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Dega500

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LifeTime Supporter
May 13, 2010
55
Birmingham, AL
Hi everyone,

I got my 27' diameter above ground put up on 5/12/2010 and had her filled up late the following night. I had a Simple Chlore Chlorine Generator ordered and just got it all hooked up Monday PM 5/17/2010. I added 480# of salt (16K gallons x 27#/1000 gallons) and my generator does not appear to be working. The green light is not coming on. After running the pool pump with salt added for twenty four hours I took a water sample to a local pool supply place to have it tested since the chemicals I had left from my old kit were getting a little old. here are the results and their recommendations of the supply store:

FC - Free Chlorine = 0
CC - Combined Chlorine = 0
pH – = 7.2
TA - Total Alkalinity = 39
CH - Calcium Hardness = 49
CYA - Cyanuric Acid (stabilizer) = 0
Borates - (if you are using borates) = 0
Minerals = 3800

Recommendations:

Total Alkalinity: 11.5 lbs. of balance Pack 100
PH: .25 lbs Lo ‘N Slo
Stabilizer: 7.5 lbs of Stabilizer 100
Total Hardness: 27.5 lbs. of Balance Pak 300
Sanitizer Residuals: 1.75 lbs of Super Soluble

Showing a 0 chlorine level I added a pool floater with some 1" pellets last night to try and get some chlorine in the pool.

I checked the PH this morning and according to my colored vial it was in the 6.8 range.

Should I just follow the pool supply stores recommendations or do you guys have any other ideas. I have 80 extra pounds of salt. The generator manufacturer says you sometimes have to run the salt conetent up a little to get it working. Should I add that?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Mike
 
Welcome to TFP.

I'd recommend against much following pool store advice until you know if they are trustworthy. Many pool store's advice is geared more towards selling you something you don't need than keeping your pool in good shape.

See the article on Recommended Levels


Your CH is irrelevant, your TA is fine for now, and they are trying to sell you overpriced baking soda to raise it.

What you need is CYA to protect your chlorine from the sun, and chlorine. Add enough bleach to get your FC up to around 12ppm, using the Pool Calculator

You'll need to add more several times a day due to your lack of CYA, but the 12ppm will get things squared away, then you can start maintaining it around 3-5ppm until you get the SWCG going.

Find out how much CYA your SWCG manufacturer recommends for your pool, and add enough to get about 3/4 of the way there by placing it in an old sock or two and hanging it in front of the return. Retest the CYA after a week, and recalculate and add what you need to get to the recommended level.
 
Wecome to TFP :wave:
Oh yeah, we have other ideas! And you won't be sorry you followed them. :mrgreen:

First thing you need to do is get some chlorine in there as John said. Follow the rest of his advice as well and you'll be on your way to a trouble free pool.
 
mnb said:
What temp is the water?
I know for my SWG, it will not produce unless the water temp is above 60 or so.
Click to expand...

It's probably in the high seventies to low eighties. It's just warm enough to be able to stand it.

It actually appeared to have some bubbles comming of the cell Monday night but I didn't notice anything last night or this morning.
 
Dega500 said:
It actually appeared to have some bubbles comming of the cell Monday night but I didn't notice anything last night or this morning.
Click to expand...

With no CYA, your chlorine will be consumed by UV light as fast as the cell can make it.
 
Also, do NOT run the salt content up higher than you need to because if you get a high salt reading the only way to reduce it is to drain the pool and replace the water. The same goes with the CYA and this is why John T is advising to add about 3/4 and then test again a week later - it is always easier to add small amounts than to have too much and have to drain some water.
 
Pool store, some WalMart and KMart locations, Home Depot, Lowes or Menards depending on locations. Some places call it Chlorine Conditioner -
 

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UPDATE

FC: I had almost enough trichlor left (2 oz. short) to get up to the pool calculators recommended amount to go from 0 to 12

I tested with my AquaChem OTO this morning and it tested slightly darker than 5ppm so I guess I'm on my way.

I don't have any way to check chlorine above 5 ppm. How do I know when to add more chlorine throughout the day?

PH: I added 34 Oz. of soda ash yesterday evening.

Tested 7.6 this morning

CYA: I filled a soccer sock up with Stabilizer (3#) and hung in front of return. It is slowly dissolving. Only time will tell I guess.

Can you add any of these chemicals through the skimmer.

Thanks,

Mike
 
It sounds like the chlorine you are using is powder/granular, is that correct? Yet you called it Trichlor which is usually in pucks/tabs though sometimes it is sold as crushed powder. Usually powder is Dichlor or Cal-Hypo. For every 10 ppm Free Chlorine (FC) added by Trichlor, it will increase Cyanuric Acid (CYA) by 6 ppm. For every 10 ppm FC added by Dichlor, it also increases CYA by 9 ppm.

You can add more chlorine whenever you see the level in OTO drop below 5 ppm. That should be OK until you get your TF-100.

