Brand new, just checking in with some numbers!

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dovelette

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Jun 20, 2013
7
Morning all! Or afternoon, as I can hear the bells chiming :)

Brief background:
Boyfriend had a pool for years and could never get it un-green, despite many visits to the store. He stopped opening it maybe 5 years ago. I came along about 3 years ago and begged to open it. He agreed (I paid half and agreed to be the primary maintainer) and we had the worlds worst experience with a pool company (yes, I'm exaggerating I'm sure but I pretty much hate pool companies now - sorry!). Because of that, we absolutely refuse to ask them for any help with water stuff.

Then you came along!

We decided to go the BBB route and cross our fingers. The pool was filled early last week, we *may* have had a pool party on Sunday with no chemicals in it, and then shocked it by throwing in an undisclosed amount of liquid chlorine (as in he said "I just dumped a bunch in." This is obviously going to go well...).

Monday levels:
We have one of the recommended test kits on the way, but in the mean time we got one of the "lesser" ones to start off.

FC was off the charts, like probably a 7
TC was the same color
pH was off the charts, so over 8.2

Did that overnight testy thingy (OCLT) and the chlorine was the same last night and today. Brought a sample to the store and here were the numbers this morning:

FC - 5+ (I think that really means more like 7, as in what I got)
TC - 5+ (same as above)
pH - 8+
TA - 90
CYA - 20
CH - 80
TDS - 200
Phosphates - 0

So we threw in about 32oz of muriatic acid...not sure if it was needed but hey, I wanna go swimming darn it! Two hours later, new levels (oh and we took the solar cover off to burn off some chlorine):

FC - 5
TC - 5
pH - 7.2
TA - 80 - 90 (I may have lost count...I think it's 90 though)

Next steps...I'm thinking...it would be nice to get that CYA up to at least 30 and the TA maybe to 100, especially since the pH is lower than 7.5. Here is my plan (and where you come in!)

Borax - 64oz (is this necessary? Or is the pH ok at 7.2?)
Baking soda - 48oz
Stabilizer - 28oz (is there a preferred brand? and is raising it to 30 ok or should we aim for 40?

In my "happy world" the FC would be as low as possible - like 3 - but I'm pretty sure that's just my "chlorine bias" still leftover :)

Oh and it's nice and clean and sparkly, nothing visibly wrong at this point.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

ETA: Oh and do i need to worry about the CH level? or does it not matter much if it's lower?

Also edited my numbers! The pool calculator was set at 10,000, my bad :)
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP!!! :wave:

Sounds like you are off to a decent start ... at least you have a test kit on the way :goodjob:

Although, until you have it, you can not really perform the OCLT accurately enough.

I would leave the TA alone. You may want to slightly bump up the pH, since when you add the CYA (a good idea), the pH will drop a little.
I would suggest only adding about 10ppm of CYA since pool store testing is so questionable ... especially on the CYA.

OR ... just wait for you test kit to arrive to confirm things, since the water levels are fine for now.

EDIT: No the CH does not matter for a vinyl pool.
 
Welcome to TFP.

Congrats on finding this place and starting off right.

The numbers you posted look fine (except CYA). And since they're pool store numbers, I see no need for anything. The pH is fine, no use in adjusting it. Don't add any baking soda. Your TA is good. 4oz of stabilizer will only raise your CYA by 1.5! I hope that's a mistype?
Depending on where you're located 30 ppm CYA may not be enough.

I'd wait on the good test kit before I adjusted anything. Just keep the FC up to about 4 ppm or so. And don't be afraid of it.
 
I like the "or"! I ordered the kit 2 days ago and it said it should be here before 7/1, so I'll just continue nightly testing of the pH and FC/TC to make sure nothing gets wonky, and go from there when I get better numbers.

Thanks!

yes, I mistyped the stabilizer number twice :) I think I mean 28oz.

Oh last question (right...) I assume it's ok to swim now, right? If, in the future, I add other "stuff" like baking soda or borax or even more muriatic acid, what's the wait time til I can jump in? Is an hour or so enough? What about chlorine? How long after adding can I swim? (though I imagine I'll add at night so it won't matter much)
 
I'm gonna go out on a limb and answer my own question...keeping my CYA at 30 should probably be sufficient because the sun in Upstate NY isn't that hot (or...often), I keep it covered for all but a couple hours a day during the week and plan on more during the weekend, but it's most likely not getting the sun that other folks' see. But upping it 40 wouldn't hurt, especially if it ever stops raining here.

Am I getting close to understanding this stuff?
 

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