New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a week!

[tturkstr]

Newbie here. I just bought a house with a SWG pool. The pool looks fine but I bought the Taylor K2006 kit even though the previous owner used test strips and took samples to the pool store every month or so. He said he had no problems. I can't read the strips reliably.

Tests:
Temp 84 degrees.
pH 8.0
FC 0
TA 100
CH - no change to pink -0?
CA - no cloudiness - 0?

When I saw the FC at 0, I checked and found that the SWG had been off for the last week! I don't know how I don't have a green pool. My son thinks it's a bit cloudier than when he saw it a week ago? but it looks fine to me.

In desperation, I turned the SWG on and to superclorinate.
I bought 2 gals of sodium hypochlorite 10% and wanted to add them immediately, but I'll wait an hour or so on this forum in case I should do something else first.

The owner left some pool supplies around, but nothing to lower the pH. The stores are closed and I really don't want to wait for the Monday morning.
Pool is 20000 gal.

 

[anonapersona]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

I think that until you have tested the salt level you may just want to use bleach and not the SWG. With no stabilizer in the pool you are just wasting the cell.

Pool Calculator says to get to 2 ppm FC add 2 quarts 2 cups of 6% bleach to pool. Try Walmart and Target and hardware stores for stabilizer, any of them may carry HTH brand Stabilizer and Conditioner and be open when pool stores are closed.

It also says you will need 5 lbs of stabilizer to get to 30 ppm, which is where you want to be to shock the pool. Since FC has been at 0 for an unknown time, you ought to do a proper shock. See the Pool School for the details. After you pass the tests for concluding the shock process, you will then want to raise the CYA level to whatever the manual says for the pool or to 70-80 ppm if you can't find any info. Level will depend on your area and the unit you have.

Before you turn the SWG on, I'd check the salt level and be sure it is not too high or too low.

I'd also check the tap water to see what the TA and CH are there. I'm wondering if, instead of cleaning the pool they just dumped water and refilled it. Not bad to have a fresh start, IMO. But you may have no salt either if that is the case. SWG may not work or could be damaged by no salt.

 

[tturkstr]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

Aqua rite SWG says that salt level is 2700. Can I trust it?
I found some 20 Be Muriatic acid (HCl).
Acid demand test was 2 drops. Should I try to fix the pH before adding the liquid chlorine?
Also, can I just pour in the liquid chlorine or do I need to add it a certain way?

 

[duraleigh]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

Fix the pH first. pour the acid in in front of a return, pump running change should occur in less than one hour.

Retest pH to make sure you are in the low to mid 7's and then put in one jug of the chlorine in there immediately. Put the other jug in tomorrow night after the sun is off the pool.

Run your pump 24/7 and turn on the SWG.

If your sure you have no CYA (sounds like you don't) purchase enough to get to 60-70ppm but only put in 1/2 of it on the first dosage.

Monitor your chlorine and clarity of your water over the next several days while the pump is running continuously. In five days or so, run another complete set of test results and post those up here. You'll likely put in the rest of the CYA but post your results first.

 

[Soupy]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

You need to post your CYA test results before adding any stabilizer.

 

[duraleigh]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

soupy,

I'm pretty sure he did here....just didn't abbreviate it correctly.

CA - no cloudiness - 0?

 

[tturkstr]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

OK, pH down to 7.8 after first acid addition, and 1 gal (5 l) of 10% bleach added. SWG run all night
Now: pH 7.8 / FC 2.5 / CC 0.5 / TA 100 / CH 150 / CYA not tested
I just added the 2nd dose of acid
I'm not sure I trust the CYA test so I'm going to get it tested at the pool store tomorrow, before I add a whole lot of CYA.

 

[anonapersona]

Re: New house w pool - just discovered SWG was off for a wee

Better to f do it your self and learn to trust your results. Stores are so often lazy about precision.