Need your opinion and help on new pool

[elmoco]

Hi. I just had an IG installed about 3 months ago. The pool is shaped irregularly, so it's dimensions are 32 ft max x 16 ft max x 4 ft avg depth. Based on this, I estimate about 15k gallons. So being new to the whole pool thing (I wish I had known about this site 3 months ago, it's GREAT!), I let the pool builder start it up, and their pool school consisted of telling what the valves do, told me to get a floater so I can put "walmart" pucks in it (trichlor), put 2 packs of "walmart" shock (cal-hypo 68%) every week, and 1 pack of shock (cal-hypo 68%) after heavy bathing. Reading this site, it seems this is not the recommended approach to maintaining the pool chemistry, to say the least.

2 weeks ago I learned about your site, and have read pool school and numerous posts, and bought a decent test kit at the "L" brand store (see pic):

I've also discontinued using the pucks, shock, and have switched to using 6% bleach for chlorinating. I've been testing the water and learned my TA was way high (180) and have been trying to lower using MA per the Pool Calculator. The issue I'm having is that my chlorine is not staying high, even when I shock the pool with a lot of bleach (try to raise to 15).

These are the vitals:
FC 1.5
TC 1.5
CC 0
pH 7.3 (this is a little low because I've been adding MA to lower TA)
TA 140
CH 460
CYA ~120 (test doesn't measure above 100, so I extrapolated "exponentially" as best as I could)

The water looks good:

But based on what I've read on this site, if I get algae, I'll have a hard time to recover. So what do you recommend I do? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[frogabog]

Rats! Leslie's sold a K-2005 AGAIN!

Oh... BTW

Welcome to TFP! Beautiful pool you got there :~}

Those pucks raised CYA WAY too high. Yes, should you get algae it will be very difficult to deal with it. Consider draining and refilling (do a few partial drains) to bring CYA down to a manageable level. Anything over 60 is too much for a non SWG pool.

If you order from http://tftestkits.net you can get the FAS-DPD reagents that will complete your kit. You also might want to get a CYA refill at the same time if you're going to do the drain-refill dance to lower CYA.

Your main issue right now is that your FC is way too low for 120ppm CYA. You will need to raise chlorine to 15ppm and never let it fall below 9ppm at that level. That's a LOT of chlorine, pucks can not handle such a load, and that much bleach will get expensive.

 

[elmoco]

Thanks! So re draining and refilling, so how much (%) do you recommend I do at a time? Pool calculator suggests 2/3s, I'm hesitant to do all at once. I'm in El Paso, and we're at ~101F. Will draining the pool and leaving plaster exposed while it refills affect it?

 

[woodyp]

First off.............if your CYA is 120...........your MINIMUM FC should be maintained about 9 until you decide to drain and refill some. I wouldn't drain it more than 1/2 at a time and there's no reason you can't split that up to 25% and 25%.

 

[elmoco]

Got it. I've drained 25-30%. I'll refill and test again. I think I can test once (maybe twice) more for CYA. I'll keep you posted. Thanks!

 

[elmoco]

Ok. I retested and these are my readings now:
FC 0.75
TC 0.75
CC 0
pH 7.4
TA 140
CH 370
CYA 75

I went ahead and added enough bleach to bring FC to 9 and MA to bring ph down to 7.2 due to high TA. Do I need to drain more water? Also, how soon can I test again for FC, pH, and TA? Thanks.

 

[elmoco]

Just an update.
FC: I've been able to maintain <2 drop in FC from 9 each day. When I raise it to 9, the next day I test FC is 7-8.5 per the diluting method of testing.
pH: 7.3 due to MA been added to reduce TA. Aerating via a waterfall should increase this right?
TA: 100, finally after about a week of adding MA.

Thanks for the help.

 

[elmoco]

Rats! Leslie's sold a K-2005 AGAIN!

...
If you order from http://tftestkits.net you can get the FAS-DPD reagents that will complete your kit. You also might want to get a CYA refill at the same time if you're going to do the drain-refill dance to lower CYA.

I just ordered the large test kit from this site, along w the stirrer. Thanks!