Opening numbers

[zimm]

I did my first opening yesterday. I left the loop lock cover on because of the impending oak tree pollen bloom that's due, but I wanted to get the water balanced and filtering.

Temp 56 deg
FC 0
Ph 7.5
Ta 100
Calcium 140
Cya 0
Salt 2200

Since I need calcium anyway, and I have half a bucket of 73% hypo, I'm using that before switching back to bleach. I plan to put in 150 pounds of salt when I can find some. I was not going to up the cya yet since the pool is covered and it gives me a lower slam level.

I put in 36oz of 73%hypo which pool math says that'll give me 10 free chlorine. I did that last night. This morning it's back to zero. There's quite a bit of leaves and junk that got under the edges of the cover through the winter. I did another 36oz of chlorine just this morning. I can check it every 2 hours today since I'm off from work.

How's the plan sound? Should I leave the ph at 7.5 or dry and drop it to 7.2? I was going to wait until after slam.

 

[JasonLion]

It is important to get all of the solid debris out of the pool. Leaves and things can use up quite a bit of chorine and still leave places where algae can grow despite the chlorine (because of how the restrict circulation "under" the leaves).

 

[zimm]

Hmmmm. I guess I could pop half the straps off and uncover the pool to vacuum it and then out cover back on.

I wasn't ready for the pound of earthworms that filled the basket when I started up the pump. Gross.

It's a big cover

 

[zimm]

I pulled half the cover at a time and vacuumed, brushed, and skimmed the water. Brushing made it cloudy, but now it's mostly free of organics so the chlorine can work better. Dumped in 160lbs of salt and still slamming.

 

[BoDarville]

Since you have already begun SLAMming, I would ignore the pH until the SLAM process is complete and chlorine has come down to normal maintenance levels. The high chlorine levels present during the SLAM process can interfere with pH testing and could result in a higher than actual reading.

 

[zimm]

Well I'm still balancing the water. Each morning up until yesterday I had FC of 1.0. I had Ph of 7.0 yesterday, so I put in a box or Borax. I also dumped half a bucket of hardness to get the calcium up from 150 to 250. This morning FC was 4.0, so I put enough in to bring it back to 10. Calcium is back to 230. Ph was down to 6.8, so I did another box of Borax. That should get me to low 7's. I'll check this afternoon and post new numbers.

This morning before adding borax and more chlorine.
FC 4
Ph 6.8
TA 70
Cal 230

 

[JasonLion]

What kind of chlorine are you using? It sounds like you might be using granular dichlor, which lowers the PH fairly dramatically. You seem to have the PH under control, but you also need to watch out for how much CYA dichlor adds at the same time.

 

[zimm]

Don't know if it's dichlor- it's Leslie's power pro shock. Listed as 73% calcium hypo. I was using it up instead of dumping all my clorox. I didn't realize that can lower PH. I have a half a large bucket left over from prior owner and was using it as well as clorox since I needed to get calcium up too. CYA is zero, so I need to get that up too. I was leaving it low until after the slam because my cover is still on, so no sunlight is hitting the pool. And it lowers my slam level of FC. I'll start putting CYA in this evening.

 

[jblizzle]

It is not Dichlor, you just said it is cal hypo which will not lower the pH or add CYA, but will add calcium.

 

[zimm]

Ah, perfect then. I'll keep using it to help slam. It's easier to put in a scoop rather than 2 bottles of bleach. Once I pass slam, I'll kick on the SWG and I'll be good to go.

 

[jblizzle]

You have a little wiggle room in your CH level, but be sure you track how much CH all that cal-hypo is adding. Also realize that cal-hypo can sometimes cloud the water.