Hi again!
Our neighbor has a pool and was kind enough to let me use his test kit which includes CYA. Before adding anything, I retested, and the previous numbers were all correct - zero. Also, the CYA test showed zero as well. So, I added: 3 -96 oz. jugs of ultra bleach, 10 pounds of baking soda, and 8 pounds (2 boxes) of borax. That was yesterday, and had the pump recirculating since. The new numbers are:
FC = 2.5
Total bromine = 5
TC = 2.5
CC = 0
pH = 6.8
Total alkalinity = 60
CYA = 50
So, what can I do to tweak those numbers? The CYA level seemed to jump quite a bit even from the small amount of chlorine I added. Looks like pH and TA need a boost. Is a 2.5 chlorine level sufficient? The chlorine I have are 3" stabilized chlorine tablets for the feeder. Should I use those, or stick with bleach? If I do use the feeder, how many of those tabs do you load into it, and once loaded, does it always stay in the "ON" position?
Thanks for all the input so far. Attached is a picture of the pool from this morning. Much better than I expected it would be. It's a bit cloudy, but I haven't had it set to filtering yet, and I swept the bottom last night to stir up the water a bit. Oh yeah, I also learned that what LOOKS like just a little water on top of a winter cover is really ALOT of water! Two pumps, about 2 hours.
Thanks,
John
Our neighbor has a pool and was kind enough to let me use his test kit which includes CYA. Before adding anything, I retested, and the previous numbers were all correct - zero. Also, the CYA test showed zero as well. So, I added: 3 -96 oz. jugs of ultra bleach, 10 pounds of baking soda, and 8 pounds (2 boxes) of borax. That was yesterday, and had the pump recirculating since. The new numbers are:
FC = 2.5
Total bromine = 5
TC = 2.5
CC = 0
pH = 6.8
Total alkalinity = 60
CYA = 50
So, what can I do to tweak those numbers? The CYA level seemed to jump quite a bit even from the small amount of chlorine I added. Looks like pH and TA need a boost. Is a 2.5 chlorine level sufficient? The chlorine I have are 3" stabilized chlorine tablets for the feeder. Should I use those, or stick with bleach? If I do use the feeder, how many of those tabs do you load into it, and once loaded, does it always stay in the "ON" position?
Thanks for all the input so far. Attached is a picture of the pool from this morning. Much better than I expected it would be. It's a bit cloudy, but I haven't had it set to filtering yet, and I swept the bottom last night to stir up the water a bit. Oh yeah, I also learned that what LOOKS like just a little water on top of a winter cover is really ALOT of water! Two pumps, about 2 hours.
Thanks,
John