Startup after new vinyl liner

[thenateo]

Hi folks,

I've read extensively in the Pool School section and came away with a few questions that I didn't see answered anywhere else, hopefully I'm not in violation of protocol here.

We just had to replace our liner (pool was new to us about 18 months ago when we bought the house and over this winter it developed large tears). The liner folks finished cutting the skimmer and autofill holes yesterday and I will be finishing the fill today.

I ordered a Taylor test kit per the recommendations but apparently it's coming from across the country and won't be here until Tuesday so I have no base numbers yet. With the warm weather, I don't want the 28000 gallons of water I just put into this thing getting bad before the kit arrives so I am looking for some advice.

1) Do any of the seasonal pool tips in Pool School not apply due to the vinyl liner? I was told to never use anything but liquid chlorine in a vinyl pool, wanted to make sure that the Dichlor listed in there is still OK.

2) Should I add bleach or Dichlor to the pool without knowing the PH prior to the kit arriving?

3) If the pool calculator says I need 340ish ounces of bleach to get to a FC of 6 from 0, does the chlorinating properties of the Dichlor change that amount?

Thanks.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Welcome to TFP!
Dichlor is great for initial fills, but will raise the CYA quickly, so you wouldn't want to use it too long. You should pre-dissolve it in a bucket, to make absolutely sure it doesn't sit on the bottom, which will quickly bleach the liner.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pH...a few days isn't a big deal even if it's a bit low or high.

to get the right amount of dichlor, you need to look at the "or add #### by weight or ##### by volume of trichlor/dichlor" row just below in the pool calculator.

 

[jblizzle]

I also would not be raising the FC up to 6 until you get some CYA in the pool. Try to keep the FC aid 2ppm until you can test everything.

Actually you know CYA is zero, so you could start some of that dissolving right away based on the poolcalculator.

Posted from my Droid with Tapatalk ... sorry if my response is short

 

[thenateo]

Wow, quick responses... thanks for the info!

Based on your replies, I am thinking about doing things as follows:

1) Buy about 14 pounds of Dichlor (per pool school, 1 pound per 2000 gallons)
2) Finish filling today
3) Add 3ish pounds of Dichlor per day starting tomorrow until it's gone (By then, I should have the test kit)
4) Test everything
5) Adjust PH based on tests
6) Add bleach to FC 6

Does this seem to be a good plan of action?

Final question. Do I need to worry about the algacide since the water is fresh?

 

[msgtdan]

With the start you're getting here you may never have to worry about algacide. I've not used Dichlor so can't really say, but when you test see where your CYA is after using the Dichlor and then adjust from there using the pool calculator.

 

[jblizzle]

3 lbs is going to raise your FC by 7ppm and CYA by 6.5 ... this may not be a good idea at first as that is pretty high FC when you have 0 CYA to start with ... although you are adding CYA with it. I might start with 1 lb in the morning and 1 lb in the evening to make sure the FC does not drop too quickly.

Also, not sure why you keep saying raise the FC to 6ppm using bleach. Your FC target is a function of your CYA (see pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock). If you have CYA of 50ppm, then a FC of 6 ppm is a good target.

 

[thenateo]

Ahhh, OK. I guess I misread the article in the Pool School. It mentioned getting the FC to 6, but upon reading it again that's only if I wanted to jump in the pool right away (and it's MUCH too cold for that right now). It looks like I really want my CYA to be around 30 and FC to be about 3 based on the pool calculator. I couldn't find Dichlor either but I was able to find a big bag of CYA (it was called conditioner) @ about 8 pounds, so it sounds like maybe I should come up with a new plan.

1) Fill the pool the rest of the way
2) Add CYA until it comes up to about 30 - sounds like dissolving 8 pounds will take quite awhile using the sock method so my test kit should be in before it's all in
3) Adjust PH to about 7.5
4) Add chlorine to a FC of about 3
5) Move into testing and maintenance mode

How's this for a plan?

Thanks again for the help, I was so overwhelmed by all this when we bought the house, now it feels like some of it is starting to make sense.

 

[jblizzle]

You will want to add about 2ppm of FC right away and start adding the CYA (a target of 30ppm is a good start). You will need to keep adding a little FC every day and once the CYA is dissolved you must maintain the FC ABOVE 2ppm at all times. This likely means you will want to adjust up to around 4-5ppm each day to ensure that it does not drop below 2ppm by the next time you add FC.

 

[msgtdan]

Once the CYA is dissolved treat the pool as if it has that amount. Wait a week before testing CYA as it can take up to that long to show up and there's no need to waste your chemicals. When testing CYA you can pour it out of the measuring tube back into the mixing tube, then try your reading again, this lets you get an avg as the reading can be subjective. You can also let someone else use the same mix and avg in their reading.