Total Pool Newbie Could Use A Little Guidance

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BarbL

BarbL

0
Jun 11, 2013
9
Campbellsport, WI
My husband has always wanted a pool, and I can't pass up a bargain, so I figured it was destiny when checking out a local garage sale, I happened upon a used Intex 16' X 42" Easy Set pool for sale.

Our house used to have a pool so even though the area was a bit grown over, once we got past a little layer of sod, we found a ton of glorious sand. We added literally another ton of sand to the mix, got it leveled out, set up the pool and promptly found a leak in the blow up ring. We got that patched and the pool filled up just in time for the last couple of weeks of terribly cold weather here in Wisconsin. We put the cover on the pool and I set out to figure out what all I should be putting into the pool - the previous owner handed me a bucket and two jugs full of chemical stuff and as I was investigating how to properly keep this pool happy, I came across this site, did a little reading about the BBB method for pool care and hope that I can use that to care for our new-to-us swimming pool.

Problem 1 - I can not get one single consistent answer as to the actual volume of this pool - I've read it holds anywhere from 3500 to 4500 gallons of water.

Hubby and I took the cover off yesterday, skimmed a few little pieces of debris out of the pool and started up the filter. Water was crystal clear. Not having enough liquid bleach on hand at the moment, and knowing I needed to "shock" the pool, I used half of a packet of Utikem "One Shot Shock Treatment" that the previous owner included with the pool. I have several more - previous owner said they just put in a pack a week and "let her go." They tried some sort of yellow "Extreme Pool Shock" liquid, but claimed they didn't like it as much and also included two full gallon jugs of that stuff. Previous owner also talked about using some sort of tablets and gave me a couple of floating dispensers for the aforementioned tablets as well.

I only used half the packet because it said it was for a 10,000 gallon pool and I know I didn't have 10,000 gallons sitting in my backyard blue rubber doughnut.

I have just received my Taylor 2006 testing kit and tested my water this morning. I came up with the following values (I didn't do all of the tests as I wasn't sure if they were necessary):

Free Chlorine 5.4
Combined Chlorine .2
pH 7.8
CYA = 0

This morning I ran out and purchased liquid bleach, Borax and baking soda. I also picked up chlorine stabilizer, but wasn't sure if I should put that in or if this magic shock packet included some (it doesn't seem that way according to my test results, right?) I still have at least five packages of the "One Shot Shock" and two gallons of the yellow liquid shock stuff as well

What do I do, what should I do now? I read I should have put the stabilizer in prior to the shock so there is my first oops. When I do use the stabilizer, how should I administer it? It seems like I should put it in a sock, since it sounds like it could take forever to dissolve, and keep it in a high flow area, but I am not seeing a good way to secure the sock to the edge of the pool near the filter out-take.

The water appears slightly cloudy after using the shock, but not terrible.

Any help or suggestions of where I go from here would be greatly appreciated! I currently keep several fish tanks and can talk about the ammonia cycle and how to keep tanks going without any chemicals, but I am just losing it when it comes to understanding this pool chemistry stuff!
 
Richard320 said:
Welcome! :wave:

Go back and repeat the tests, although you can skip CYA, since you won't have any unless you add it. You need TA to calculate the acid dosage.

I don't see a 16 x 42 pool listed on this site: http://www.intexcorp.com/old_site/easy15x42.htm Sure it's not 15 or 18' diameter?

You need to settle in and really study Pool School.
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I have found that size pool on a list somewhere that Intex provided, but it didn't give the gallons - the pool is shown here as well:

http://www.sears.com/intex-16ft-x-4...x000001&kpid=05216738000P&kispla=05216738000P

Redo of tests is giving me slightly different results for the pH and Chlorine -

pH 7.6
Free Chlorine 4.0 (pool is now in the sun - would it make that much of a difference in just an hour or so?
Combined Chlorine = 0
TA = 310
Calcium Hardness = 270 (it was looking a bit lavender back at the 230 mark, but was a definite blue at 270)
CYA - Did not test
 
msgtdan said:
Now I have something to put in my signature line once I figure that out!
Click to expand...
Upper left on this screen "user control panel" will get you there.
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Thank you! I will get there...I am back in "Pool School" at the moment and *think* I have this figured out a little bit...

It seems I need to lower my TA and in order to do that, I need to lower the pH using Muriatic acid. I did the acid demand test and found I needed 7 drops of the acid demand test solution to bring my pH sample to 7.2 so I need to now calculate how much of the Muriatic acid to use in my pool to start. Test booklet goes from 400 gallons, to 1000 and then to 5000 gallons (you'd think they would have a special column just for 3,754 gallons!) so I know it will just take some math to get me there :-D (Art major here, but I do have a calculator!)

Then, I need to provide some aeration to help raise the pH without also raising the TA. So at this point, the industrial-sized box of baking soda I bought will not be needed for much more than baking some, scratch that, baking a LOT of cookies.

It seems the Borax can be used to raise pH as well - should I be doing both the aeration and the Borax to raise the pH or one thing at a time? What should I be doing about my chlorine and stabilizer as I try and work the TA level down to a more ideal range?

I'm kind of stumped if this should be a step-by-step process or if I am also working to achieve and maintain proper chlorine and stabilizer levels as I deal with the TA and pH business.
 
