Starting up a brand new pool

[supermatt9]

First time posting here and I just want to start by saying what a great and helpful forum this appears to be. It seems as if most everyone here is friendly, helpful and courteous.

So I'm 95% finished setting up my pool. The pool itself is assembled and about 60% full of water. Tonight after work I'm hooking up the pump, filter, skimmer and SWG and that should get me to 100% setup. I've also ordered the Taylor k-2006 so that I can do proper testing.

What should my first steps be? Can I go ahead and add the suggested 480 pounds of salt so that the SWG can start working? Or should I wait until I can do some testing before I do that? The instruction manual that came with my SWG system is not very helpful. I've owned AG pools before, but never a saltwater system so I'm a little nervous and want to make sure I set it up correctly.

Thanks!

 

[jblizzle]

Welcome to TFP!!!

Leave the SWG off for at least a day after adding salt. You can add that whenever you want.
Your CYA is also 0ppm, so you need to start using PoolMath to calculate how much stabilizer you need to add (hanging in a sock in front of the return jet) to get to the 70-80ppm recommended range. Although I would aim for 50ppm first and then adjust in a second step after a week.

You will also want to keep a few ppm of FC in the pool right away and maintain it is range until your SWG can be turned on and dialed in.

The pH and TA adjustments depend on the test results.

 

[supermatt9]

Thanks so much for the quick help.

I'll start adding the salt once I get the pump hooked up.

What should I use to get chlorine in there right now? Liquid bleach?

poolMath says I need 120 oz of stabilizer to get it up to 50ppm. What should I use for that?

 

[jblizzle]

Yes, liquid chlorine / bleach.
You need to add stabilizer/conditioner/cyanuric acid to get the CYA up ... all the same thing. Available at Walmart for a much better price than pool stores. The HTH comes is 4 pound containers, so I would go ahead and add 2 of them. It is going to be a little tricky getting that much CYA in socks (or Tshirt) and hanging out in the pool.

 

[supermatt9]

So to be clear, I can dump the salt in whenever, but let the pump run 24 hours straight before turning on the swg.

Add liquid bleach to get some chlorine in the until I can get the swg dialed in. What should my ppm goal be for chlorine until swg takes over?

Lastly, go to Walmart and buy 2 4 pound bottles of hth conditioner/stabilizer and slowly add it in by putting it in a sock in front of the return jet. That process should take about a week.

Am I understanding everything correctly?

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[jblizzle]

Basically yes. Maintain FC at 2ppm until you add the CYA, then use the chart in Pool School to determine the required FC for your CYA level once it starts to dissolve.

 

[supermatt9]

Thank you so much. All chemicals going in tonight. I will continue to report on my progress.

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[supermatt9]

Finally made it to Walmart. Bought 480 pounds of salt, two bottles of stabilizer and a bottle of bleach. Hope this was all the right stuff...

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[jblizzle]

Solar salt might have been cheaper, but no problem.

You will likely need more bleach.

 

[Casey]

I usually have up to 6 bottles of bleach on hand and start picking up more when I get down to 4 bottles. I keep all my bleach in the basement where it's cool (central air) and dark.

 

[supermatt9]

Once I get the swg running will I be using much bleach?

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[Smykowski]

You should be using none at all.

 

[jblizzle]

Not usually, but one gallon will only add about 5ppm of FC to your pool. Which at best will get you through 2 days. If you can get the SWG going quickly you might not need more ... although given you pump problem ... you may be adding bleach and brushing the pool to mix it in until that is fixed.

 

[supermatt9]

Good to know. Hopefully pump problem will be solved in the morning.

Any tricks or anything I need to know about putting the stabilizer in a sock? I believe you told me to put it in front of the return jet, but in pool school it says to put it in the skimmer. Does it really matter?

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[jblizzle]

Well, without the pump on, setting it in the skimmer can cause acidic water to accumulate in the skimmer.

 

[supermatt9]

Just wanted to check in and report...

Salt is in, bleach is in, stabilizer is in a sock in front of the return jet, pump is working great and my Taylor test kit showed up today!

Tomorrow I'll hook up the swg and start getting everything leveled out!

I'm excited!

 

[supermatt9]

Alright, here we go! SWG ran for about 24 hours. Everything is running smoothly!!!

Did my first test and here's my results:

Time: 7 PM (pump had been off for a few hours)
Pool Temp: 78
Salt Level: 3200
FC: 3.2
CC: .8
PH: 7.0 (maybe even a little lower)
CYA: 60
TA: 80

My thoughts...
Based on what I've read, I believe I need to get the CYA up to 80 so obviously I need more stabilizer in there.

The PH is low. Do I need to worry about raising that right away? I've also read that PH will naturally rise in SW pools.

According to the Chlorine/CYA chart, if I want my CYA at 80, I should maintain a FC of at least 4, so I should increase the output on my SWG.

What do I do about the CC being at .8?

Have I interpreted everything correctly?

 

[Casey]

I would bump the pH up to 7.2 and let it rise on it's own from there since you're running the SWG.

I would increase your SWG and if it doesn't bring that CC down to .5 or less, then I'd give the pool a dose of liquid. It should bring it down though. Just keep an eye on it.

 

[supermatt9]

Just wanted to chime in with an update. I've been running the swg at full power for around six hours a day for the last few days. FC is up to 4.6 and CC is at 0.

It was too dark to test the ph and I just recently finally got all the CYA in so I'll wait a few days before I test that again.

The pool is crystal clear and looking and feeling fantastic. I took this photo earlier today.

My goal for FC is 5 (based on my CYA goal being 80). My swg is already set to 100% output, so really the only way to raise the FC is to run the pump longer. Is that a correct assumption?

Anything else I should be doing right now?

 

[jblizzle]

That is the correct assumption.

The only suggestion I would make would be