Beginner with a new pool Help

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C

chc4au

0
Jul 18, 2007
18
Birmingham Al
The PB is plastering and filling pool this week and soon it will be my responsibility.
Pool has a Pentair 320 Chlorinator which takes 3" "Trichlor" tablets.
I have seen a number of quantities/prices on 3" tablets.
Are the 3" tablets sold at Sam's/Walmart acceptable for this?
PB told me to take water sample to local Pool Supply store which I will do but having had a pool at a previous house about 20 years ago I am somewhat leary of Pool Stores over selling.
Sorry to be asking what are probably dumb questions but PB is not going to be any help
 
Really you probably don't need to be using the tablets. You should spend some time reading through The Stickies. I use Liquid Shock, it is essentially bleach, the pucks have other things in them that creates a need for yet more things. Eliminate the pool store conspiracy before it happens and don't use that thing.
 
Your questions are exactly what you should be asking. The Walmart pucks contain copper, which you probably don't want. The best thing you can do is invest in a good test kit. TFTestKits which is sold by a member here or the Taylor K2006.
 
Remember that PBs specialize in BUILDING pools, not balancing and maintaining the water in them. Many of the people in this forum have learned the HARD way about pool water chemistry because they listened to their builders or the pool store and sawthe light after they had problems that were draining their wallet! YOU don't have to. Get a GOOD testkit and start taking care of your own water. We are here to help you with this so you are not alone. Trichlor is actually a good choice to use for a short time with new plaster because it is acidic and will help with the initial acid demand that all new plaster has but you want to monitor the CYA (cyanuric acid, stabilizer) level and stop using the tabs once the CYA reaches about 50 ppm. How fast this will happen depends on several factors but if you have a cartridge filter it will happen much faster than with a sand or backwashing DE filter. Read the ingredients and look for a tablet that does NOT contain anything but trichlor (trichloro-s-triazinetrione, trichloroisocyanuric acid) and no copper sulfate, clarifiers or other active ingredients. The only exception to this is sodium tetraborate (borax) which is included in some of the 'premium' tablets and actually is a useful additive.
Take a deep breath, take some time to read the stickies (see the link in my signature) and post ANY questions you might have.
Welcome to our corner of the net! :-D
 
Get a good test kit, there is no better investment in your pool that you can make. I recommend the TF Test Kit, see the link in my signature. The Taylor K-2006 is also good.

Almost any brand of the tablets are good as long as they are not double or triple acting and don't contain copper. Most of them are fine, just a few have copper added which can cause problems. Tablets are a great way to startup a new plaster pool but can cause problems in the long run. Do some reading, particularly in the stickies section of this site and find out about your alternatives while using trichlor tablets for the first couple of weeks.
 
[Edit: jjparrish: Moved to keep in same thread for history]


chc4au said:
Have run first set of chemicals and test results are as follows:
FC 2.5
CC 0
PH 7.7
Alk 80
Calcium 120
cya 30

Using tri chlor tablets so not planning on increasing cya withh addition of chemicals.
plan to add acid to reduce ph then shock.
Will add calcium over next few days to bring level up.
Anything else?

Appreciate your help in advance
Click to expand...
 
With fresh plaster the PH, TA, and CH levels will come up on their own for several weeks. You need to monitor the PH fairly closely, try to keep it from ever going over 7.8 if you can. 8.0 isn't too bad, but higher than that and you risk calcium scaling. By aiming for 7.8 as the upper limit you should be safe.

Because the TA and CH levels will be rising as the plaster cures, you shouldn't adjust them for at least three weeks. By then they will probably be at reasonable levels on their own.
 
Poolidiot said:
ALMOST?!?!?! I have yet to find ANYTHING the pros on here can not handle!!! :-D
Click to expand...

We had a problem we couldn't solve a few months ago, an ORP sensor that went down as FC when up even through the sensor otherwise works. I don't think anyone has a good solution for that problem. The best I have found is a guess at what the chemistry might be, but it doesn't suggest a solution. I wish there was a solution because I am having that problem with my ORP sensor.
 

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