"New to Me" Pool

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257WbyMag

257WbyMag

0
TFP Expert
LifeTime Supporter
Feb 23, 2008
5,060
Argyle, TX
Pool Size
27000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
Greetings,

I am new to TFP and an owner of a “new to me” pool at a home that we just purchased. Luckily, I found this site a few weeks ago and I have spent many hours here learning as much as I could about how to care for my pool. I did have a pool guy come over and explain to me just how the pump works and cover some basic care items. He did encourage me to utilize his services weekly for a fee of course, but I assured him that I felt that I could probably handle it on my own.

Having read “The Stickies” more than once, much of it is making sense. However, there are a couple of things that I have questions about. There are two tests that I have seen mentioned on this forum that my test kit does not have. One is for calcium hardness and the other is for CYA.

As I understand it, CYA is present in the water if you add it all by itself or if you use trichlor based sanitizer. Since I use the 3” pucks, I suppose that I can assume that I have CYA in the water? Should I be testing for CYA levels? If so, how often?

Also, I have learned by reading the posts within that because my pool surface is plaster, I should be monitoring the calcium hardness. Today, I did pick up the three testing reagents for this test. How often should I test calcium hardness during the season?

Thank you in advance for all of your help. I am sure that I will have more questions. I just need to write them down so that I’ll remember them and be able to keep track of them!

Craig
 
Welcome to TFP! Craig :)

The gurus willl be along soon to answer your questions; however, I strongly urge you to buy a good tet kit like the one sold here on TFP by duraleigh. It is the BEST investment we made in our pool,

Very nice signature for a first post!8) .



Joyce
 
Hey, Craig,

Welcome!!

Test the CYA as soon as you can. It's very relevant to the other tests you've been doing. It's very stable in your pool so a test now and another one if you need to adjust is the minimum. Generally, 3-4 times during the season is adequate....it's just VERY important to find out what it is initially (Test "strips" are usually terrible for accurate CYA testing)

You can do the Calcium test with the same ferequency....3-4 times yearly at the most. The reagents you purchased are VERY accurate and they will be all you need....your looking for something between 250-400 in a gunite pool as a general guideline.
 
jjparrish said:
Welcome to TFP! Craig :)

The gurus willl be along soon to answer your questions; however, I strongly urge you to buy a good tet kit like the one sold here on TFP by duraleigh. It is the BEST investment we made in our pool,

Very nice signature for a first post!8) .



Joyce
Click to expand...

Joyce, thank you for your timely reply. Honestly, had I known about Duraleigh's kit prior to purchasing the one I have two months prior, I definitely would have bought it. Obviously, it has everything one would need. I will buy one next year when the reagents in my existing kit time out. As of now, I must stick to the one I have. It is a Taylor so I don't doubt the accuracy of the results that I am getting. I will go out and get the Taylor CYA kit to supplement what I have in the mean time.

Actually, the only reason I bought the kit that I did was that it was the same style kit the the previous owner had and I didn't know any better. I knew that his reagents were old so I replaced the kit in its entirety. What I came to realize later is that this was a good kit to have for someone who wanted to troubleshoot their pool between visits from the pool service. This is exactly what they did. Since I have chosen to take this job on myself, I clearly need to be able to test for more things and have had to create a sort of piecemeal version of an appropriate kit.

Certainly, I have my work cut out for me as learning-by-doing can be difficult at times. However, I enjoy the satisfaction that I get by creating good results in my endeavors on my own. I think that with the right guidance (TFP), I can probably do a better job than a pool service could. Of course, I'll probably leave the heavy stuff such as resurfacing in the future to a pro. But the water balance, filter service, and other related things; I can do those myself.

I really appreciate the experience on this forum. Being a person who asks lots of questions, no doubt that you all will come to know me eventually.

Craig
 
duraleigh said:
Hey, Craig,

Welcome!!

Test the CYA as soon as you can. It's very relevant to the other tests you've been doing. It's very stable in your pool so a test now and another one if you need to adjust is the minimum. Generally, 3-4 times during the season is adequate....it's just VERY important to find out what it is initially (Test "strips" are usually terrible for accurate CYA testing)

You can do the Calcium test with the same ferequency....3-4 times yearly at the most. The reagents you purchased are VERY accurate and they will be all you need....your looking for something between 250-400 in a gunite pool as a general guideline.
Click to expand...

I certainly will test the CYA ASAP and I know better than to go with test strips for sure. Thank you very much!

Craig
 
In the meantime, I have the following:

FC ~ 4 ppm
CC ~ 0 ppm
TC ~ 4 ppm
pH ~ 7.3
TA ~ 90 ppm
CH ~ 520 ppm
ambient temp 72 degrees F
pool temp 56 degree F

Haven't gotten the CYA test yet. I wonder if I am going to end up needing to replace 5000 gallons of water to bring the CH down. I imagine that this is going to get a little interesting. The water itself is crystal clear. I can read the logo on the bottom drain.

Craig
 
Assuming your CYA level is reasonable, those numbers are fine.

Your CH level is manageable as long as your fill water isn't too high in calcium. Right now your calcium saturation is just fine. All you need to do is keep your PH under control, keep it below 8 at all times. If your fill water is high in CH then the CH level will continue to increase and things might get complicated longer term. If you fill water is reasonably low in CH then splash out and occasional minor water replacement will be able to keep things in line.

I suggest testing your fill water for TA and CH to see if there are going to be any long term issues.
 
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