New homeowner w/ pool!

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nirvleach

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Jul 5, 2013
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Hello! My wife and I recently purchased a house near Baltimore MD and we are lucky enough that this particular house came with a pool. I've been stalking this forum a little bit to get spun up on how to maintain a pool since I have never done this before. I put that I think are the correct pool specs in my sig. Please let me know if I have missed anything or need to clarify anything else.

We have had the house for about 2 weeks now and the previous owners have left the pool in great shape. They said they have left me about $500 worth of chemicals which they said should last the season.

Since we have been busy getting the house in order, we have kind of neglected the pool. Now nothing has gone wrong to my knowledge and the water looks great. The previous owner assured me that placing 2 chlorine tablets in the chlorine dispenser which is inline with the pump -> filter -> purifier -> dispenser will last about 2 weeks. I have since opened it up and and put 2 more tablets in to keep the chlorine up.

They left us some test strips which i read here are not very reliable and being the engineer that I am I wanted to get something more accurate. I purchased the TF-100 test kit and it arrived this week. Only yesterday I was able to do a test of the water...

The TC reading looks normal however the ph reading looked way to low. The color was almost yellow which shocked me. I looked through the chemicals and there was a bottle that said it raised the ph level (i forget what it actually was). I put a bunch of the stuff (Sorry I don't recall what it was) in the skimmer yesterday and let the pump run for awhile.

I tested the water again this morning and the ph looks like it was a little better but looked like it was still around 6.8.

What can I do to get this to a normal level?

Is there anything else I should be checking now that it has been 2+ weeks since the previous owner has had it?

I tried the other tests in the kit but the reading seemed way off so I didn't bother to record them and i thought ph might of had something to do with this. I can try again if you guys want me to post the results or the observations that I saw.

Thanks again!
 
Hi, welcome to TFP! As you are finding out, water that looks great isn't necessarily balanced. Chlorine tablets are very acidic and will cause the pH to crater if you don't keep an eye on it. This is just one of many reasons we don't recommend dry chlorine for daily sanitation. You can raise the pH with soda ash, or you can buy washing soda from the grocery store. Use the Pool calculator to help you determine how much you need.

Go ahead and run a complete set of tests and post them here. The pH should not affect the results of the other tests.
 
Richard320 said:
Welcome! :wave:

Absolutely, we want a full set of results.

I'm just guessing here, but since the pool has been fed a steady diet of pucks, it's almost a sure bet the CYA level will be astronomical. I'll also wager the TA will be low. You might want to review extended-test-kit-directions-t25081.html if you are having trouble with any of the tests.
Click to expand...


Wish I saw this before I did the test today! Oh well. I'll do it next time... For now my hacked up results will have to do!
 
FIRST: You have a low PH so get that fixed first. Poolcalculator.com will tell you how much and PoolSchool (link top right corner of this page) will tell you how and where to add it.

Then, you FC is low and your CC is 1.0 so you need to start the shock process. Poolcalc will show you how much to add to get to a shock level or you can use the "shock" level shown in PoolSchool for a more aggressive attack. Continue the shock until your cc -s less that 0.5 and your FC remains steady (loss less than 1.0) overnight (see OCLT)
 
using the pool calculator it says I should add the following.

FC: 106oz 6% bleach
PH: 18oz weight/16oz volume washing soda or soda ash (because TA is low)
TA: 309oz weight/246oz volume baking soda

This should get the FC to 4, PH to 7.5, and TA to 100
 
nirvleach said:
using the pool calculator it says I should add the following.

FC: 106oz 6% bleach
PH: 18oz weight/16oz volume washing soda or soda ash (because TA is low)
TA: 309oz weight/246oz volume baking soda

This should get the FC to 4, PH to 7.5, and TA to 100
Click to expand...

I wouldn't try to get everything all at once, personally. More importantly, if you have CC of 1.0, then, as techguy said, you need to shock that thing. To get your shock numbers, look here: http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/chlorine_cya_chart_shock. For a TA of 20, you need to get FC to around 10 for your pool. And, you want the pH to be low for the shock process anyway. You can tackle TA and pH later.

If you're sure of those CYA results (Check here if you want to check your testing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxaqoW-_MCs), then shock away and deal with CYA, pH and TA afterward. The only thing I checked during shocking was chlorine.

About that shocking, you might have a hard time finding 6% bleach now (vs 8.25%), so you might need to use the TFP pool calculator (poolcalculator.com is owned by someone else now, the TFP one is more actively maintained) and the URL for that is http://www.troublefreepool.com/calc.html.

Once you get it shocked, then work on bringing your pH up but pay attention to your TA! Lowering the TA is a PAIN IN THE REAR.

So, you need to shock (http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/shocking_your_pool) until you pass the OCLT (http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/overnight_fc_test) and, while you're waiting for all this, read pool school (http://www.troublefreepool.com/pool-school/)top to bottom.

Good luck and welcome to the BEST place on the internet to help you manage your pool!
 

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nirvleach said:
using the pool calculator it says I should add the following.

FC: 106oz 6% bleach
PH: 18oz weight/16oz volume washing soda or soda ash (because TA is low)
TA: 309oz weight/246oz volume baking soda

This should get the FC to 4, PH to 7.5, and TA to 100
Click to expand...
Yep, get your pH & TA corrected and then start the shock process.
 
Butterfly said:
nirvleach said:
using the pool calculator it says I should add the following.

FC: 106oz 6% bleach
PH: 18oz weight/16oz volume washing soda or soda ash (because TA is low)
TA: 309oz weight/246oz volume baking soda

This should get the FC to 4, PH to 7.5, and TA to 100
Click to expand...
Yep, get your pH & TA corrected and then start the shock process.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected :oops: Fix the pH first... :)
 
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