Here's my pool...23,000 gallon oval in ground, first pool ever and I live 40 mins from the pool so monitoring it "daily" is tough (read:impossible). It gets good sun, but not a ton of sun (maybe 5-6hrs a day) as it's surrounded by a lot of trees in backyard.
I just replaced the pump (got a new 3phase pentair intellipump -ultra high efficiecy = ultra high $$!), new Sta-Rite heater (not hooked up yet) and new Sta-Rite PLDE 48 DE filter (read: I"m too broke now to pay pool service to dump chems I can get at wally-world!).
The pool was green. Pool man took water sample (before!) then dumped 4 bags (4 pounds) of shock product and left. I went back to the pool today and the water was starting to clear up. I just tested TC and PH from wal-mart tester....PH is at 6.4 and TC was at 2.
Pool guy emails me and said my water is "very agressive" and his test came back with TC at 0, FC at 0, pH at 6.4, Alk at 48, and total Hardness at 66. didn't test CYA. he says if I don't get the total alk up I'll ruin the heater in no time....
I'm LOST now. Should I add more chlorine (bleach?) or raise the pH first (borax from the pool calculator - I got the pool school and LOVE IT! thanks guys).
Some basic questions that I haven't found on this board yet:
1. Do you add chem just to the deep end or to the skimmer and which ones go where/when?
2. Do you have to raise pH first before you do anything or can you multi-task (add bleach and borax at same time?)
3. how do I raise CYA and pH? won't CYA lower my pH?
**4 MVP QUestion: pool guy is telling me if my water isn't "balanced" then my $3,000 heater is gonna be dead in a month (so I need to pay him to do that right!).
THanks so much for all your help....ps..I'm very very experienced with saltwater reef aquariums so water chem is not foreign to me...just not on this scale and we NEVER add bleach for fish, can't believe that's safe for us! =)
I just replaced the pump (got a new 3phase pentair intellipump -ultra high efficiecy = ultra high $$!), new Sta-Rite heater (not hooked up yet) and new Sta-Rite PLDE 48 DE filter (read: I"m too broke now to pay pool service to dump chems I can get at wally-world!).
The pool was green. Pool man took water sample (before!) then dumped 4 bags (4 pounds) of shock product and left. I went back to the pool today and the water was starting to clear up. I just tested TC and PH from wal-mart tester....PH is at 6.4 and TC was at 2.
Pool guy emails me and said my water is "very agressive" and his test came back with TC at 0, FC at 0, pH at 6.4, Alk at 48, and total Hardness at 66. didn't test CYA. he says if I don't get the total alk up I'll ruin the heater in no time....
I'm LOST now. Should I add more chlorine (bleach?) or raise the pH first (borax from the pool calculator - I got the pool school and LOVE IT! thanks guys).
Some basic questions that I haven't found on this board yet:
1. Do you add chem just to the deep end or to the skimmer and which ones go where/when?
2. Do you have to raise pH first before you do anything or can you multi-task (add bleach and borax at same time?)
3. how do I raise CYA and pH? won't CYA lower my pH?
**4 MVP QUestion: pool guy is telling me if my water isn't "balanced" then my $3,000 heater is gonna be dead in a month (so I need to pay him to do that right!).
THanks so much for all your help....ps..I'm very very experienced with saltwater reef aquariums so water chem is not foreign to me...just not on this scale and we NEVER add bleach for fish, can't believe that's safe for us! =)