Though some add bleach or chlorinating liquid slowly through the skimmer, I wouldn't add Trichlor there since it is acidic. One never adds Muriatic Acid or dry acid into the skimmer either. Baking soda is OK to add through the skimmer. pH Up (soda ash; washing soda) is probably OK if done slowly. CYA (stabilizer, conditioner) if added directly to the skimmer (slowly) will get caught in the filter and take up to a week to dissolve and you would not backwash or clean the filter for at least a week. If the CYA is in a sock, then the sock can go in the skimmer if there are alternative flows to the pump because you don't want to clog your skimmer as that can damage it. I usually put CYA into a T-shirt in my skimmer and it dissolves fairly quickly, but my skimmer has a bypass port into the pool and I also have floor drains.
 
Got my TF-100 yesterday

Readings on 5/26/2010 5:15PM central time

FC - Free Chlorine = 5.5
CC - Combined Chlorine = 0
pH – = 7.2
TA - Total Alkalinity = 80
CH - Calcium Hardness = 70
CYA - Cyanuric Acid (stabilizer) = <20 (dot disappeared with solution right at top of tube)
Borates - (if you are using borates) = Did not test
Minerals = did not test

SWG manufacturers recommendations:

FC - Free Chlorine = 3 to 5
CC - Combined Chlorine = 0
pH – = 7.2 to 7.6
TA - Total Alkalinity = 80 to 120
CH - Calcium Hardness = 175 to 250 (vinyl) just advise think not a recommendation.
CYA - Cyanuric Acid (stabilizer) = 70 to 80(max)
Minerals = 3500 to 3700

We have got at least two hard rains that raised the level of my pool above the skimmer since we erected it. I was forced to drain water back to normal level twice(several inches each time). We are expecting rain here the next few days. I am reluctant to pump the chemicals in until this rain moves on. I am maintaining the chlorine and PH though and Stabilizer is in a sock near return. 3#+ have been added but I probably lost some during draining (salt too but I'm not worried about it quite yet since I'm adding bleach daily as needed to stay around 5).


Previous readings from pool store:
FC - Free Chlorine = 0
CC - Combined Chlorine = 0
pH – = 7.2
TA - Total Alkalinity = 39
CH - Calcium Hardness = 49
CYA - Cyanuric Acid (stabilizer) = 0
Borates - (if you are using borates) = 0
Minerals = 3800
 
definitely in control of your pool now.

When the rain moves on, raise you PH to 7.4 and CYA to 70. Don't worry about your CH since it's a vinyl pool. Isn't it great how much that little kit can tell ya :goodjob:

Once you raise CYA to 70, your FC target should be right around 5-6ppm. Great Job :party:
 
The kit is nice and kind of fun to use. My wife gets a kick out of watching me play scientist. I need to get me a white lab coat to wear one day jsut for kicks. I picked up a good pointer in another thread about taking a small water sample inside to test instead of trying to balance things out by the pool. Thank You very much for that!!!

Someone was asking about swimming at elevated FC levels and someone told him as long as FC was below "shock level" and CC was below .5 that is was safe to swim. This is probably a dumb question but what is "shock level" exactly. I'm in good shape FC wise on my pool but I was just curious.

Thanks,

Mike
 
Hey everyone,

Here is where I am as of Sunday evening and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.

FC - Free Chlorine = 4.5 (I have not added any bleach in 5 or 6 days now)
CC - Combined Chlorine = .5
pH – = 7.6
TA - Total Alkalinity = 80
CYA - = 50 (adding 42oz. stabilizer via sock as we speak
Borates - = Did not test
Minerals = 3690

SWG manufacturers recommendations:

FC - Free Chlorine = 3 to 5
CC - Combined Chlorine = 0
pH – = 7.2 to 7.6
TA - Total Alkalinity = 80 to 120
CH - Calcium Hardness = 175 to 250 (vinyl) just advise think not a recommendation.
CYA - Cyanuric Acid (stabilizer) = 70 to 80(max)
Minerals = 3500 to 3700

I finally finished hard wiring the pool pump and SWG Saturday. As soon as I turned it on the green swg monitor light came on and it's been on ever since. Woohoo!!!

The water is clear as a bell and Sunday was the first day I have spent enjoying the pool with the family instead of working on it or the new deck.

Now, it wont be long until I'll need to address the slow leak at the return fitting. You can see the water slowly running down the outside pool wall but the level has only lost about an inch in over a week. It doesn't appear to be washing out the coping so I may just try and hold out until winter to fix it right. The water level is about what I think is an inch from needing to be refilled so I'll need to decide what I'm going to do soon. Has anyone ever thought of draining water off into some sort of of storage container and later pumping it back in to the pool so you don't upset the chemical balance as much. All I have right now is a large red Coleman canoe that I thought might hold just enough water to keep from having draining it all to waste.

What do you guys think?

Mike
 

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