Just refilled my pool

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riseandrun

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Jun 23, 2012
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Hi everybody,
As the subject states I just refilled my pool. When I swam in it the first time , before refilling it, it tasted like I was swimming in the ocean. Very salty. To get right to the point, here are my current readings.
TC 0
FC 0
Ph 8.0
TA 210
CH 475
CYA 0
I chlorinated in the past with an automatic chlorinator using 3 inch pucks. Trichlor-S-triazinetrine 98.6 stabilized. This is an indoor pool (no sun) that probably didn't have the water changed in years. It get's very little use. I took over the job of taking care of it from a guy who got fired. I know I'm getting a little off subject. Here's the real questions. I don't want my pool to get over stabilized like it was in the past. The pool school calls trichlor insidious, and I think my pucks were a major part of my problem. I was having all kinds of problems with ph being low and couldnt get it to go up. One pool place told me my problem was because my cya was so high 140 that I was getting inaccurate readings on my TA and might have to actually raise it. At the time I was getting 180 with my test kit. (I know pool places are not the recommended scholars, which could be another post all by itself. I agree, but at least I get verification on my readings. sort of)
Here's getting right to the point: I've read lots of posts, and spent hours in pool school. When I'm first getting started with my pool, don't I need to take care of one thing at a time? Like my TA before I start balancing other chemicals? Also to eliminate using the pucks, and not really related, the guy before me bought chemicals and for some reason I have 65 gallons of shock in my store room. No kidding! Sodium hypochlorite 12.6%. If I finally get the TA in balance with MA couldn't I just use the shock as my chlorine and turn off the chlorinator and life at the pool would start getting easy?
Hope this isn't too confusing. Let me know if I need to clarify, or need to read somewhere else here. This is what taking care of this pool has been for me. :hammer: and I have no problem testing the water several times a day.
Thanks much
Kevin
 
That "liquid shock" is the best thing to use!

This sounds like it might be a commercial pool, in which case, you'll need to follow health dept. guidelines for CYA, FC, pH, etc.

Right now you need to adjust pH and get some FC in there. There ain't much you can do with the high CH, especially if that's the fill water. TA will come down in time if you keep the pH adjusted.

First thing you need to do is hunt down the laws that may apply. Tell us where you are; I'm good at hunting that stuff down on the internet, I might be able to help. Then you'll know how high you can let the CYA go. If it's indoors, you won't need much. Second thing is look at your test kit. Is it a good kit?
 
Thanks for the reply Richard. This is a commercial pool and I only get tested on FC and PH. They come in with a simple test every month. By the way were talking about "the people's republic of Illinois." I forgot to mention this earlier, but when I tested the water this morning and got 0, I poured in 16 oz. of shock. About 2 hours later still nothing on my test kit ( using the dpd 1 tablet) so I added 24 more oz. of shock. An hour later I took a sample of the pool water and stopped at a pool place on the way home. (And again I understand the skeptism with pool stores. Their recommendations included me adding 10 lbs of stabilizer!!!) Still reading 0. Part of my confusion with the testing is maybe I expect there to be results faster.
My test kit measures FC, TC, TA, PH, and acid demand. I would gladly buy a better kit if it helped to make my pool troublefree. Do you prefer one over the other?
 
I use the TF100. And a speedstir. And I have an extra cylinder and extra stirbars so I can run all my tests before I have to wash any dishes.

With a FAS-DPD test, you can measure FC and CC down to .2 ppm.
The way you're eating chlorine, I'd worry about the Combined Chlorine. Does it have that chlorine-y smell?
 
I'm wondering where the chlorine is going since this is an indoor pool just refilled with tap water. Can you tell us if your community uses chloramines to treat tap water? Or are there nitrates in the tap water? A call to the water department will give you those answers.
 
My test kit does measure CC too. I have to be honest though, when I've done the CC I never see any difference in the color if I am talking about the right thing. I'll check with the water dept. about the chloramines and nitrates on Monday. My town has a well (as opposed to having Lake Michigan water) and the sulpher content, and minerals are very high. The bottom of my pool has some copper staining, which I will address, as soon as I get some balance to my water.
 
Bama, Why the CYA? My pool is indoors and never gets sun. Usage average is 15 elderly for 1 hour a day. I want to use up my shock because there is no CYA in it and I have so much.
I'm trying to get my TA down between 70-90 as suggested at pool school. Then check my FC every morning and add the liquid chlorine as needed by the cup. I can check my pool very often as part of my routine. Just ordered the TF-100 and speedstir magnetic stirrer.
Thanks for the help.
KW
 

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Dave, That's how high the CH is coming right out of the tap. I've probably only used 5 pucks since I refilled the pool and decided to turn off my chlorinator since I was also adding CYA again. If I understand pool school correctly having the CH in my fiberglass pool isn't a big deal, might even help me keep the staining down once I start trying to remove it with other "products". Is the CH affecting my FC and PH levels?
 
I also have an indoor pool, upon advice from here I do keep my CYA in the 20 ppm range, there are some detailed explanations for reasons to do this, but as Richard says it buffers the active Chlorine, otherwise you get into a situation where you either have much higher active chlorine than you need for sanitation (and all the problems like bleaching, etc. that go along with that), or you run the potential of not having enough Chlorine in any one given area when there is a demand. Even just 5 ppm of CYA is enough to provide this buffering effect, the problem is the CYA tests only read down to either 20 or 30 ppm depending on the view tube. For me I try to target for somewhere a little over 20 ppm, it just makes the testing easier.

Ike
 
Isacc, does your LMI chlorine dispenser dispense chlorine with stabilizer in it? My pucks add .6 cya for each 1 ppm chlorine I add. Maybe I should use the pucks until I reach the 20 mark and switch over to the sodium hypochlorite after that. Or add CYA and stay with the shock? For the record, I have very little experience in pool chemistry beyond reading posts, and the pool school. Hands on is about 3-4 weeks.
 
On the Pool Calculator, at the bottom, find Effects of Adding Chemicals. You can weigh your trichlor tablets and calculate how much CYA each tablet will add to your size pool. That is one of those facts that should be written in your Pool Log Book, so you don't have to look it up a second time.
 
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