New pool owner. Tying to figure it out

[garypetro]

Background: I've never owned a pool until we bought a house in January. Trying to get up to speed on how to make this all work properly. The pool is a ~25000 gal vinyl in ground.

We've been running the filter for about 8 hrs a day. The water is still quite cloudy and there is quite a bit of debris. I have been unable to get a vacuum to work thus far, but read last night that if I plug the second skimmer, and keep the main drain closed, it should work. I'll try tonight.

I've ordered a K-2006 test kit that will be here in a few days. Until then, I have been using a basic test kit (chlorine/ph) only.

Starting levels were:
0 chlorine
6.8 pH

I used the pool calculator and added 2 boxes of borax, 1 box of washing soda, and quite a bit of bleach. At this point, the basic test looked good, so I took a sample to the pool store.

Numbers as of last night:
Free Chlorine  3
Combined Chlorine  0
Bromine  -
pH   7.6
total Alkalinity  140
Calcium Hardness  70
Cyanuaric Acid  0

They recommended 3 gals of stabilizer to bring up the CYA. I did that last night. According
To the bottles, that should bring the level up to somewhere in the upper 40s.

I am putting in a SWG next weekend (rewired everything and added the SWG control box. Just have to plumb it in now), so I am reluctant to start any regimen that wouldn't make sense going forward with that.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

 

[duraleigh]

You are on the correct path. Keep adding high levels of chlorine until your pool is perfectly clear, then rig up your SWG....don't count on the SWG to clear your pool.

Read "How to shock your Pool in Pool School"

Importantly, run your pump 24/7 until your water is clear.

 

[garypetro]

I had read through Pool School and used the calc to see how much chlorine I needed to add. After adding the recommended amount of chlorine, the level hardly budged. Do I just keep adding chlorine until I finally reach the 10-12ppm level?

Thanks for your assistance

 

[JasonLion]

The usual routine is to measure the FC level, add enough chlorine to raise FC up to about 12, wait an hour or more for that to mix in, and repeat.

When you finish getting the water cleared up, there is some fine tuning to do to get everything optimized for use with the SWG. When you get to that point there is a good article in Pool School on balancing for a SWG.