Wish Me Luck

[ihowe88]

So I'm just here to say a preemptive thank you for all the great information I've found here.

We've just finished a re-model of our pool area due to the previous owners of the property laying porous slate tiles which were disintegrating and were extremely slippy.

We replaced the whole lot with pavers and the work was finished this week.

I've just ordered a Dolphin DX4 and I'm starting the road to taking care of the pool myself. I used to have a pool guy come in once a week, but I'm looking forward to managing everything myself. I'm a complete novice having never owned a pool before the middle of last year, so I'm still familiarizing myself with the operation of all the equipment (I had no idea which was the pump / filter etc until a few weeks ago).

I'm going to start with the BBB method and testing will commence this week. The pool was filled from empty over the past 48 hours, so it could be an interesting process trying to balance things out!!

 

[JasonLion]

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol:

It would be prudent to put a large jug of Clorox in each evening until you can post some good test results. In your climate, you are VERY susceptible to an algae outbreak very soon.

 

[ihowe88]

Thanks for the tip, I raided my local Walmart for their large bleach bottles earlier today :lol:

 

[Richard320]

Good luck!

LA covers a lot of ground - are you Woodland Hills, San Pedro, Eagle Rock, Tujunga?

 

[ihowe88]

We're in the SF Valley.....West Hills to be precise

 

[ihowe88]

So first results

FC 1.5
CC 2.0
PH 8+
TA 100
CH 170
CA - water stayed clear, so I assume it's low

where to start!!!

 

[jblizzle]

How does the water look?
Since you are showing a high CC level, that indicates a need to go through the shock process as described in Pool School.

You will first want to lower the pH using muriatic acid to the lower 7s.
Then add stabilizer to get the CYA up to around 20-30ppm while maintaining the shock FC level (10ppm to start until you raise the CYA).

 

[ihowe88]

Thanks....the pool actually looks OK....the water is clear (but I'm starting from scratch and it was refilled this week)

 

[ihowe88]

and I made a mistake....my chlorine levels actually are;

FC 1.5
TC 2.0
CC 0.5

 

[jblizzle]

Oh, then you likely do not need the shock process. Keep the FC above 2ppm. Lower the pH and get some CYA in the pool.

 

[dmanb2b]

That is actually not all that bad

Decrease PH first to around 7.5
Increase CYA to 30ppm and then maintain FC to around 3-4ppm

edit: same as Jbizzle said :>)

 

[ihowe88]

What about the CH....should I look to raise that also?

 

[jblizzle]

That would be safest to raise the CH up a bit.

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

 

[ihowe88]

OK.....having some potential issues

I've added 6 gallons of Clorox this week but can't get any Chlorine registering on the test....I added 2 gallons last night but still nothing on the test this evening. For all the chlorine tests the water stays clear.

My PH is slightly high at 7.8 so I'm adding a little muriatic acid to get it down to approx 7.6

TA is fine at 80

CH is low still at 150 and I'll be adding a good chunk of calcium chloride tomorrow

CYA test is not turning the water cloudy at all...I added a gallon of stabilizer last week and have been careful not to add too much, so I need to raise that ASAP

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[jblizzle]

What test kit do you have?

Do you have the OTO chlorine test? If so, try that and report back.

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

 

[ihowe88]

I have the DPD kit......I've managed to get the chlorine level up today to a reasonable level

Things are looking a bit more balanced today

 

[linen]

Yes, but do you have the OTO (comparator block that is usually paired with the ph comparitor block)?

Although the OTO test is not accurate at high levels, it is almost bulletproof in at least telling you if you have any Chlorine in the water.

When you say you have the dpd test, do you mean the FAS-DPD test which uses a powder to turn the solution pink?

 

[ihowe88]

I have the FAS-DPD Service Test Kit which uses the reagents, not powder

 

[linen]

If you do not use R-0870 powder while you are doing the test, then you are not doing the FAS-DPD test. Are you using R-001 and R-0002? If yes, then you are doing the DPD test, which in general is not very useful.