I am in the process of setting up my 10,000 gallon above ground pool. I have read a lot of information on these forums about water balancing. My question is what order do I balance the new water. I will be filling my pool this weekend with tap water from the city. I was thinking balance PH, then work on TA, then CYA and then CL. Then once I get everything balanced start adding the salt for the SWC. Thanks.
What order do I balence for a new pool?
- Thread starter imalittleturt
- Start date
Chlorine first so you don't get algae started, then pH. Stay on top of your chlorine at first while you don't have any CYA. Then add about half as much CYA as you think you need to it can start dissolving. After a week you can test the CYA and again add about half what you think you need. None of the other stuff is time critical. It's a good idea to test your fill water so you can anticipate which way the pH will have to be moved, and whether you have TA or CH issues.
Where to start really depnds on what it needs. If you post a full set of test results on your fill water we can give you a better idea. For example, some fill water has VERY high TA so that would be the place to start, even before adding chlorine, IMHO. Ditto for very soft water, sometimes adding calcium is the place to start. After either of these get the pH in line and shocking is alway a good idea on a new fill because chloramines are often used to sanitize drinking water. Once the water is balanced (TA, CH, and pH) then worry about the CYA. You should be able to get enough of the balancing done within a day so the pool should not go green on you. If it does shocking will take care of it quickly or you can throw a few trichlor tabs in a floater duing startup to get a bit of chlorine in the water on a regular basis and add a tiny bit of CYA.
I got my Taylor k-2006 today so here are my numbers for the tap water I will use to fill the pool. I used the base demand test and got different number than the pool calculator. Whose value should i go with?
FC .2
CC .2
TC .4
PH 7.2
TA 7O
CYA 0
TEMP 55F
SI -1.1
base demand test, 2 drops to raise pH to 7.6 taylor says 10.3 oz. Pool calc says 15 oz. BleachCalc says 16 oz.
FC .2
CC .2
TC .4
PH 7.2
TA 7O
CYA 0
TEMP 55F
SI -1.1
base demand test, 2 drops to raise pH to 7.6 taylor says 10.3 oz. Pool calc says 15 oz. BleachCalc says 16 oz.
All the Taylor tests are +-one drop, which is about +-5 oz in this case. So the numbers actually agree within the precision of the test. There are other possible sources of error as well, so it is generally best to go with a smaller number and see where that gets you and then adjust from there.
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