Conversion and staring up SWG

[cujowoof]

Hi all. Thanks for the great information on the board! For a new pool owner (I didn't even realize there was a pool the first time we did a walk-through on the house we bought because there was so much snow), I'm finding this world isn't as mysterious as I once had.

After doing some research, I made the decision to replace out the chlorine system with a Pentair IC40, and decided to try and save some electricity cost by changing out the pump to an Intelliflo. I am keeping the DE filter, and have already completely sprayed the filter grids out and have seen no sign of any damage to these units.

I was told by the neighbors next door that the previous owners did not open the pool at all in 2012, and after taking off the winter cover yesterday, I found a dismal scene of blackened water and a nice smell that brought me back to biology class in high school.

The question I would like to ask (which I'm assuming) that the first step even before attempting to add the appropriate amount of salt is to first shock the system to begin the process of cleaning and conditioning the water. It seems as though the SWG will never initially produce enough chlorine to kill this "world of wonder" happening in my pool. I will assume I have zero chlorine present (although my TF-100 kit is not expected to arrive until next monday).

I have a 18x36 pool with approximately 25,000 gallons, and I would like to start tackling this murky mess as soon as possible.

Can someone confirm that I will want to use chlorine bleach before starting up the SWG, and a rough idea of how much I can start using to kill things off until I can start getting accurate test samples, which will be in 4 days.

Thanks in advance for everyone's assistance!

 

[joshs2000ss]

Typically the consensus here is to shock with bleach and once you are done with the shocking process (read pool school) then you worry about the salt. SWGs are not designed for using to shock a pool. They can be used to maintain the shock level if for some reason you are going to be away, but it's not recommended to do this for long periods of time.

Get a test kit so you can accurately measure your chemistry and start by netting out as much of the big stuff as possible. When maintaining a shock level, typical testing with strips or the Chlorine/pH test isn't sufficient.

 

[Richard320]

Welcome!

Personally, I would hold off on doing anything until I had a test kit in my hands. The pool has sat like that for a year or more; a few more days won't hurt it.

I say this because you don't know what the CH and CYA levels are. You may find you need to drain 75% or more of the water to reduce CYA to a manageable level. You mentioned a chlorine system, which probably means a puck feeder, which almost guarantees high CYA levels. And that will require massive quantities of bleach to clear the water, and it also makes testing a nuisance because of the high FC levels you need to maintain.

That said, if you're just antsy to do something, get a leaf rake and start blindly removing any debris from the bottom. Figure out how much salt a SWG will need and work up a sweat loading and unloading that. But I see no use in pouring bleach in blindly when it a)might not be high enough to have any effect and b) end up being pumped out again in a couple days.