Need Help Balancing Water

[victoria4504]

Yea! Summer is finally here and we opened our pool on Monday, May 31st. The water looked clean and clear with just a minimum of winter dirt, etc. on the bottom to be vacuumed up! Only problem was I didn't have all my test supplies as I had run out of my CYA reageant R-0013 last year and had to order more.

So, until I received all my testing supplies, I just added some bleach (182 oz. on Monday and another 182 oz. last night). I got my CYA reageant today and tested the pool water. Following are my results:

FC: 0.5
CC: 0.5
TC: 1.0
pH: 7.5
TA: 70
CH: 70
CYA: 0
Temp: 82

The pool water is still very clear, but it is obviously not holding chlorine. My TA and CH are low and I have no reading for CYA.

I would really appreciate someone helping me to bring my test numbers to normal. I tried reading what I need to do, but it's sounding a bit complicated to me. Maybe I'm just not looking at the right articles! I seemed to have forgotten all I learned last year :?

Thanks for any help!

Vicky

 

[257WbyMag]

Not a problem Vicky.

I would go ahead and shock your pool and add enough CYA in there to get you to 30. Once your FC holds to within 1 ppm of loss or less over night, you're done shocking. Since you will be adding CYA to get to 30 ppm, your shock FC level would be 12.

Check your CYA again after a week and then feel free to add more if you feel you need it. Unless you are running a SWCG, the normal CYA range would be between 30 to 50 ppm.

 

[PaulR]

TA and CH look fine. A vinyl pool doesn't mind a low CH, and whether your TA is too high or too low kind of depends on how stable your pH is.
--paulr

 

[victoria4504]

Thanks for your help. I have 1.5 lbs. of BioGuard Stabilizer 100 that I've had for 2 years. It hasn't gotten wet but it has seen some extreme temperatures as it has been stored in our outside shed. Do you think it is still good?

And, if it is still good, it says to pour the Stabilizer 100 directly into pool or into pool skimmer. The TFP site says to put solid CYA into a sock in the skimmer and it will dissolve in about a week. Do I need to put this in a sock or just slowly pour into the skimmer as the directions read?

Thanks again,
Vicky

 

[dmanb2b]

It should still be fine. You want to put it in a sock and hang it in front of your return, not skimmer A sock full of CYA in your skimmer would likely plug your water flow.

 

[257WbyMag]

The CYA is probably okay.

You can add using the sock method or you can put it in your skimmer. The drawback to putting the CYA powder directly in the skimmer though is that you aren't going to be able to backwash with the powder sitting in your filter like that since you'll lose much of it when backwashing. If you go the skimmer route, wait at least a week before backwashing the filter.