New Liner, New to BBB

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techguy

techguy

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Jul 21, 2010
2,682
Antelope, CA
I have been bumping around here for years but today is probably my first posting.

Pool details are in my signature. I have had the pool about 7 years and I bought it from the pool store at the end of the buying season. It was one of their demo pools they set-up at the store each year. There is essentially the same pool setup there today. So, I probably bought the week after Labor Day in 2004 for about $3,000 all-in. We (the store staff and I) took it down at the store and I setup it at home after getting the grading done by a tractor guy they suggested (the week before).

In the 7 years I have had it up, I have used pucks (lots of them) of various compositions since "that was seemed to be the right thing to do"... wrong. Each year, later in the summer, I always had to fight the green and buy Liquid Chlorine by the long ton to get the green to go away... I am going to guess my CYA was off the chart and the 107F day temps did not help. Shock was a bag... not a process. I trust my dealer but I probably didn't take the water in enough to really get a handle on the problem and I didn't want to take in my pond water for testing. Over the years, I also bleached and damaged the liner. Last fall... I just let it go to the ducks... literally.

Last month... I decided to start over with a new liner. Sunday, I ended weeks of jerking around with the wrong liner, I finally have a new liner in the pool, a clean filter full of cellulose, a clean(er) ladder, and pool full of fresh water from my garden hose. I was beat and it was 90F, time for a swim! I know the seat caps are not installed but the risers are there and the liner clips are installed... it's good enough to cool off and play with my DD. After swimming, I tossed in a bag of "shock" and went in for a nice long nap. A test of my fill water by the pool shop said I needed CL, PH+ and CYA stabilizer. I bought the stabilizer and one of the alcohol floaty fishes for the "cover". I used to have a cover but once we get into the 100F days, a cover just adds too much heat and our season runs from May until October without any need to "adding heat" to my pool and 90F+ pool water is just not cooling enough.

Today I picked up WalMart's HTH version of the K1000 test kit, a big 13+ pound bag of Arm and Hammer baking soda, a box of borax to add to my HomeDepot liquid chlorine and the 100% CYA stabilizer

My numbers:
CL 0
pH 7.2
TA 140
TH 120
CYA 0 (from pools store testing, I will test using my kit next week)
CH Didn't measure (no tile, concrete, or metal in pool or piping, except bolts in ladder)

I added about 50oz 10% LC, ~ 48 oz borax and 1.75 pound (whole bottle) of 100% CYA.

Does it sound like I am headed in the correct direction?
 
Sounds like your getting off to a good start, watch that CYA though, keep count of the amount of dichlor or trichlor (powder, pellets, pucks, etc.) you use as well as the amount of stabilizer you add. Also go ahead and buy a good test kit, since you have the K1000 and a fresh fill with no algae bloom, etc. you might consider the basic TFTestkits TF-50 (it is a trimmed down TF-100 that assumes you already have a basic kit like the K-1000), with the FAS-DPD chlorine test you will be able to tell your exact chlorine level while shocking if / when that is necessary and therefore be able to avoid excessively high chlorine levels that tend to cause bleached out liners. If your going to depend on the basic OTO chlorine test for regular daily testing, you will want to limit your CYA level to around 30 ppm, this puts the target FC level of 4 ppm based on the CYA/Chlorine chart within the testing range your current test kit. In general we suggest a CYA level of 40-50 around here, but those levels would put your target FC (5ppm chlorine for 40ppm CYA, 6ppm chlorine for 50 ppm CYA)at or above the max reading of 5 ppm total chlorine in your K-1000 test kit.

Ike
ps I can't find liquid CYA doseage by weight online, only by volume, so not sure what to expect on yours
 
Well, I tested this morning and these are my readings. I will test the CYA after letting it dissolve over the next week. The E-Z Clor brand, Clor Save package said one pound of the 100% active ingredient CYA should raise 3,000 gallons to 40 PPM. So I guessed that 1.75 pounds would be a safe addition and a good place to start. The weather was well over 94F this weekend but we saw 60F with a little rain yesterday.

TC 3
pH 7.8
 
Well, I think I have had the best week ever with my pool. I changed the liner last week and decided to go all BBB this time and not my usual pool store and hockey pucks. I went to Wal-Mart and got all the needed basics with 2 gallons of 10%, a bag of Arm & Hammer, a box of borax from the laundry aisle and a 6-way kit to get me started. I had my water tested after the fill and added 1.75 pounds of CYA.

I need to get the full kit but I am OK for today with the six way. That... and I can actually trust my pool store. These are their number from this morning.

Last night at dusk,
CL 1.0
pH 8.2
TA 130
TH 130
CYA greater than 0, but not cloudy enough to make spot disappear in tube so is less than 30. I could see some cloudiness but I could see spot... after which I added the pool calculator's suggested amount of liquid MA.

I decided to OCLT to see if I had any organincs and because I had never done one. I was at C=1.0 so I left the chlorine to add this morning after testing.

My numbers from this morning before adding anything:
CL 1.0
pH 7.2

Yeah... no decline. Added 37 oz of 10% to skimmer (slowly) with pump running. I left it run for an hour or so and then took water from 2 feet down (using my PVC "collection pipe") to take to the store to see if I needed any stabilizer.

Pool Store numbers (after the addition of the CL)
CL 5.0
pH 7.4
TA 140
CYA 30
:party:

I think I am going to keep my CYA in the 30-50 range. the gal at the store suggested keeping my CYA below 50

Is it time for borates before it get's over 100F here?
 
If your FC is dropping to 1 each night, you need to shoot higher when you add more chlorine. With 30 CYA you never want it to drop below 2. Maybe add enough to get to 6 ppm each time and see how that goes. If your CYA is 40, you don't want it to drop below 3. It was dangerous to let it sit at 1 over night.

In addition, your test results show how the results are off. If you added MA, it would have dropped your TA some, but your results show it rising.
 
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