Starting-up my first pool

[Fisherman_]

hello guys,
I'm a new entry in this very helpful forum and I need your help.

premise:
I live in Italy and I can't purchase any FAS-DPD chlorine test.
I tryed on-line shopping but without any result why, in accordance with last agreements, chemists (pool test kit) can't shipping by airplane.

So, I'm a new owner of an old pool, I have just renewed it (closed any spaces betwen mosaic tiles with a total Re-grout and cleaned).
I have just filled it with water from my artesian well.
And now ? what have I to do ?


The pool seller I contacted (cosily sitting in his office) said me to put at first time a lot of "metal sequestrant"
selled by him at great cost.
The water is quite clean, is it correct to use sequestrant ?

Is there someone so kind to explane me step by step the right things to do to obtain the best result?

Measures of my pool:

52.5 X 26.2 (feet), 86K (gallon)

Many thanks in advance for your help

Regards

 

[lightingguy]

Hard to say if you need sequestrant or not - either the pool seller knows something about the local water (there are metals in it) or he's going in for a quick sale.

Pool School has lots of information about maintaining a pool - that's the best place you can start.

If you let us know what kinds of chemicals are available to you it would probably be helpful.

In the mean time keep a bit of chlorine in the pool while you gather supplies to keep the algae down.

 

[257WbyMag]

Welcome to TFP! Have you made an inquiry at www.tftestkits.net about getting a good test kit? There are some cases in which they are able to ship kits abroad to certain areas.

 

[Isaac-1]

The need for sequestrant depends on the metal content of your well water, while some generalities can be made based on other wells in the area, there is no substitution for having the water in your specific well tested. I know of cases around here where where there are several wells of similar depths within a few minutes walking distance of one another and and some may be high in mineral/metal content and another may have almost none.

You really need a test kit of some type to know the status of your pool, without one you are basically flying blind with no reference to your current state, at a minimum you need to have a kit that tests for Chlorine, pH, Calcium Hardness and Total Alkalinity, you will also need to periodically test for your CYA level, for initial dosing it can be calculated, but will become diluted with time.

 

[Fisherman_]

Hi all,
many many thanks for your replayes, but (sob!!) the damage is done, water, is completely brown.
It took me about 7 days to fill up my pool, the algae was increasing, so I have added liquid sodium hypochlorite (18%) up to 15ppm
(As the pool calculator suggests about FC level - shock) and water immediately became brown.
I have added neither chlorine stabilizer (CYA=0) nor sequestrant yet.
PH level is 7.2.
It is possible to recuperate this situation ? (I hope not waste 86k gallons of water)
I have already read many sections of "Pool-School" and all pool chemistry is preatty clear now.
As for test kit, I contacted right "tftestkits.net" with result I explained on top.
In my country I can find all test kit for PH - CYA - TA and more but only DPD chlorine test and not FAS-DPD.

Many thanks for your advice

Best regards

 

[lightingguy]

Did the water instantly go brown like that? That would be a pretty good indication of metals (and the need for sequestrant). If it is algae you should expect the high FC level to kill it off fairly quickly and make the pool less brown and more cloudy.

If it stays clear and brown like that your looking at high levels of metals.

 

[linen]

I agree with lightning, that looks like metals from my experience. Did the brown tinting show up when you added chlorine?

By the way, my son and I like your high dive! Very nice pool!

 

[Butterfly]

It took me about 7 days to fill up my pool, the algae was increasing, so I have added liquid sodium hypochlorite (18%) up to 15ppm
(As the pool calculator suggests about FC level - shock) and water immediately became brown.

You can have your well water tested, but I also think you have metals and need a sequesterant.

After you add the sequesterant, you can resume the shock process and add about 30ppm CYA at the same time.
When you are done shocking (see red lines in my sig)you can raise the CYA level to about 50.

Post back in this thread with any questions.

Welcome to the forum

 

[Fisherman_]

Yes, water instantly went brown with chlorine.
Yesterday evening (aroud 19 pm) I added 10 bottles (about a quarter of a gallon each)
purchased for "only" 200 Euro (288$) of "Chemoform - metal magic" containing 1-Hydroxyethylidene-1,1-diphosphonic <50%.
Now ( after 22 hours) PH is always 7.2 and the situation is lightly improved; the water color looks like a cup of tea and not like a cup of coffee as yesterday.
The pump is alwais running but "crystal water" is far far away.
What have I to do now ? Adding more "chip" sequestrant or weiting same more time ?
Winter is coming and I haven't had any "splash" yet.

Thanks at all for support

 

[Butterfly]

What were the directions on the bottles of sequesterant?

Are you sure about the gallon size of your pool? What is the depth?

Is this well water the same water you were using in the pool before the refurb?

Run filter 24/7 for now. Tea is an improvement over coffee

 

[Fisherman_]

Hi Butterfly, you are very nice.
The gallon size is roughly correct (326.000 Liters = 86.120 Gallons)
The depth is not constant for all the lenght: 2/3 is about 12 feet and as for the rest it is 4.2 feet.
About the sequestrant I have followed the pool seller indications.
The label directions saied: from 3 to 6 Liters for 100m3. Conseguently I used about the minimum suggested dose. (10 Liters for 326m3)
The water and the well are the same has in the past but I purchased this house a little time ago and the previous owner is totally unreliable.
......In the meantime tea is becaming lemon tea. Another little more improvement.

Regards