a leak. I plan to do the bucket test ASAP. The filter has been running 12 hours/day (8 am to 8 pm on timers).
I read through some of the forums, tried out some of the calculators, and bought my TP100 test kit. Yesterday, I bought some chemicals at the grocery store; however I just guessed what I might need because I hadn’t had a chance to test the pool yet. I got the following:
6.5 gallons 6% bleach
12 lbs baking soda
4lbs Borax
I came home and tested with the following results:
FC .5
CC .5
TC 1
pH < 6.8 (Is there anyway to get a more accurate pH reading using the TP100?)
TA 10
CH 430
CYA 20
Based on what I read in the forums and my interpretation of the calculators I decided I needed to shock the pool with bleach with a target FC of 15. I calculated I needed 9 gal of bleach so I just put everything I had in the pool (6.5 gal of 6%) and turned on the filter. This morning I retested with the following results:
FC 16.5
CC .5
TC 17
pH < 6.8
TA 20
CH (did not retest)
CYA (did not retest)
I know I need to get my pH and TA up. Should I use a combination of baking soda for the TA and borax for the pH or just washing soda? Won’t the washing soda take care of both? What order should I take?
I don’t know my pH; only that it is less than 6.8 since that is all the test kit can tell me.
However, according to the pool calculator I should:
Add 694 oz by weight or 554 oz by volume of baking soda to go from a TA of 20 to 100
and
Add 153 oz by weight or 134 oz by volume of washing soda or soda ash
or
add 305 oz by weight or 293 oz by volume of borax to go from a pH of 6.6 to 7.5.
I appreciate any recommendations.
Thanks, Chris
The pool is fairly clear; however there is some green algae on the sides. It's been raining a lot; however none for the last three days. The pool guy was here 5-6 days ago and loaded up the floater and the skimmers with 3" tabs. The water level has been consistently dropping so I've been running a hose into the pool 3-4 hours a week to keep the water level above the bottom of the skimmer inlets. I hope I don’t have a leak. I plan to do the bucket test ASAP. The filter has been running 12 hours/day (8 am to 8 pm on timers).
I read through some of the forums, tried out some of the calculators, and bought my TP100 test kit. Yesterday, I bought some chemicals at the grocery store; however I just guessed what I might need because I hadn’t had a chance to test the pool yet. I got the following:
6.5 gallons 6% bleach
12 lbs baking soda
4lbs Borax
I came home and tested with the following results:
FC .5
CC .5
TC 1
pH < 6.8 (Is there anyway to get a more accurate pH reading using the TP100?)
TA 10
CH 430
CYA 20
Based on what I read in the forums and my interpretation of the calculators I decided I needed to shock the pool with bleach with a target FC of 15. I calculated I needed 9 gal of bleach so I just put everything I had in the pool (6.5 gal of 6%) and turned on the filter. This morning I retested with the following results:
FC 16.5
CC .5
TC 17
pH < 6.8
TA 20
CH (did not retest)
CYA (did not retest)
I know I need to get my pH and TA up. Should I use a combination of baking soda for the TA and borax for the pH or just washing soda? Won’t the washing soda take care of both? What order should I take?
I don’t know my pH; only that it is less than 6.8 since that is all the test kit can tell me.
However, according to the pool calculator I should:
Add 694 oz by weight or 554 oz by volume of baking soda to go from a TA of 20 to 100
and
Add 153 oz by weight or 134 oz by volume of washing soda or soda ash
or
add 305 oz by weight or 293 oz by volume of borax to go from a pH of 6.6 to 7.5.
I appreciate any recommendations.
Thanks, Chris