Filling pool,2 days, now what?

[mominoz]

Pro-series AG 22ft. round, 10,000 gallon pool.We started filling from our well (Ga.) and it took 2 days. Will be at skimmer in a couple hours. We have the 2000gph skimmer filter that came with it. But Bought an Intex saltwater generator and rigged that. I am going to wait and see if I have to buy a sandfilter... (I have owned 4 AG pools 12-24 ft. for our kids for years)...
I put 1 gallon liquid bleach 6% 36 hours ago, and then again today to 'do something' as it was filling (prior pool owner, terrorized by Algae in past ;0)..... I order a t-50 kit and am waiting for it. I got a chlorine and Ph test at wallyworld, and salt strips by aqua chem, which also had regular test strips.
OK... water temp is 78 degrees.ph is 7.8, and the strips said total hardeness , ok 250 towards the high range 1000.total chlorine very , low, free chlorine very low, ph 7.8 sametotal alkalinity o, to high 120-180. . Stablizer ok, 50-100.
So what do I do next? Of course, hook up pump and get it filtering. I have the salt and chemicals available..... I don't want to have a green disaster with the cheezy filter system....

 

[Patrick_B]

You mean to say you have 0.0 PPM Total Alkalinity? What type of test gave you that result? Very low FC, and 1000.0 total chlorine are not making sense at all. Please post some new numbers so that we can advise you properly. Stabilizer of 50-100 is not ok for a result, as that is far too broad. Since you are just starting, keep the FC level up until you can get some solid numbers with the TF 50.

In the meantime, please check out Pool School at the top right and read up on ABC's of water chemistry first chance you have, and then more until you have questions. We will help you with those too. Welcome to the forum.

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

You will quickly realize that we like test results ... good ones. Test strips are just not accurate enough to be useful. So it is going to be hard to give recommendations until you have the TF-50 in hand.

Have you added any stabilizer? If not, it is zero, so you should use the poolcalculator to determine how much you should add. I would suggest aiming for 50ppm initially and then after a week, verify and then add more to hit the 70-80ppm recommendation for a SWG.

And definitely keep adding bleach to maintain around 2ppm until you add the CYA and once that is dissolved, keep the FC > 4ppm until the SWG can take over.

You can add the salt at any time.

 

[mominoz]

Sorry, the o was a typo. total alkalinity is 120-140 on strip. It's not the 180, but color is somewhat subjective. It is well water in Ga. No Clorine or very little showing ,even though I threw a jug in this morning and one yesterday, but not up to skimmer level so I can't circulate yet. Yes, I have kit ordered from link here. I know how to use one I used to use one with prior pools... Info is all I can get until kit is here in day or two. Pool calculator doesn't show much except add some chlorine...
But I read here somewhere to use shock for 4 days to get stabilizer in. But I want to add Borax and do the BBB thingie :0). I am trying to read info on SWG and figure out that too, seems from what I have read on forum here that it doesn't get chlorine up for a day or two...
I just don't want Algae to start, there is some tint to water today, but may be because we had to hook to unfiltered well connection ,because it was too low a flow and clogging our sediment filter too fast....

 

[jblizzle]

BBB is not about using certain chemicals. The BBB method is really just about understanding your pool’s chemistry and through accurate testing, adding only what the pool NEEDS and not what someone wants to sell you.

Why do you want to add borax? What are you trying to accomplish?

You need to add stabilizer to the pool. The simplest is to add it separately (hung in a sock ... you could tie it to a floatie now) and then add bleach separately. Alternatively you add it by using dichlor, but that also adds a lot of FC and lowers the pH.

Until you have some CYA in the water, the FC is going to be gone in a few hours.

Also since you are using a well, you may need to add a sequestrant if there is metals:
pool-school/metal%20stains

 

[Donldson]

Some of this will repeat jblizzle, but I wrote it at the same time and didn't feel like rewriting

You can use the strips until your kit gets there, I suppose better than nothing. The shock you are using, is that calcium hypochlorite or dichlor? If it is cal-hypo then you are not adding any CYA and being a new fill you should get some of that in to bring you to around 30-50. If it is dichlor you are adding CYA but be sure to monitor how much you are putting it in carefully, you don't want to go over 50, even in Georgia. EDIT: I missed that you are using an SWG. With that a level of 70 is more reasonable. Make sure to read the section on using saltwater generators.

I say get yourself up to at least 2-3 ppm chlorine and hold that until your test kit arrives, then you can go about getting things set up correctly. Borax raises pH, I believe you said your pH is 7.8, correct? If so adding borax is not needed right now, in fact you may need to add acid if that creeps upwards.

Other than making sure there is some chlorine and your pH is in check you should sit tight for your test kit to arrive. Keep reading up on the pool school, especially the Getting Started section.

Welcome to TFP!

 

[mominoz]

The shock is tri-clor...

But, looks like we are draining and refilling after moving pool so skimmer is in a better place. We also have two places it is over the 2" not level.We used a laser level and rented a skid steer, but we had two weeks of Monsoon Season, and had some erosion.
Sooo, my test kit should at least be here by then. I know strips aren't best ,I just was trying to keep water from going green while filling.Now that we know the other faucet fills faster, we can probably fill in a day or so.It just isn't as clear as running thru the well water filter..
Thanks for the help.I am draining it down to 6-12 inches now.Hubby said that would be enough water to hold it ,if a storm came up...don't want it to collapse.
I have read the Salt water generator section, but not sure how it connects with--- the opening of a pool with using shock for 4 days, to stabilize. Just trying to neatly line up in what order to do what.
1) test
2)get Ph right (it seems to naturally be 7.8)do I lower that any...seems to be in the upper end of ok from what I read.
3)????? Shock? or ?????

 

[Isaac-1]

One little detail you keep talking about opening using "shock", instead of separate stabilizer, and I just wanted to make sure you understand it specifically would need to be Dichlor which may be sold as "shock", but that not all products sold as "shock" are Dichlor. Also the method is not about adding it for a certain amount of time, but instead is about adding a certain total volume which you much calculate to get to your desired CYA level over a period of multiple days.

Having said that things are generally easier and less confusing to add a measured amount of granular CYA stabilizer in a sock and hang it in the pool in front of a return, and chlorinate with bleach / liquid chlorine.

Ike