New Owner Here.. Clueless! :)

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jjdurrant

jjdurrant

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Apr 27, 2008
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MN
Greetings all. Justin from MN here.

Here is my pool ( I think it is 18x36):

IMG_0722.jpg


I am new to this and have no idea what I am doing. :) I bought this house in the fall and this will be our first season. We are pretty excited. My questions:

The pool guy I (just installed a new Raytek 206A) said to run the heater Thurs-Sun at about 85 degrees. That sound ok to you all?

How often should I run the pump\filter? Does it matter how long I run it at a time? I think I have the filter\backwash\rinse process down so that's good.

Any tips for getting sand of the bottom of the pool? I tried the skim vac we have but could not seem to get enough suction. I have no air in the hose. Should I try turning off one of the skimmers? Do I remove the skimmer basket before attaching the vac? Should I turn of the drain as well?

What other chemicals\additives should I use moving forward?

Thanks, Justin
 
Welcome to TFP!

Now would be a good time to do some reading. Check out the Stickies section of the site, there is lots of good information there.

We run our heater at 83 degrees, which is a little cold but less expensive to run. 85 is a perfectly reasonable place to start and then you can adjust from there.

How long you run the pump depends on the relative size of your pump/filter vs your pool. 12 hours a day is a good place to start and then you can adjust it up or down from there to the lowest run time that keeps the water looking perfect.

Vacuuming is the best way to pick up sand. You often need to turn off all of the skimmers except the one you are using for vacuuming and the main drain, though depending on the size of your pump you may be able to leave one other one on.
 
Hey, Justin,

Welcome to the forum. As Jason said, read all the stickies....very helpful. Your water looks pretty nice but a little cloudy. To clear that up, I'd suggest getting a full set of tests and posting them up on the forum. You're surely gonna' need some chlorine (Pretty quick) but how much and what else really depends on the test results you report.

You can get the water tested at most pool stores but your own testing will yield far better results..
 
And yes, you remove the basket and stick the hose directly into the hole under the basket.

read up on the stickies and get yourself a good test kit (check ^^ signature for the TF100 kit), have fun with your new pool
 
Thanks for the replies! I had the local pool store test the water today. Here are my numbers:

Saturation IDX: 0.3
TDS: 300
CYA: 20
Total Chlorine: 2.2
Free Chlorine: 2.2
pH: 7.7
Total Alkalinity: 130
Adjusted Alkalinity: 124
Total Hardness: 232
Optimizer+: 9
Copper: 0
Iron: 0

They said everything looks good aside from the pH being a little high. Their recommendation was to add 2.5lbs of Lo 'N Slo. I didn't add anything as I am still learning the BBB process. They also recommended 3lbs of Stabilizer 100.

PS.. I picked up the Sta-Rite MARK IV testing kit. It tests Chlorine, Bromine, pH, Total Alkalinity and Acid Demand.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Justin
 
Hey, Justin,

I'd shock the pool to clear the cloudiness. Bring the FC up to 20ppm or so and hold it there (you must keep adding chlorine to hold it) until your pool is sparkling. Run the pump the entire time and backwash if your filter pressure goes up more than 30% over normal.

You'll need to measure your pool and find out how many gallons are in it before anyone can accurately tell you how much chlorine and stabilizer to put in it. 3 lbs of stabilizer sounds about right but that's a guess. Post a more accurate pool size and depth and you'll get much better advice on dosages.
 
Thanks.

I will shock today. I think the cloudiness was from pushing the dirt on the bottom prior to pics. When the dirt settles I can see straight to the bottom.

I believe the pool is 25k gallon. Shallow end is three feet.. deep is nine feet.

My biggest issue right now is dirt and sand on bottom. The vacuum seems to be helping. What about pushing the dirt to the drain and setting pump to waste while keeping a hose in the pool to replace the water I am losing?
 
What kind of filter do you have? I'd say push it towards the main drain but have the multi-port in the "filter position" so you don't lose so much water. Backwash when necessary. The hose will give you around 10gpm and your pump will pump it out probably around 75gpm+.

If your pool is 25K, you'll need about 8 lbs of stabilizer to raise it to 60. I think it's pretty easy to find in 5 lb containers so I'd put in one containers worth and test to see where you are.
 
More details:

Filter: Hayward S-200 Sand Filter (sand was replaced 3-4 years ago)
Heater: Raypak 206A (brand new)
Main Pump: Hayward (can't read model)
Motor for Main Pump: Century Centurion
Polaris Pump: Century PB-4 Booster Pump

So far, I have been using the chemicals the previous owner left me.

Shock: LC10 Chloronator. Instructions state 24oz per day. We opened the pool Fri and I have have added about 60oz since. Bottle says 10% Sodium Hypochrolorite.

Skimmer: I am using two BioGuard Sanitizer Smart Sticks in each skimmer. Container states 96.5% Trichloro-s-triazinetrione.

Hope I got these spellings correct!

PS... I can't say for sure if the guy who opened the pool added any additional chemicals. I assume he did, but cannot say what.

Justin
 

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The smart sticks are fine for now but you gonna' need to dump them before long. They're adding CYA to your pool and you'll get too much in there and it's a real PITA to get out. If you have a blue gazillion of them, don't put the stabilizer in your pool.

If that bottle of Sodium Hypochlorite (chlorine) has much age on it, it is probably not doing you much good. Chlorine loses it's strength very quickly. I don't know how big (ounces) it is but I'd bet it will never truly "shock" your pool like you need to do.....I still suspect you have a little algae brewing in there and I think you need to get about 20ppm chlorine in your pool to get it out. Neither the smart sticks nor that old jug probably have enough "horsepower" to do it.
 
Ok.. what should I use instead of smart sticks?

The PPM confuses me. You say 20ppm.. but what does that measure out to exactly?

The bottle of chlorine are from last year. Sounds like a trip to the pool store or laundry aisle is in order.
 
PPM=parts per million.

Use jasonLions calculator in his signature on any of his posts. You tell it you want 20ppm and tell it the strength (6% if you go to the grocery store for clorox) and tell it your size pool. It'll tell you how much you need to add. It'll tell you you need 8.3 gallons.

Read Jasons sticky on clearing a green pool.....Lot's of helpful info in there.
 
Ok.. before I dump the clorox in, I should stop using tablets and just use clorox moving forward right?

My pH is at 7.8 now. I should add 1 pint of Muriatic Acid for two days right?
 
You should lower the PH to somewhere around 7.2 to 7.4 before shocking the pool. The chlorine will be more effective at the lower PH, and it is time to lower the PH anyway. That should take five cups of muriatic acid. I would add three cups, wait half an hour with the pump running, check that PH is still at or above 7.5 and then add the rest. And at that point you could go ahead and add the bleach.

Your CYA level is still fairly low so it is possible to continue using tablets for day to day chlorine for a while yet. You need to keep an eye on it though and stop using tablets when your CYA gets to an appropriate level (say 40 or 50).
 
Muriatic acid is sold by places like Home Depot and Lowes and is typically outdoors in the same general area as the pool supplies. However some stores carry it in the paint department and I have also heard of it being out by the concrete supplies. It is also available from many local hardware stores where there are generally helpful people to direct you to it.
 

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