BarbL said:
It seems I need to lower my TA and in order to do that, I need to lower the pH using Muriatic acid. I did the acid demand test and found I needed 7 drops of the acid demand test solution to bring my pH sample to 7.2 so I need to now calculate how much of the Muriatic acid to use in my pool to start. Test booklet goes from 400 gallons, to 1000 and then to 5000 gallons (you'd think they would have a special column just for 3,754 gallons!) so I know it will just take some math to get me there :-D (Art major here, but I do have a calculator!)
Click to expand...
Use poolcalculator.com to calculate your dosing.

As for lowering the TA, yours is very high, and that will cause your ph to continuously creep up. The easiest way to deal with high TA is to keep a close eye on ph and when it goes up to 7.8 lower it back down with MA to 7.2. This approach will slowly lower you TA. If you are finding that your ph goes up past 7.8 faster then you can keep track of it, then you can be more proactive on lower TA and try the aeration approach, but I would only do that if you are having trouble.
 
linen said:
BarbL said:
It seems I need to lower my TA and in order to do that, I need to lower the pH using Muriatic acid. I did the acid demand test and found I needed 7 drops of the acid demand test solution to bring my pH sample to 7.2 so I need to now calculate how much of the Muriatic acid to use in my pool to start. Test booklet goes from 400 gallons, to 1000 and then to 5000 gallons (you'd think they would have a special column just for 3,754 gallons!) so I know it will just take some math to get me there :-D (Art major here, but I do have a calculator!)
Click to expand...
Use poolcalculator.com to calculate your dosing.

As for lowering the TA, yours is very high, and that will cause your ph to continuously creep up. The easiest way to deal with high TA is to keep a close eye on ph and when it goes up to 7.8 lower it back down with MA to 7.2. This approach will slowly lower you TA. If you are finding that your ph goes up past 7.8 faster then you can keep track of it, then you can be more proactive on lower TA and try the aeration approach, but I would only do that if you are having trouble.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much, linen!

Let me make sure I have this right. I will calculate how much of the Muriatic acid to use to lower my pH to 7.2 to start here and then keep a strict eye on the pH and use the Muriatic acid to keep lowering the pH should it creep above 7.8? I won't worry too much about actually raising the pH using Borax or anything else because my water's TA is so high that the pH is going to rise on its own anyway. So my battle here is to keep my pH lower and I shouldn't need anything to raise it, at least until if, and when, my TA ever gets that low.

When will be the best time to check my pH and how often should I be doing that?

I'm still a little confused about the whole "shocking" my pool versus maintaining good chlorine and stabilizer levels. Since this pool was freshly filled and will be taken down every fall and refilled in the spring/summer, was that initial shocking even necessary? I am wondering if I should add the correct amount of stabilizer for my pool at this point.
 

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I usually check my PH every time I check FC. If you look at my sig you'll see my fill water has high TA, I don't worry about it too much. I keep my PH in range and I'm under 140 ppm TA now and it will keep coming down.
 
msgtdan said:
I usually check my PH every time I check FC. If you look at my sig you'll see my fill water has high TA, I don't worry about it too much. I keep my PH in range and I'm under 140 ppm TA now and it will keep coming down.
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Thanks msgtdan!

My plan is to test everything again around sunset, add in the Muriatic acid at that point, add any additional bleach needed, along with the stabilizer and see how everything looks in the morning. I can see that the pool calculator is going to be well-used here!

Hopefully the combo doesn't have my pool bubbling over by daybreak :lol:
 
BarbL said:
I'm still a little confused about the whole "shocking" my pool versus maintaining good chlorine and stabilizer levels. Since this pool was freshly filled and will be taken down every fall and refilled in the spring/summer, was that initial shocking even necessary? I am wondering if I should add the correct amount of stabilizer for my pool at this point.
Click to expand...
Good question. Since you mentioned in your first post that the pool is cloudy, it is likely that you need to do the shocking process. The idea is that you raise and hold the FC level high enough to kill the algae/organics until they are gone. For now I would get enough cya in your pool to get to 20-30 ppm and also start the shocking process. You do not let your FC drop down to the maintenance level until you pass all three criteria simultaneously that are in the shocking process pool school article (also in my sig).
 
Could the cloudiness have been caused by the shock product I used initially? I ask because the pool looks clear now after a day out in the sun - it was clear before I started as well and then I added the "One Shot" stuff last night, it looked slightly cloudy last night - not terrible, I could still easily see the liner "tiles" throughout without issue, and it was less cloudy this morning. Now it is looking nice and clear again, not a trace of cloudiness, green and nothing feeling slimy. If only my TA weren't so terrible!

I guess since I have to do the Muriatic acid addition, I may as well just go on and shock this pool properly too. Wish this were as easy as fish tank chemistry!
 
SkyKid said:
It is easy once everything is balanced

I had a green pool and I am a first time pool owner(pool put in in Dec2012)

Now I feel like I've been doing this for years
It's that easy with a good test kit like the TF-100
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That's pretty much what I tell everyone about keeping virtually maintenance-free, chemical-free fish tanks too :) The chemistry behind this is just completely opposite of what I do for for my fish tanks and pond that I was thrown for a bit of a loop. I think I have it now and hopefully soon I will be enjoying a swim - if the mosquitoes don't carry me off first :-D
 
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